Guidelines and resources to help all students take part in the Premiers’ Reading Challenge.
Challenge guidelines to meet individual needs
The Challenge can be tailored to meet the needs of all students.
- Where students have specific literacy needs, coordinators can direct them to books from other levels of the Challenge book list. This may include students with disability, learning difficulties, and English as an additional language.
- If a student cannot find a book they like from the Challenge book list, coordinators can approve other books they think are suitable. These books can be recorded on the system as ‘PRC Coordinator approved books’.
- Alternative reading materials such as magazines, web-based text or newspaper articles can be used in the Challenge too. Coordinators can use their professional judgement to approve alternative reading materials for students with specific literacy needs.
Books in Languages Other Than English (LOTE)
- Students may read books in Languages Other Than English and these will count towards their Challenge totals.
- Many book selections are now available in the catalogue in various languages. If the book is not available in the student's language the English version may be added.
- If the book title is not available in the catalogue PRC coordinators may add the book as a 'VPRC coordinator approved book' on the student's behalf.
Resources for students with a disability
- You can find a range of information and services for families and schools to support children living with disability and additional needs on our website.
- The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children offers a range of resources to support children and adults with vision or hearing loss and their families.
- Support and services are available to eligible Victorian students experiencing vision impairment through the Statewide Vision Resource Centre.
- A variety of resources and tools for schools and families can also be found through the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disabilities.
Assistive technology for reading
Assistive technology can support students with reading difficulties to fully participate in the Challenge and make it a more enjoyable experience.
Assistive technology is any device, software or equipment that can help students work around their learning challenges. A few examples include voice recognition programs, screen readers and screen enlargement applications.
- Public libraries in Victoria offer a large collection of free downloadable eBooks and Audiobooks. Search for your local library through the Directory of Public Library Services in Victoria become a member online or visit your nearest library.
- The City of Melbourne offers a range of eBooks and Audiobooks in their eLibrary including free reading apps to support all reading abilities.
- Vision Australia Library Service offers a free national library service for people who are blind, vision-impaired or have difficulty reading standard printed material.
- Apple accessibility features for iOS devices (iPad, iPod and iPhone) provide several settings that can accommodate a diverse range of learner preferences and access requirements.
- Android also offers system-wide accessibility features that can be retrieved through the Accessibility section in the ‘Settings’ application on any Android device.
- Optical Character Recognition technology analyses a photograph of text and converts it to digital text that can then be read out loud. Allowing a student to be holding and reading a book, using a mobile device to take a photo of a section of the text, and instantly hear the text being read back to them. There are many free applications to install on an iOS or Android device located under a search in the App Store or Google Play.
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