Reading
We aim for the children at Brookland to:
-
Develop a love of books and reading for pleasure
-
Become fluent and confident readers, reading with expression and clarity
-
Develop strong phonic knowledge and use this to decode words with increasing accuracy.
-
Develop a knowledge and love of a wide range of literature from around the world.
READING –
APPROACHES TO TEACHING AND LEARNING
Reading is vitally important at Brookland and has a high status within the school.
The aim is to transform the reading environment to foster a love of literature with Read Write Inc. Phonics, the Accelerated Reading programme, Literacy and Language, and by class teachers selecting high-quality texts to use as part of English lessons, or as class books.
The programmes of study for reading at key stages 1 and 2 consist of two dimensions:
- word reading
- comprehension (both listening and reading)
Systematic Synthetic Phonics
Phonics in Reception and KS1 is taught using Read Write Inc. Phonics.
Children learn to respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes for all 40+ phonemes, blend sounds accurately and read common exception words.
Children will follow a daily Read Write Inc. Phonics programme in a group that best suits their ability.
They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.
Teaching using phonics continues through the school as children consolidate their knowledge and understanding with regular phoneme and grapheme practise.
More information can be found here
Reading Skills
Reading skill lessons enable children in Years 2 to 6 to deepen their knowledge and understanding of a text.
Children are explicitly taught the skills needed to develop a good comprehension understanding using a range of texts.
‘Reading Vipers’ are used to support children’s recall of the skills required for reading comprehension. Each letter of Vipers links to a reading skill which supports children’s understanding and enables them to develop thinking and questioning skills which are important tools for reading. Actions and tasks, such as highlighting key vocabulary and summarising paragraphs, are taught for a deeper understanding. Through this teaching, children are encouraged to enjoy, understand, discuss and analyse the written word in a supported environment.
Decodable Books
Once children are able to blend sounds together to read words, they will be given a decodable reading booked matched to their phonic ability. These books are read throughout the week in school as part of RWI reading sessions. They are then sent home at the end of the week and children are encouraged to re-read the books to develop fluency and expression.
In addition to this, throughout the school week, children are also sent home with books that they can read with their parents. To begin with, these books are closely matched with the children’s phonics knowledge and the RWI phonics progression scheme. This allows children to practice their reading skills at home with their parents.
As research shows that it is important to help children to develop a love of reading for pleasure, we also send home books that parent can share with their children. We recognise that being read to is just as important as children reading independently. We, therefore, ask parents to share books with their children regularly as well as asking them to support their child to read.
Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader provides teachers with timely, accurate information on student academic performance.
This information can be used to quickly adjust instruction to help all pupils reach their greatest potential.
It helps teachers reach all types of readers because it includes Reading Practice, Vocabulary Practice and Literacy Skills Quizzes. Recorded Voice Quizzes are also available for emergent readers.
AR quizzes cover all National Curriculum Reading levels of reading ability.
Each term children will take a STAR reading assessment that provides a reading age and a ZPD figure. (Zone of Proximal Development)
This allows children to independently select books with a readable range to best develop their reading.
Class Reading Books
Children will be read to by an adult on a regular basis.
Class teachers will select a class book that is equal to or above the average Accelerated Reader range of the children in class.
This is an opportunity for teachers to model the act of being a fluent reader and demonstrate to the class by ‘thinking aloud’ the skills required to be a reader.
This shared class reader also allows children to access higher quality texts and develop a love of books that they may not be able to access independently.
Each Key Stage has developed a text map, looking at the books that will be covered over a two year cycle of teaching.
These books have been carefully selected in order to ensure that they have a clear progression across the school and support the teaching of reading at every level.
BKPS-English-Final-Draft-Policy
ENGLISH POLICY
www.brookland.kent_.sch_.ukwp-contentuploads202010Parents-Guide-to-Accelerated-Reader_2016-17
ACCELERATED READER PARENT GUIDE
ks1_reading_vipers
READING VIPERS KEY STAGE 1
ks2_reading_vipers
READING VIPERS KEY STAGE 2