Reading

We follow the National Curriculum 2014 please click here to view…

Reading for Pleasure

“Reading for pleasure is more closely associated with intrinsic motivation; it is reading that children do for themselves at their own pace, with whom they choose and in their own way.”

NATE Primary Matters Summer 2019

Our aim is to develop a lifelong love of reading in our children and community. We are all readers. Everyone is supported to be a reader. Staff are striving to Reading Teachers- teachers who read and readers who teach. Reading for pleasure is knowing our children as readers and providing for their needs. Reading for pleasure is learner lead, informal, social and with texts that tempt.

Intent:

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations – something that will help them to make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.” Katherine Patterson

At Lickhill Primary School, reading is a vital part of our school. Reading is a skill for life; it is an everyday activity. To read is to learn and grow, to experience, to empathise, to understand, to marvel, to wonder, to laugh and to cry. Reading is not simply the decoding of marks on a page but an experience which involves the ability to read with understanding. If reading isn't pleasurable or fulfilling, children won't choose to read, and they won't get the practice they need to become fluent readers. Therefore, reading means developing and maintaining the motivation to read. 

At Lickhill, our aim is to develop enthusiastic and confident readers who can understand a wide range of texts. Success in reading can have a direct effect on progress in all areas of the curriculum and is therefore crucial in developing children’s self-esteem, confidence and motivation. Competence in reading is the key to independent learning and therefore the teaching of reading is given a high priority by all staff. 

Children will have the opportunity to read for a variety of purposes and become comfortable with a range of different writing forms and genres. At Lickhill, our children will see reading as an opportunity to explore their interests and to share this with others. We aim to inspire them to want to read later in life, in whatever genre or format they choose.

Implementation: 

Although reading begins at home, the Lickhill reading journey begins in Preschool, with books being a central point of learning. Children here explore rhyme and letter sounds informally. They begin the RWI phonics programme when they show signs that they are ready for it, before moving to formal phonics in Reception. In all phases, teachers use key texts to support and drive our curriculum. In order to develop pupils’ fluency, confidence and enjoyment in reading, we ensure we have a rigorous and sequential approach to the reading curriculum. This begins in Reception and remains a priority throughout the school. We explicitly teach fluency skills through paired and in class reading lessons.  

We use the thinking shown in the image of the reading rope below to help us to plan, teach and weave together the different strands of reading. All of these strands are vital components of children becoming skilful and thoughtful readers. To be a confident reader, children need to use all of these skills simultaneously; however, in order for the children to develop these skills, teaching will often prioritise different strands of the rope over time, striking a balance between explicit instruction and guided work. The “Word Recognition” strands, which are the focus of daily phonics instruction from Reception onwards, become more and more automatic with practice and aim to develop fluency. Fluency in decoding underpins how children are able to read increasingly demanding material. The “Language Comprehension” strands, which begin with being read to and immersion in stories, show a movement over time towards becoming more deliberate in their use as children read increasingly demanding texts with deeper levels of complexity. Our teaching enables the children to become more aware and in control of what they are doing, and more thoughtful in their responses to what they read.

Our children will:

• Develop and explore their vocabulary and interest before learning to read using PAIR books in EYFS.
• Learn to recognise letter sounds (phonemes); identify how sounds are recorded

(graphemes), segment and blend to read words accurately using the Read, Write Inc.(RWI) Phonics scheme in EYFS and Key Stage One. All early readers read phonically matched books matched books, either through RWI books, colour banded books appropriately matched to their reading age. 

• Build comprehension skills through the use of carefully planned units of teaching.
• Discuss their reading in a range of situations including whole class, partner talk, paired reading and with parents and other adults. 
• Be exposed to a wide range of texts and reading in all subject disciplines including sharing class texts.
• Develop and improve their fluency and reading age through the use of formative and summative assessments. 

Assessment

In order to have a complete picture of each child as a reader, we use a range of assessment tools to support teachers effectively:

• Earl readers’ phonics ability are assessed through the Read, Write. Inc scheme. This is done half 6 weekly and three weekly for those needing more support. This ensures staff have an up to date, accurate picture of where the children are in relation to their phonic ability. Phonics groups are then updated. Pupils needing extra support are identified for phonics interventions.
• NGRT assessments are used to identify a child’s reading age, with individual reports created to support tailored interventions for children requiring further support. This data is then used to inform in class planning as well as interventions and further support. This is done in line with the school assessment calendar. Children who are not at age expected in each class are tracked throughout the year.
• PiXL assessments are used to gain an understanding of a child’s reading comprehension in terms of ARE. Gap analysis is used to support reading lessons so that planning is matched appropriately to the needs of the children. This is done in line with the school assessment calendar. 
• Fluency is assessed using age related texts which identify the number of words per minute the child is able to read. This also informs staff on the child’s prosody (reading for meaning) to ensure that they are an effective reader.

Reading fluency is comprised of three parts, as shown in the image below. Assessments take note of all of these areas so that teachers have a clear picture of a child’s fluency.

Inclusion

At Lickhill Primary School, reading sessions are designed to be accessible for children of all abilities and backgrounds. Adaptations will be made to curriculum, equipment (including SEN specific laptops for targeted pupils) and to resources to allow all pupils with SEND to read to the best of their ability. This also includes children who are academically more able. Provision is also made for children with EAL.

Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we are putting as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.

Read Write Inc.

We teach reading by using elements of Read Write Inc, an exciting and extremely successful programme of literacy teaching, which rapidly develops children’s reading and, in turn, writing skills.

We start by teaching phonics to the children as early as our Pre-School. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. Children learn ways of remembering these sounds and letters.

Children also practise reading and spelling what we call ‘red words’, such as ‘said’, ‘have’, ‘once’, and ‘where’.

They practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘red words’ they know. They soon start to think that they can read and this builds their confidence.

Teachers read to the children too, so they get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books, modelling intonation and expression as well as promoting a life long love of books. They learn many more words this way which then helps their writing.

Reading Expectations at Home

Comprehension and Inference

All children from Year 2-6 also take part in comprehension and inference lessons where they are taught the wider skills of reading with the support of a teacher. They are given the opportunity to look at texts in more depth and practise a range of reading skills to support their development.

We use a variety of schemes to develop and improve reading comprehension skills. This sequenced teacher led approaches skill and strategies children need to understand and explain a wide range of texts. Teachers ensure coverage of genre including fiction, non-fiction and poetry from wide range of authors. 

In Key stage 2 Teachers use strategies from the Hooked on Books approach to reading, by Jane Considine. Children take part in three main reading activities: 'Book Talk'- verbal comprehension, 'Demonstration Comprehension'- modelled by the teacher, and 'Independent Comprehension'; providing the children with a clear view of how to articulate and demonstrate understanding when responding to a range of texts.

At Early Years and Key Stage One, their understanding of text is developed orally through open ended questioning. From Year 2 upwards, lessons become more formal, teaching children how to back up their thinking with evidence from the text.

We focus on developing four main types of questions:

• CLOSED - A closed question implies that there is a predetermined ‘correct’ response in mind;
• OPEN - An open question permits a range of responses;
• LITERAL - Literal questions are concerned with the recall of facts or simple comprehension where the answer is clearly stated in the text;
• HIGHER ORDER - Higher order questions make progressive cognitive demand on children. They encourage children to think beyond the literal and make connections between texts. The effective use of higher order questions enables you to assess children’s understanding and thinking (inference).

Suggested questions

Can your child find evidence directly from the story to answer your questions?

 The answer is right there in the text.

• What did……… do?
• Who did……… do it to
• How many……… were/are there?
• Who are………?
• Can you tell me what this word/bit means?
• What kind of ……… is that?

Can your child think and search for the answer? The answers are found in different parts of the story and they might have to apply prior knowledge or personal experience to an answer.

• How do you make/do……?
• What happened when……… did………?
• What happened to………?
• What do you think might happen next OR what happened before?
• How many times…
• What examples can you find?
• Where did this happen?
• Where was…… when this was happening?

Can your child answer questions without referring to the story? The answer is not in the story, it is your child’s opinion and thoughts.

• Have you ever…
• If you could…
• If you were going to…
• In your opinion…
• Do you agree with………? Why?
• Do you know anyone who………?
• How do you feel about……?