Reading 

Reading and Phonics

Recommended Reading 

All staff are encouraged to read texts and information that have influenced our pedagogy, such as:

- ‘Reading Reconsidered’ by Doug Lemov

- ‘Bringing Words to Life’ by Beck, McKeown and Kucan

- ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ by Alex Quigley

-  ‘Research Rich Pedagogies’ The Open University website - https://researchrichpedagogies.org/research/reading-for-pleasure

Teaching Overview 

We teach reading through:

1. Reading for pleasure

2. Teach Reading lessons

3. Comprehension lessons

4. Cross curricular reading in all lessons

5. Home reading

6. Phonics 

1. Reading for Pleasure

In reading for pleasure, we endeavour to foster childrens’ desire and engagement to read through a variety of opportunities and activities and promote reading at every opportunity. We purchase texts that reflect our children.

Library

Children have weekly opportunities to visit the library with their class where they can borrow a book of their choice. Class teachers carefully nominate two children as class library monitors who are responsible for keeping the library tidy and encouraging the other children in the class to return the books to the correct shelves.  Children can also access the library at lunch times and after school.  There are specific after school sessions when parents can attend the library with their children.

Classroom reading areas

There are non-negotiable expectations for the classroom reading book corners where every class has texts in labelled sections of novels, picture books, poetry, non-fiction, magazines etc. with a handful of easy reads (Leapfrog) and a ‘Challenge’ section.  All areas are to be signposted with recommended reads, ‘My teacher is reading’ etc. with clear labels. All areas have ‘social reads’ of multiple copy texts. Book areas also have a role play in reading area linked to the class texts such as wooden spoon characters, dioramas, lego etc. We place importance on asking the pupils to vote on their choice for end of day reads and every class has a voting station.  

Reading areas around school/playground reads

There are reading areas and nooks around the buildings where children are encouraged to read through inviting and engaging signposting and texts. Each year group oversees one area of the school to promote reading for pleasure.  These areas have multiple copies of the texts for ‘social reads’. Book boxes are also in the playground at recreational times. 

Audio books 

Each year group have access to audio books where teachers can purchase books suitable for their year group - 12 per year group across the partnership.

Teachers as readers 

Teachers are encouraged to be teachers that read and share their love of reading with the children.  There are ‘Special Teacher Books’ in every classroom which teachers choose especially for their class.

Reading Ambassadors

Pupils are chosen to be Reading Ambassadors for each school from Years 3 to 6. The pupils are chosen to read to other pupils in the playground, support with the library and encourage reading around the school.  

RfP events timetable.

There is a timetable of RfP events that the Reading Working Party organise throughout the year to support teachers to engage children with the love of reading.

2. Teach Reading Lessons

Stages 

Teach Reading lessons are broken down into stages 1-5 where children read an extract, annotate, get the gist, answer close read questions (first response/second response) and answer comprehension questions. Codes are used for annotating.

Planning

All reading medium term planning is already in place and shared across the partnership on Google Drive. All weekly planning is written on Powerpoint teaching slides and shared across partnership year groups. One week of poetry is to be planned and taught in each term.

Cycles

There are plans for reading cycles which are individual to  Reception, Y1, Y2 & KS2 and Y6.  They demonstrate which aspect of reading is being taught over a two week period.

Toolkits

Teachers are encouraged to co-construct Reading toolkits with the pupils so children can think metacognitively for the different question types e.inference, word meaning etc. These toolkits are continually referred to, annotated and reused.

Reading domain characters

These are characters that relate to the different reading domains.  Staff use and refer to the characters on slides, in questions and during the lesson.  

My turn, together, your turn

Staff model answering comprehension questions using the ‘My turn, together, your turn’ strategy.  

Class texts

Every year group has sets of texts that are used each term in Teach Reading lessons where every child has a text each. 

Tier 1,2,3 vocab

Examples of common core vocabulary are explored through the use of tiers 1,2,3.  This should be highlighted, discussed and referred to during reading sessions. There are lots of reading games that staff are encouraged to use with the children during reading sessions, which can help teach vocabulary. 

Role Play in Reading

Teachers use role play strategies during Teach Reading sessions such as role on the wall, wall of themes, freeze frames, hot seating etc to engage children and support their understanding of the text.

Hearing children read

There are lots of different strategies for hearing children read during a Teach Reading lesson. This includes: choral reading (teacher and pupil read aloud together), partner reading, silent reading, echo reading (pupils echo what the teacher reads, mimicking pace and inflections), or shared/modelled reading. Staff or children record in the back of their reading books when they have read to their teacher.

Additional Teaching- HIt Squad Reading

Hit Squad is a reading intervention that takes place with all children in Year one.  This is where children are placed in small teaching groups to practise and learn blending, segmenting and reading with fluency. A book is chosen to match their phonic ability.

3. Targeted Reading Comprehension lessons

Comprehension is taught through extracts three to four times a week for 30 minutes whereby we are applying the philosophy of the Teach Reading session to short extracts.  We have purchased quality comprehension schemes for staff to use and we subsidise these schemes to increase variety. During the comprehension session, teachers rotate to work with the different groups, ensuring that once a week they are working on a Project X book with the BARE readers. 

4. Cross curricular reading in all lessons

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and the skills of reading are practised and used in all lessons. 

5. Home reading

In Reception, children are allocated a home reading book based on their phonic ability starting with a picture book and moving through the phonic phases.. 

In KS1, all children have a home reading book that matches their phonic ability which is changed regularly along with a library book to go home. BARE readers have an additional ‘Hit Squad’ book which stays with the teacher who hears them read daily.

In KS2, children who can decode can access an age-appropriate home reading book from their book corner and a library book to go home. Children who are still not able to decode (BARE readers) have an additional Project X book.