Reading
Intent
Our aim at Springbank is to produce fluent, confident readers who have a passion for books and are exposed to a wide variety of different text types. Reading forms a central role in all curriculum areas and allows children to develop continually widening background knowledge in order to understand the world around them. Regular opportunities for reading, the teaching of reading and practicing the skills of reading are threaded through planning. We want children to be given every opportunity to discuss and explore their reading understanding in depth but also to be allowed to relish the experience of reading and being read to, so as to promote a life-long love of the written word.
YR and Y1 read ‘Five Favourites’. These are five carefully chosen picture books and poems per half-term, using Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine and RWI’s Talk Through Stories as guidance. We aim to include stories from a range of cultures and stories which celebrate diversity. These stories are frequently read to children so that children can hear them over and over again. We aim for children to want to return to familiar stories and be able to join in with familiar phrases and rhymes using ‘jump in’. Year 2 also use 'Five Favourites' which includes a longer chapter book per half-term and poetry.
Taking inspiration from Doug Lemov’s ‘Reading Reconsidered’ and Pie Corbett's Reading Spine, we have created a Springbank Reading Spine between for KS2 which encourages reading of five different key text types which help children to navigate reading with confidence. These five ‘plagues’ include the types: Archaic, Non-Linear Sequence, Narratively Complex, Symbolic and Resistant. All children will experience a variety of these texts during their journeys through both Lower and Upper Key Stage 2.
We are passionate about giving our children the chance to meet and be inspired by real-life authors so that they can understand the processes of writing a book but also recognise that reading is always at the heart of every great story. Our thriving partnership with the School’s Library Service provides us with these opportunities as well as termly deliveries of class fiction and non-fiction books and access to resources which mean that the hub of our school, the central library, is always stocked with the most up-to-date texts (as well as a good selection of the classics).
Reading is not just an activity at Farsley Springbank it is a culture. We are proud of the dedication that we place upon a skill which can explain the children’s past, enrich their present and build their future.
Implementation
Single text approach
Once children in Year 2 have completed the Read Write Inc programme and are reading confidently they begin a whole group/class text approach which is designed to include all learners in the classroom. Each half-term a year-group will read a text (or selection of texts) which will form the basis for the teaching and learning of reading and writing. The text will be used on a weekly basis for three reading lessons.
Teaching of reading
In order for the children to be able to develop a deep understanding of the text and answer in depth questions about it, we utilise a fluency based reading system. In every lesson, children will have the reading of the text modelled to them by an adult, they will practice the reading of tricky words in the text through our ‘speedy green words’ activity, will be guided by an adult in pace and prosody through echo reading parts of the text before finally practicing independent reading with a partner. Children may also use other fluency building techniques such as ping-pong and snake reading.
The main reading lessons follow a three-lesson approach designed to specifically support the learning needs of our children. Additional reading lessons are also taught throughout the week to practice key skills, the subject matter of these lessons is primarily focused on supporting wider curriculum knowledge through the use of non-fiction texts and building the children’s knowledge of poetry.
The reading model used within lessons promotes the understanding of the mechanics of reading through five main steps:
1. Background Knowledge – where the children use prior knowledge to solve areas of confusion within the text.
2. Visualisation – a period of reflection which allows the children to put themselves into the text and empathise with characters in order to get a better understanding.
3. Hunting for Clues – build up, over time, a series of clues based upon what is being read in the text to aid understanding.
4. Questioning/Prediction - the children ask questions about what they have read and make predictions about what they will read next.
5. Breakdown – what to do when meaning is lost while reading and how to best solve those problems in order to move forwards.
Lesson 1: The children begin their learning with a lesson which develops retrieval skills and allows the children to familiarise themselves with the text. This will include ensuring that the children develop their skills of breaking down the meaning of unknown words before text mapping. These two skills will then support the children with the subsequent use of the text. LKS2 children will learn to do this by highlighting the text alongside a selection of symbols that represent key areas of learning. UKS2 continue with highlighting but remove the use of symbols so as to show independence in the action of actively reading the text.
Lesson 2: The second lesson in the approach, prioritises the teaching of the key skills in line with the National Curriculum content. This lesson is an oracy focused lesson which focuses on the children being taught how to break down the meaning of a question, finding the answer within the text through open discussions, creating answers either as a class, groups, partners or individuals and editing these answers where appropriate. This lesson prepares the learner for lesson three where they will put the skills that they have either been taught or have refined into action by creating written answers.
Lesson 3: The third lessons allows the children to prove their understanding and confidence with the key skill that has been taught. In this lesson, children will be repeating the skills that have been used previously during the week, retrieving past learning in order to tackle more independent tasks.
Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is promoted at Springbank by ensuring that our children always have complete access to a wide selection of high-quality, stimulating reading materials. Our school library is the central hub of our school and children have daily access to self-selection of these fiction and non-fiction texts. Our classrooms are stocked with a selection of age-appropriate collections of challenge books which have been chosen specifically to gently nudge the children into reading outside of their ‘comfort zone’. Once off the RWI scheme, children are expected to read at least one of these challenging texts per half-term. In addition to these, children also have age-appropriate book banded books in the library which they are able to select from. Again, once off the RWI scheme our children are expected to read at least one of these books per half-term. We also utilise the Schools Library Service alongside our own reading materials by including their topic book boxes and author book boxes in classrooms for children to select from. Ultimately, we want children to have every opportunity to select a book which grabs their attention but also have the underpinning knowledge to recognise which texts are appropriate for them as an individual.
Impact
At Farsley Springbank the impact on our children is that they have all learned to read by the time they move into secondary education and that the majority are fluent, confident and have amassed a wealth of reading experiences within their young lives.
The impact of our reading curriculum is that our children develop a repertoire of reading skills which leave them perfectly placed to tackle the next challenges of their education. These skills also go hand-in-hand with promoting a fascination in the wider world and being able to link their learning together through retrieval of key facts and making links between new knowledge and background knowledge.
The impact of our reading teaching is that our KS2 statutory data demonstrates that children leave Farsley Springbank with a significant percentage above the national standard and many working within the greater depth standard for reading.
The impact of our passion for reading is that our children leave Farsley Springbank having been immersed in story, text and verse for the whole of their primary education. These children can become life-long readers with a passion for the written word and the knowledge and skills required to make use of them.
