Reading
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know.
The national curriculum for reading aims to ensure that all pupils:
- read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading
- appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, there are two dimensions for reading:
- word reading
- comprehension
Skilled word reading involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (in particular of vocabulary and grammar) and on knowledge of the world. Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. All pupils will be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world they live in, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure house of wonder and joy for curious young minds.
Read Write Inc (a phonics programme) is used in EYFS, Year 1 and some of Year 2 to help children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension and vocabulary. Please refer to Read Write Inc page for further details.
Ready Steady Comprehension is used from Year 2 to Year 6 to teach reading through a variety of diverse, challenging and thematic texts, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
INTENT
At Havannah Primary School, we want all children to read well and to love reading. The reading curriculum is designed to provide a vast amount of opportunities to develop as confident readers who gain the skills to decode, analyse, understand and enjoy texts they are reading.
Our intent is for all pupils – irrespective of their needs, abilities or background – to learn to read written words and use a range of strategies to understand what they are reading. The quality of texts that the pupils are exposed to is vital for developing their vocabulary, deepening curriculum knowledge and giving them a broad range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts to analyse and enjoy. We believe that a clear pathway of progression throughout school is crucial for children to be able to focus on word reading then language comprehension to enable them to demonstrate excellent reading comprehension by the end of primary school. By teaching these tools, we will give our children the opportunity to participate fully as a member of society.
We cultivate a love of reading through vocabulary rich and high-quality literature, using Ready Steady Comprehension by Literacy Counts. By inspiring and developing an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage, we want children to be exposed to and excited by a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. Our aim is to not only teach children the skills and strategies needed to be a proficient and confident reader, but to also promote a life-long love of reading.
IMPLEMENTATION
Ready Steady Comprehension is a sequenced, coherent and progressive way of teaching reading skills to include all elements of comprehension across academic years as well as across the school. Language-rich texts help with vocabulary teaching and the explicit teaching of comprehension skills (e.g. questioning, clarifying, prediction, summarising and inference) ensure that children become confident readers.
The teaching sequence gives children the opportunity to build up their skills progressively when analysing texts with the aim of children being able to confidently and independently understand a range of texts.
The teaching sequence involves several steps:
1) Reading: active prior knowledge
share and discuss vocabulary from the text
share anchor questions to help read for a purpose
opportunities to develop fluency
2) Modelling: teacher explicitly models reading skills and strategies
modelling how to use textual evidence
3) Practise: explore and discuss new vocabuary
text marking to focus on vocabulary and evidence from the text
4) Apply: independently answer anchor questions through verbal or written responses
apply new skills and strategies which have been taught
As well as using Read Write Inc and Ready Steady Comprehension to teach children how to read words and comprehend what they have read, we also use Read Write Inc Fresh Start as a catch up programme to provide additional support to older pupils who need more support with their reading.
IMPACT
We will measure the impact of our reading curriculum regularly throughout the school year, ensuring we include input from pupils, teachers, the subject lead, SLT and the link governor. A monitoring programme will allow subject leaders to gain a clear overview of the impact of the teaching of reading, as well as allow for development across the school through collaboration between teachers, subject leaders and SLT. Class teachers will use a range of methods to assess children's learning, ensuring that the key skills, knowledge and vocabulary are embedded in each year group and any gaps and misconceptions can be addressed.
ASSESSMENT
A range of methods will measure the impact of our curriculum:
- Questioning and formative feedback during lessons
- Marking of outcomes in children's books
- Termly assessments
- Star Reader tests using Renaissance Learning