To enable our pupils to read confidently, fluently, accurately and with understanding to employ a full range of reading cues – phonic, graphic, syntactic, and contextual – to monitor, correct and make sense of their own reading.
To foster an interest in words and their meanings and to gain an appreciation of books from a variety of genres.
To enable the children to find books interesting, to read with enjoyment and to evaluate and justify their preferences.
To develop a suitable technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their reading
To develop reading skills in tandem with those of writing, so that they may function in society, as literate adults and readers for life.
To create reading opportunities across all areas of the curriculum, to make it more meaningful and relevant to the children.
Principles for Learning and Teaching of Reading;
In order to deliver the above, we will meet the objectives by ensuring that all children are given opportunities to study a range of good quality and interesting fiction and non-fiction texts from a variety of genre.
They will have the opportunity to read ‘real’ books and newspapers, big books, posters, Computer based texts, on individual laptops, ipads and interactive Whiteboards, large texts, information booklets, banded guided reading materials and reading schemes.
Strategies for the Teaching of Reading
Reading will be taught alongside the Phonics programme.
Phonics will be planned using the Letters and Sounds document, but other phonics programmes may be used when necessary. This initiative promotes a strong and systematic emphasis on the teaching of synthetic phonics to aid the teaching and learning of reading.
As part of this scheme the children will be taught to:
Discriminate between the separate sounds in words, learn the letters and letter combinations most commonly used to spell sounds, read words by sounding out and blending their separate parts
Study written representations of a sound and how it looks
Recognise on sight vocabulary identified as ‘Tricky words’
Reading will be taught through Shared Reading sessions, Guided Reading sessions and opportunities to practice and consolidate skills through independent reading. During these sessions, teachers will use a wide range of strategies to try and enhance the teaching of reading.
Some of these are outlined below:
Modelling and discussing the features of written texts through shared reading of texts giving direction to develop key strategies in reading demonstration – e.g.
How to use punctuation when reading, using a shared text
Explanation to clarify and discuss e.g. need for grammatical agreement when proof reading
Questioning – to probe pupil’s understanding of a text
Investigation of ideas – to understand, expand on or generalise about themes and structures in fiction and non-fiction
Discussion and argument – to justify a preference provision of a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres, for the children to choose from
Strategies to Enhance the Learning of Reading
We believe that in order for children to foster an enjoyment of reading and in order for them to have an understanding of the texts they read, they must be at the centre of their own learning.
Some of the strategies used to enhance this independent learning are outlined below:
1. Children are individual and have preferred learning styles, therefore we aim to provide children with a range of visual, kinesthetic and auditory experiences, which will enhance and improve their reading skills
2. Children will be made aware of/involved in determining the learning focus of the reading session and will have a clear understanding of what the teacher is looking for in their reading/analysis of the text.
3. Children will be given oral and/or written feedback about their reading, in order to help them develop specific aspects of it further, aiding progression.
4. Children will be given opportunities to self-assess their own reading. This not only promotes independence, but also assists in their reading development.
5. Reading tasks/books will be appropriately matched to individual abilities and needs in the classroom (differentiation).
Opportunities for Reading
Shared Reading – the whole class shares a text, which is beyond their independent reading levels, often using an enlarged text (paper or computer based).
Shared reading provides a context for teacher modelling, teaching and applying reading skills (word, sentence and text level).
Guided Reading:
Guided Reading takes place in a small group, with a teacher or teaching assistant, and focuses on developing children’s ability to become independent readers, thinkers and learners. The children are grouped by ability and read individual copies of the same text, which matches the reading level of the group. Texts are selected from the school’s guided reading schemes or using ‘real’ books. Guided Reading within the infants uses a combination of the series of Letters and Sounds reading sets (to promote children’s blending and decoding skills) and other Guided Reading schemes (to promote comprehension).
Independent Reading Time
Children read material which interests them, to assist them in fostering a genuine love of reading and help them to appreciate its value. During this time teachers act as models reading their own chosen material, to reinforce the above philosophy, alternatively they may complete a Guided Reading session with a group.
Story Time
Texts appropriate to topic work or objectives covered in English are read aloud by the teacher. We believe that giving children the opportunity to hear an adult/teacher read to them, develops a child’s ability to comment on and respond to events and experiences within a text. These sessions also allow the teacher to check a child’s comprehension, by asking literal and inferential questions, which aid deeper understanding of the plot and themes of the story, also increasing their vocabulary.
Library Skills
Children access the library for research purposes, when appropriate, developing skills needed to locate and effectively use information. They also can take books from the Library for reading in the classroom, using the scanning process.
Home/School Reading
All children will be encouraged to borrow books from class collections, and read these at home and in school during independent reading time. Initially, children take home Book Banded (colour-coded) reading books, which are suitable for their reading ability (these books are often from a range of reading schemes). When children have progressed through all Book Bands, they move onto ‘Free Readers’ (‘real’, non-scheme books, suitable for their age).
Adult Support/Reading Intervention
Pupils that require extra reading will be given this by adults at a time convenient for
the pupil. We will use the Better Reading Partnership (BRPP) scheme to help these children to make accelerated progress with their reading.
Parental Involvement
Parents are urged to share books with their children and hear their children read at home. Parents are encouraged to make a written comment in the child’s reading record, to show how their child read or understanding.
Strategies to Ensure progress and Continuity
long term, medium term and short term planning, shows progress in knowledge, skills and understanding and ensures the continuity of and development of a range of text types
Children’s reading development will be evaluated on an ongoing basis by the teacher/ teaching assistant and/or child, which ultimately informs the planning of reading tasks the following day or week the English Lead and the Senior Leadership Team will monitor and evaluate the teaching and learning of reading on a regular basis across school, to ensure continuity and progress is evident oral and/or written targets will be set by the teacher and/or child to help children achieve their full potential in reading.
Strategies for Recording and Reporting
Every term, children’s reading skills will be assessed using teacher assessments. Each teacher will then be able to gauge the child’s strengths, areas for development and the progress made, and use this to plan future provision. Target Tracker will be updated for every pupil on a termly basis.