Reading
How children learn to read at Bluebell Meadow Primary School
At Bluebell Meadow we believe that children grow as readers in an environment rich in literature.
From two to eleven years old pupils have access to a wide range of age-appropriate books in their classrooms. Book corners have been created where children can browse books at their leisure, spend time in more extended reading and share favourite texts with friends. At every opportunity, educators enrich on-going topics and events by reading stories and sharing non-fiction texts with children. Older children engage in extended studies of longer novels through a range of drama, discursive and written tasks while younger pupils respond to texts through role-play, small world scenarios and music.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is taught four times each week in Year 2 to Year 6. In Year 2 and 3, children follow the Little Wandle Fluency reading approach 2 days a week until they are ready to progress onto the full reading cycle.
Across each year, children will focus on four key strands of reading comprehension: retrieval, vocabulary/word meaning, inference and deduction, and summarising. These will be discussed and covered within a 2 week cycle. Within each strand, a different question type will be taught. Those question types include: tick box, written answer, match up answers, find and copy, true/false and questions requiring evidence from the text to support an answer. Children will be taught how to answer these questions to gain 1 or 2 marks as appropriate. Three mark questions will be introduced in UKS2.
During the reading comprehension sessions, children from Year 4-6 follow a 2 week reading cycle in line with the DfE approach.
The reading comprehension teaching cycle is as follows:
Week 1
Reading Skills - Sequence of Lessons
Day 1 – Pre-vocabulary & reading of the text (modelling reading with fluency and sharing what the different reading strategies are)
Teach tier 3 vocabulary
- Model fluent reading of text to children
- Highlight key vocab & definitions
- Elicit understanding of text with class
- Exploration of the text as a whole
Day 2 – Re-read & automaticity focus
- Re-reading of the text
Opportunities to practise:
- Echo reading
- Choral reading
- Revisiting vocabulary
Day 3- Re-read & prosody
- Independent reading of the text
- Echo reading for prosody
- Revisiting vocabulary
- Plan sentences/section of the text to work on prosody with pupils
Day 4 – Re-read and comprehension
- Repeated reading and repeated choral reading
- Question set (retrieval, word meaning, inference and summarise or sequencing) – whiteboard responses (individual/paired)
- Low stakes addressing of comprehension
In the first week of our reading cycle, regular opportunities and discussion around events, vocabulary and discussing inferences takes place.
Week 2
Comprehension- question type practice
- Day 6- Respond Creatively- opportunities to respond creatively e.g drama/debate/presentation
- Day 7 and 8– the children answer questions linked to the text from week . During these sessions, the teacher will model the application of skills needed to answer comprehension questions following our Steps to Success. Following the adult supported session, the children will apply taught skills independently.
- Day 9- the children are introduced to a cold, age-appropriate, quality text where they are required to read and answer already taught question types independently
Every week, all children have a day where they read for pleasure. During this time, children have access to the school library to read a chosen book or they can read a chosen reading challenge book.
Reading Year Group Question Progression
Whole Class Reading
Whole class teaching of reading comprehension is covered within the literacy lesson to allow children to apply the skills taught in reading comprehension to the class text. Teachers will recap the skills taught and children will have the opportunity to answer a set of questions on a range of strands and question types covered thus far.
Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is actively promoted across school. It is expected that all children will read at least 90 words per minute of an age appropriate text accurately from Year 2 onwards. Based on their year group, the children are given a passage to read, at least once a term, within a set amount of time.
By the end of each academic year, it is expected that:
- In Year 1 children will read 60 words of an age appropriate text in one minute.
- In Year 2 children will read 270 words of an age appropriate text in three minutes.
- In Year 3 children will read 270 words of an age appropriate text in three minutes.
- In Year 4 children will read 360 words of an age appropriate text in four minutes.
- In Year 5 children will read 450 words of an age appropriate text in five minutes.
- In Year 6 children will read extended texts at 90 words per minute (in line with end of KS2 testing)
To help children achieve this, all children in Year 1 to 6 complete a reading fluency assessment at the start of the year. If they fail to achieve less than 90 words accurately in a minute, they will be implicitly targeted with 1:1 reading on a daily basis. Children will then be assessed regularly to enhance reading speed and fluency.
Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is encouraged in a range of ways across school. All classes base their literacy work on a class text to engage all children and inspire a love of learning across the curriculum. Additionally, all classes share a class story with their teacher at the beginning and end of each day so that the children have the chance to listen to someone reading to them. Regular time in our school library during our reading for pleasure allocated time also helps to promote the importance of books to a child’s education. Library clubs are currently running at playtime and after school to enable children to have access to a wide range of literary works. Where possible, children are given the chance to work alongside authors to listen to stories and produce some of their own. Opportunities for library visits are also planned to ensure that children can access this service. Parents are regularly invited into school to take part in reading workshops to develop good home-school links.
The Bluebell reading challenge runs for all children in Year 1 to 6. The challenge is to read 10 books across the course of the year and children are rewarded with a prize for completing this. The challenge comprises of a list of fiction books as well as choosing from a poetry and non-fiction booklet. These books have been carefully selected and are favourites of staff and children aimed at developing reading for pleasure. They can be read independently or shared at home with an adult.
Intervention Programmes for Reading
Regular and rigorous assessments take place throughout lessons and at various points throughout the year to ensure the children are accessing the correct level of reading for them. If children are not working within the expected standard, they will receive extra support and targeted intervention from one or more of the following programmes:
- Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Keep-up
- Nessy
- Star Reader Assessment
- Speed Read Assessment
- Salford Reading Test
Progress made by children who participate in these intervention programmes is tracked by the TAs delivering them and then monitored by SLT to identify if it is successful or if a different intervention is needed to ensure that these children reach the expected level in reading.
Home Reading
In Reception, they explore and secure their understanding of grapheme-phoneme correspondence through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Phases Two, Three and Four. Through daily whole class and small group activities, they use their knowledge of sounds to tackle new words. This learning is reinforced through regular practice with phonologically decodable texts published by Big Cat Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.
This continues throughout Key Stage One. As decoding becomes more fluent and sight vocabulary expands children tackle a wider range of text styles, sharing and discussing both fiction and non-fiction books. They learn to use textual signposts to navigate texts and books more independently. They consolidate their phonological decoding skills through Letters and Sounds Phase Five. In Year 2, children access Accelerated Reader when they are ready.
In Key Stage Two children are exposed to texts of increasing length and complexity. We use Accelerated Reader programme so children can choose a book at their level and they would complete a quiz on the text once they have finished. The quizzes determine how quick they move through the scheme.
Reading links
For more information about the teaching and assessment of phonics please see our Phonics page
