Developing Reading
At Linthorpe Community Primary School we use a number of different strategies to promote a child’s love of books and encourage them to become confident, independent readers. Children are provided with many opportunities to read, enjoy and share books as well as being immersed in language rich environments with access to a breadth of vocabulary and print.
Developing Fluency
Building on the Read, Write, Inc programme, we have developed a rigorous and sequential approach to the reading curriculum which develops pupils’ fluency, confidence and enjoyment in reading.
Our ‘Reading Fluency’ approach develops pupils’ understanding of vocabulary and provides opportunities for children to hear and echo excellent models of reading at levels appropriate to their age and ability.
Fluency
English lessons include a 20 to 30 minute short reading fluency ritual where pupils are explicitly taught how to read a text fluently with appropriate prosody using the ‘6 P’s (pitch, power, pace, punctuation, pause and pronunciation).
In these sessions, children enjoy extracts from a range of texts including familiar favourites that they know and love.
Click on the video to see our Reading Fluency approach in action……
Comprehension
Comprehension refers to the way in which we make sense of words, sentences and the wider language we hear or read. A key purpose of our reading lessons is to help children to draw on their background knowledge to construct a coherent mental model of what they are reading or listening to.
Over the course of Year 2 and into Key Stage 2, the focus of the teaching of reading therefore shifts from decoding words towards ensuring pupils get experience and support with listening to, thinking deeply about and discussing a wide range of rich and challenging texts through teacher-led sessions. Children develop their fluency through practice: both reading independently and in pairs.
Our Reading Curriculum
Our progressive reading comprehension scheme provides a structured approach to teaching and assessing. Weekly reading sessions support children to develop and simultaneously use a range of comprehension strategies to yield meaning from what they read.
By the end of Year 6, our goal is for all of our pupils’ reading to be sufficiently fluent and effortless in order for them to manage the general demands of the Year 7 curriculum across all subjects and not just in English and ensure that they are well prepared for the next step in their educational journey.
Book Club
Our weekly whole class ‘Book Club’ sessions provide the opportunity for children to listen to and talk about stories they have read.
Book Club is a dedicated time where both teachers and children recommend books to one another for class reading and reading at home.
Our ‘ethos of talk’ and whole school focus on oracy, is once again promoted in these special sessions where pupils and adults share favourite texts as well as their enthusiasm and love for books.
Our reading trollies, class libraries, reading shelves and Key Stage 2 library all include many recommendations from children and adults from around the school.
Accelerated Reader
Beyond Read, Write Inc phonics and once our children demonstrate confident and fluent reading and can read 80-90 words per minute, we introduce them to the Accelerated Reader programme to foster independent reading practice and a love of reading for pleasure.
Children access a vast, diverse library of high-quality texts and read widely; independently choosing from themes, genres and authors sets that interests them. Our ‘Windows and Mirrors’ books ensure a diverse range of texts. We believe that every child deserves to see themselves represented in a book. We also deserve to open up our minds and learn about people all around the world who may be different to us.
The Accelerated Reading software allows teachers to closely monitor the reading development and practice of their pupils. Our children tell us that they love Accelerated Reader. They say that they enjoy taking the online quizzes and getting immediate feedback.
Additional help
As reading is so important for accessing the entire curriculum, ensuring pupils catch up on their reading is essential. We ensure accurate assessment to identify next steps and targeted support for those who need it.
Various additional reading supports are in place to help those pupils who are currently working below age-related expectations in reading or who struggle with specific aspects of reading.
These include:
RWI phonics (Y3/4)
RWI Fresh Start (Y5/6)
Lexia
Additional tuition is also provided to help children make the progress needed to become successful readers.
Documents
Reading Rainbow