Reading
Intent
At Woodthorpe we believe that creating a life-long love of reading in our children is of paramount importance. We recognise that learning to read is a crucial part of children’s skills development and one which will support all future learning. As teachers we can teach children the skills required for reading, but what we want to instil in them is a passion for reading and for them to become readers for life. Research has found that children who can read with fluency and are motivated to read for pleasure, are more likely to read for life (Skill vs Will).
Reading Intent, Implementation and Impact
Reading at home
We encourage parents to read with their children at home at least three times a week and pupils to change their reading books as often as possible. At Woodthorpe we also believe that bedtime stories are vitally important and encourage this as often as possible at home.
Encouraging a love of reading
To encourage your child to have a love of reading, you could:
Visit the local library
Allow children to use audio books
Use iPads/ tablets- download eBooks
Visit the news round website and let them read the most recent news
Read higher level texts aloud to your child
Top tips for reading with your child
Set aside a specific time for reading every day and make reading a priority, even if it’s just 5 minutes, as it does make a huge difference!
Try not to do the reading when you are both tired!
Be positive. Praise your child for trying hard at their reading. Let them know it is alright to make mistakes.
Always remember to keep reading aloud to your child even when they can read independently.
Reading strategies to help your child
Cut the word into syllables e.g. en-joy-able
Sound it out e.g. s-n-ai-l.
Follow the words with your finger and sound out the words (c-a-t: cat)
See if they can pronounce each sound and then blend them together.
Cover up the word and keep reading and then go back and work out what it could be.
Look for certain spelling patterns to help them decode unfamiliar vocabulary.
Super Six Reading Strategies
To develop fluency and understanding of the text, you could practise these techniques whilst, during or after reading:
Making connections– linking different texts based on similar events, or linking the text to their life experience e.g. visiting London and it mentioned in the text.
Predicting– making informal judgements of what they think is going to happen e.g. I think……… is going to happen because……
Questioning– Children learn to pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and promote a deeper understanding of the text.
Monitoring– Children pause whilst reading to ensure that they understand what is happening.
Visualising– Children to create an image of the text in their heads. E.g. can you imagine what it would be like to be in the Tower of London?
Summarising– Children are able to summaries the main ideas of the text and are able to tell somebody else what has happened.
Websites for book recommendations:
https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway-current-shortlist.php
https://www.scholastic.co.uk/piecorbett/resources
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/our-recommendations/great-books-guide/
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Books
We also ensure that children have access to phonetically decodable texts in school, as well as using language-rich texts, picture books and novels to help nurture and develop vocabulary and spark an interest in reading in our daily read aloud sessions and English lessons, as we want all of our children to ‘Love to Read’.
The books in Woodthorpe follow the book banding system once children have finished the Read, Write, Inc books:
https://www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands
To select high quality texts for your child we use the Pie Corbett reading spine, as well as looking at up to date national reading award winners.
In each Year group we have a core book list to link to our topics. Click on the link below to see what these are.
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Woodthorpe ‘Super 6’
Sometimes a child can be an excellent reader but not necessarily understand everything they have read. We have recently introduced ‘Super 6’ at Woodthorpe to help support our children in becoming ‘active readers’. As a school, we have identified six separate but complimentary skills for comprehension:
- Predicting
- Visualising
- Questioning
- Making connections
- Clarifying
- Summarising
https://highlandliteracy.com/reading-2/strategies-2/super-six/
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Read aloud
Reading at our school is of the highest priority. In every classroom, every day, our children are read to by the teacher for 10, 15, 20 minutes, sometimes more. This non-negotiable isn’t necessarily followed up with any “work”, it simply allows our children to listen, enjoy and understand the magical power of a great story, poem or piece of non-fiction.
All classrooms all have books available for children to read in class, as well as to take home. Many children have also donated books for other children to borrow.
Reading overview
Websites
Recommended reading websites
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en
