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Reading
At Valley Invicta Primary School at Kings Hill, we aim:
- To design a flexible, exciting and engaging curriculum that provides regular opportunities for pupils to use and apply the writing and spoken language skills they have acquired from the English Curriculum.
- To create an interest in words and their meanings in order to broaden vocabulary and ability to use it in the correct context.
- For children to write for a purpose and to have clear intentions of the impact of their writing on the reader, through careful planning and consideration.
- To develop a broad range of writing skills that can be applied to a wide range of text types and genres across the whole curriculum.
- For children to be able to articulate their thoughts orally and to be able to use a strong grasp of grammar and spelling to write with confidence and clarity in all subjects.
- That children in EYFS are taught to write individual letter sounds as they learn to read these. As the children learn digraphs and trigraphs, they are taught to write these letters.
- For children to be taught letters with entry and exit lines from Year 1. They begin to join these letters to form a neat, cursive script in Year 2 and all teaching staff model this consistently. It is expected that writing is beautifully presented in all books and for all display work.
The Teaching of Reading at VIAT Kings Hill
We begin the teaching of reading on day one at VIPS Kings Hill. Read Write Inc is the programme we use to teach reading within EYFS and Key Stage One. This is a daily lesson of explicit letter/sound teaching, blending skills as well as chances for the children to read short texts. Read Write Inc is a highly structured programme which has very high expectations of the children. As the children develop these reading skills the expectation of what the children read develops and the children begin to develop how to read with fluency. Within each lesson the children have numerous opportunities to practice their reading skills both independently and within pairs. Each Read Write Inc book has some questions which the children start to answer verbally, and so beginning to develop the comprehension skills that the children will go on to develop throughout the rest of their time in school. The children will bring books from the Read Write Inc programme home to read, after they have read this in school. We will also send home short videos to help support you to support your children at home.
After the children have completed the phonics programme we continue to ensure that the teaching of reading is fundamental to each and every day at Kings Hill. We have a flexible approach to the teaching to reading. Depending on the skill being taught this may be in a single lesson, this will focus solely on teaching of a new reading skill. This lesson will often include the class teacher modeling a reading skill and then giving the children opportunities to practice this skill within the lesson. During this lesson the children might focus on answering challenging questions, unpicking high quality vocabulary and including quotes from the text as evidence. Where the children need further practice of a skill taught previously, this may be structured as a short lesson starter over a sequence of lessons. This enables the children to practice the skill a number of times, where it does not need a teacher to explicitly model to the whole class. The teacher may model this skill again for a small group or individual.
We will be using the following reading skills when teaching reading to the children:
- Retrieve
- Interpret (inference)
- Choice: Language and Structure
The skills and questions types created will be taught in the following ways:
Retrieval
- Summarising the main ideas from more than one paragraph and identifying key details which support the main ideas.
- Retrieving, recording and presenting information from fiction and non- fiction texts.
- Checking that the book makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and exploring the meaning of high quality words in context.
- Distinguish between statements of fact and opinion.
- Find and copy questions
- Can you find a synonym or antonym for the following words
You can read our Reading Progression document here.
Inference
- Asking questions to improve their understanding and analysing skills.
- Drawing inferences such as characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions.
- Justifying inferences with evidence and quotes from the text.
- Predicting what might happen from details stated and implied.
- Making comparisons within and across books.
Choice
- Identifying how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning.
- Discussing and evaluating how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader.
- Reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes.
- Identifying conventions in a wide range of books.
These additional reading skills will be taught and developed across the entire school curriculum.
Perform
- Preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action.
- Learning a wider range of poetry by heart.
Viewpoint
- Identifying themes in a wide range of books.
- Providing reasoned justifications for their views.
Review
- Discussing books read independently and in a group.
- Recommending books that they have read to their peers, giving reasons for their choices.
- Participating in discussions about books, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously.
The children who have completed the Read Write Inc programme will move onto our Accelerated Reading Programme. At regular intervals throughout the year children will sit a short online quiz which establishes their reading ability. This level relates to a colour and the children will then choose books from the library from the correct coloured section. This ensures that the books being read are giving the correct about of challenge. After reading, there is a short online quiz which establishes whether they have fully understood what they are reading. If they score well they are able to change the book and if they need to go back and re read then they can. This programme takes the children to the end of their time at VIPS Kings Hill.
Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a computer programme that helps teachers monitor and manage children’s independent reading practice. Children choose books from their own level, read them at their own pace and then, when finished, quiz on the book at school on our Ipads or Macs. Feedback and results provided from the quiz allows the child and the teacher to choose new books, discuss strategies for reading and plan the next steps for their child's comprehension skills.
To search and find a book from the Accelerated Reader scheme please click the link below: