English - Reading

Reading is amazing because it takes you to a different world in your own head and the book determines where your mind goes. I love our school library and how it is set out and the amount of choices of books.

Year 6 Pupil

 Intent

• To create confident, fluent readers. 
• To ensure our children have access to a reading curriculum that includes all the objectives of the National Curriculum and is challenging and enjoyable.
• To provide opportunities for all children to read and discuss a wide range of high-quality texts which will enhance their knowledge and vocabulary.
• To create opportunities for all pupils to experience, different styles of writing, themes, and cultures and also develop an appreciation of their own rich literary heritage.
• To identify children who have still not mastered word reading and ensure there is a targeted approach to address this and aim to make rapid progress with their reading.

Implementation

 The Reading Week:  The reading week is a sequential, whole class teaching approach where there is a clear focus on improving pupils’ knowledge of the reading skills. These reading lessons take place daily lasting approximately forty minutes. Whole class reading creates a year group repertoire of ‘texts in common’ to discuss and refer to throughout the year and in subsequent years.

What does a reading week look like?

The Reading Skills:   Teachers ensure in their planning they revisit these skills through planning, reading recaps and the reading working wall. Marking and feedback are used to assess which skills need to have a higher priority throughout the year.

The Reading Diet at Clowne Junior School

Daily Reading Lessons

• Each year group will cover four book studies. The books have been chosen carefully to ensure they are engaging to that particular year group and will provide ample opportunities to develop pupils’ reading skills; to expand their vocabulary; their knowledge of how to be an active listener and a clear speaker and of course to widen their overall knowledge of the world around them.
• A third of the curriculum in each year is given to covering engaging non-fiction texts including one non-fiction text..
• Within the curriculum, a wide range of genres will be covered including play scripts and poetry and texts will be studied to develop an understanding and appreciation of the diverse world we live in.

Class Reader:   Teachers will select a book they can read to their class during the week. This book is chosen by the class teacher based on whether or not they think their pupils will engage with the book.  Teachers will model to the pupils reading fluently, with expression and intonation. The aim is for the pupils to enjoy listening to a great story and hopefully discover new exciting authors and writing styles.

Pupils’ individual reading books:    Pupils are benchmarked at the start of the academic year and also during the year to assess their reading level and track progress. The children are then able to select suitable books from their year group’s reading books and from the school library. Children are encouraged to read regularly at school such as in D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read) and at home; to read to parents/guardians and to record this in their reading records. Children will review books and discuss their reading with their peers and whether they would recommend a recent book in Book Club time.

Marking and Feedback:   The purpose of marking and feedback is to identify and address misconceptions quickly which allows them to make progress within lessons. The children are most responsive to individual live marking and whole class marking which gives them immediate feedback to act upon within a lesson.

Impact

 Through the Reading Curriculum the pupils will:

• be able to read with greater confidence, fluency and understanding;
• apply their knowledge of the reading skills automatically in order to understand and analyse an unfamiliar text;
• will show progression through their contributions in lessons and termly reading assessments;
• be able to speak enthusiastically and knowledgeably, using key reading vocabulary, about the different texts read at CJS;
• have a deeper knowledge and appreciation of different genres, styles, themes and writers;
• be better equipped and prepared to face the challenges that they will encounter at secondary school and beyond.

Reading at Clowne Junior School

 Reading overview for all years

How you can help your child's reading at home?