How Reading is taught in English lessons

The range of human experience is explored through, to give just one example, our Year 7 curriculum. Students examine and write nature poetry, exposing them to a range of relationships between humans and the natural world. Not only does this prepare their thematic knowledge for their subsequent study of Tom’s Midnight Garden, it addresses a vital current moral and social issue, preparing our students for their role as citizens in a world debating environmental change. Ideas about people and places are also explored in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, where pupils look at stagecraft and other theatrical devices in their first Shakespeare play at KS3. In Y8, pupils study the conventions of the Gothic genre, studying a range of canonical English literature writers including Stoker, Poe and Shelley. Furthermore, the ‘Poetry about People’ unit encourages students to analyse how poets present marginalised people by creating ‘voices’, as well analysing the presentation of victims and perpetrators in the Helen Edmundson play adaptation ‘Coram Boy.’ Studying ideas about love, division and conflict in Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ also gives pupils exposure to Shakespearean tragedy.  In Year 9, pupils study the presentation of marginalised characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’ and use ideas about social justice when interrogating seminal speeches from across the world from speakers like Malala and Martin Luther King.

We firmly believe that English Literature is part of every student’s cultural inheritance. Our topics are therefore designed to provide students with subject specific knowledge that will enable their cultural literacy for life. By ensuring that students gain fundamental component knowledge about the main literary genre (drama, prose fiction, poetry), we enable them to develop composite skills of comprehension and analysis. For example, our A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet units do not only teach isolated knowledge of those plays, but transferable component knowledge of stagecraft, the role of the director and actors’ interpretation of scripts. The resulting composite skills and strong schema of generic knowledge will lead to academic success, but more importantly to students leaving school feeling unintimidated by ‘high culture.’ 

By the end of Key Stage 3, students are aware of the connections between literature and the wider world, and are able to create fiction and non-fiction writing which expresses their views on moral and social issues. They can also identify other writers doing this and explore the relationship between writing and the wider world in their analytical writing. 

Because they have well-developed knowledge of a range of text-types, methods and analytical strategies, students are able to compare texts accurately and insightfully. They show awareness of writers’ perspectives and how they have influenced the text. Importantly for adult life, they are aware of writers’ persuasive methods and are able to take deliberate attempts to convince them into account when reaching their own personal conclusions about a text. 

Wider reading is part of our whole-school culture. While the Accelerated Reader programme is led by the English department, it is embedded in the tutor programme, ensuring that students are aware that reading is a normal, valued activity outside of English classrooms. Within English, we have a strong focus on whole-text study, ensuring that students are resilient readers, have a clear understanding of whole-text structure and enjoy the satisfaction of a completed story. 

Reading is taught explicitly in English lessons. A dedicated time is allocated to supported, guided reading. At present, all KS3 students are listened to regularly by teachers, librarians and mentors, with a supportive discussion about how to improve their reading. The pupils use a ‘reading log’ where trained listeners record notes on pupils’ fluency and comprehension, using praise and rewards like merits to support pupils’ motivation to share reading aloud. Patterns of misunderstanding arising from phonics or other lexical areas are addressed and discussed with the pupil, with notations in the reading log made to support their understanding. Pupils’ understanding and comprehension is supported with a summary of the lesson’s reading, where pupils reflect on plot and characterisation.

Reading is graded to support students and parents in better understanding their reading performance in relation to age-related expectations. The criteria is clear, transparent and shared with pupils. These levels directly relate to the new English department ‘reading homeworks’ that are set fortnightly - teachers will use classroom time to monitor the progress and quality of pupils’ reading, both in class and at home, and have formative, supportive conversations about how best to improve their reading levels.