Reading Groups

We teach reading in Belgrove IGS in many different ways, including through Reading Groups. We start blocks of Reading Groups in the second term of Senior Infants and continue into First Class.  We also use other methods such as Shared Reading, Reader’s Theatre and Novels. Students are assessed by SET and their class teacher before we begin and are grouped according to their ability.  

The class teacher and a support teacher work with one group at a time to develop reading strategies, fluency and comprehension skills. The other groups work independently on reading related tasks and activities.  

The books your daughter is reading in these reading groups are books in which she can read most of the words, primarily through the use of her phonics knowledge.  

The word list that your daughter brings home to practice is based on the high frequency words that cannot be decoded using phonics or words that the girls will need to recognise automatically to increase fluency. Please see the section on high frequency games for some ideas of how to practice these words at home.