English - Reading
Intent – What we are trying to achieve?
- To create confident, fluent readers who can make meaningful connections as they read and evaluate a text effectively.
- To ensure our children have access to a reading curriculum that includes all the objectives of the National Curriculum and is also developmental, 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 of the reading skills and their own vocabulary.
- To create opportunities through fiction, non-fiction, poetry and play scripts 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, through assessment, children who have still not mastered word reading and ensure whatever their background or educational needs there is a targeted approach to address this and aim to make rapid progress with their reading.
Implementation – How will we achieve this?
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. All children of differing abilities and backgrounds get to experience high quality lessons and share their thoughts and ideas. 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?
Monday | Teaching the skills | Shared/guided tasks Teachers exposition/ teachers modelling strategies |
Tuesday | Teaching the skills | Shared/guided tasks Teachers model and ‘think aloud’ to pupils on use of the strategies |
Wednesday | Applying the skills | Pupils work more independently: read, clarify, question text Teachers support/rephrase and extend pupils’ responses |
Thursday | Applying the skills
| Independent work to show their comprehension of a text Verbal/written feedback is given to pupils to enhance learning |
Friday | ‘Fluency Friday’ | Engaging tasks set aimed at developing pupils’ intonation, expression, speed and accuracy Teachers model fluency, support and assess |
The Reading Skills: The reading skills are linked to the reading domains from the National Curriculum and the Leicestershire Reading for Comprehension and Enjoyment. Teachers ensure through their planning, teaching and using the reading working wall that the pupils are clear on what each skill is and why improving at this skill will help them to become a better reader. Teachers ensure in their planning they revisit these skills on a regular basis and through marking and feedback they assess which skills need to have a higher priority throughout the year.
Active Reader Skills
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Connecting Visualising Predicting Clarifying Summarising Retrieving Fluency |
Analytical Reader Skills |
Questioning Explaining Justifying Evaluating
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The Reading Diet at Clowne Junior School
Daily Reading Lessons
- Each year group will cover three 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.
- 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 – What difference will this make?
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 Open Mornings For Parents
Year 3 Reading Workshop
It was wonderful to see lots of parents, carers and grandparents in our two Year 3 reading workshops (Tuesday 11th October and Thursday 13th October). The purpose of the workshops was to inform parents on why we prioritise reading in our school; to explain how we teach reading and to give advice on how they can support their children with their reading at home. Mrs O'Connor (Reading Lead) gave a presentation in the hall sharing Clowne Junior School's approach to reading and sharing useful tips and resources. After the presentation, parents, carers and grandparents went into the Year 3 classrooms to observe the children being taught reading and support them in their lesson.
The feedback from the mornings was really positive and everyone (including teachers and pupils) found it an enjoyable and valuable experience.
How you can help your child at home?
Skills taught at our school | Questions you could ask at home. |
Connecting – Making some kind of connection with the text to make it more meaningful.
| What does this remind you of? Have you ever felt like this? Have you read any other book which is similar to this? Does this remind you of any film you have ever seen? |
Predicting – Sensible guesses about what is going to happen. | What do you think is going to happen in this story? What kind of genre do you think this will be? What do you predict will happen next in the story? Why do you think this? What do you think the main character will do next? Why? |
Visualising – Making pictures in your mind or on paper of what you read. | What do you imagine the character looks like? After reading, draw a picture of the setting? What did you picture happening in that scene? |
Retrieving – To scan the text and pick out key information. | What is the weather like? What did the character do? Where did they go next? What was the character wearing? |
Clarifying –To work out the meaning of tricky/unfamiliar words and phrases. | What do you think that word means? Can you find a word on this page which means…..? Read the text around that word – what do you think it means? Can you put another word/phrase to replace it and see if it still makes sense? Are there any clues within the word? |
Summarise – To describe what has happened in a concise way/to pick out the key points. | Can you tell me what has happened? Can you create a summary headline in then less than 10 words which would fit this text? Can you use a summary hand to explain what’s happened? |
Questioning – To form key questions about the text. | What questions would you ask the character? If you were this character, what questions would be going through your head? If you could question the author at this point, what questions would you ask them? What do we still not know? |
Explaining –To show we understand why something has happened or why a character has behaved in a certain way. | Why did the character react that way? How has the author created a tense atmosphere? How has the author created a happy atmosphere? |
Justifying – To give an opinion or make a point and then be able to back this opinion up with evidence. | Which character would you say is the villain? Justify your point of view. Which character would you like as a friend? Justify your point of view. Which age group is this book suitable for? Justify your point of view. |
Evaluating – To assess how effective something is – to think about its effect on the author. | Was that a good way to end the chapter? Why? Why do you think the author chose those words? What effect do these words have on the reader? |
FLUENCY – To read smoothly with appropriate speed, accuracy and expression. | How do you think you should read out that line? Can you read this section several times until you can read it smoothly? Can you read this sentence in a sad voice/happy voice/angry voice? How has the author helped us to read out this part? What does that question mark tell us to do when we read out? Can you copy how I read this? |
Useful Reading Websites:
https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/category/reading-lists-for-primary-school-pupils
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/our-recommendations/100..
https://www.booksfortopics.com
Book lists and recommendations for primary school curriculum topics. Search by subject, key stage or topic.
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips
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