Reading
At Langwith Bassett Primary Academy, reading is at the heart of our curriculum, especially ‘love for reading’. It is our intention that every child will be a reader and read fluently, with prosody and with confidence, and they will be encouraged to develop a lifelong love of reading. We want all children to leave Langwith Bassett Primary Academy with a rich vocabulary that opens doors to a world of knowledge and opportunities. Reading is a gateway to lifelong learning. Children who develop a love for reading are more likely to continue learning throughout their lives, being curious, informed, and engaged in the world around them.
Fluency
Reading fluency is defined as reading with accuracy (reading words correctly), automaticity (reading words at an appropriate speed without great effort) and prosody (appropriate stress and intonation). We understand that fluent reading supports reading comprehension. When pupils read fluently, their cognitive resources can be redirected from focusing on decoding and onto comprehending the text. We give the opportunity to bridge this from word recognition to comprehension by providing opportunities for fluency practice. This may be through adults modelling the fluent reading of a text first and then pupils reading the same text aloud with appropriate feedback and repeated reading. We also give the opportunity for repeated reading. This involves pupils re-reading a short text a set number of times or until they reach a suitable level of fluency.
Beyond fluency – Teaching Reading Strategies
Once children are equipped with the skills to read with fluency, we deepen their understanding of reading through the teaching of reading skills with a focus on developing understanding and comprehension and the exploration of vocabulary. We want our pupils to become expert readers who are capable of making complex comparisons between authors and understanding language choices. We provide daily lessons from Y2–6 and use carefully selected texts which provide them with mirrors, doors and windows to their world and expose them to challenging, ambitious vocabulary. We believe that what we are teaching in reading to be equally important as how we are teaching reading. Book choices are designed to capture the interests of children and introduce knowledge and values in line with national curriculum expectations.
We follow a weekly structure in the teaching of our reading strategies which provides the children with an introduction to the focus text. We place great importance on the ‘Unlocking the text’ lesson to provide children with background knowledge and be introduced to any unfamiliar vocabulary which they may encounter. We want all our children to have equal access and opportunities for success, despite their knowledge and experience. Following the unlocking of the text session, daily lessons provide rich discussion on the text with an opportunity for an activity linked to a focused area of reading. Daily lessons have a clear structure which is followed throughout school. The beginning of each session gives opportunities for reading fluency and strategies include: Teacher reading aloud, choral reading, echo reading, partner reading and silent reading. Rich discussion then takes place around the text before a reading skill is then focused upon and introduced to the children. This part of the lesson includes a teacher demonstration and a whole class discussion. Following this, children complete an activity where they have the opportunity to practise and explore this skill further. At the end of each daily session, children come back as a whole class and are presented with a question linked to the skill which they have explored. This gives them an opportunity to apply the skill in a reading comprehension format and understand how to transfer skills and formulate answers.
|
Year Group |
Autumn Term |
Spring Term |
Summer Term |
|
Year 2 |
Nikhil and Jay Games Around the World (extract) Smile Out Loud |
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark Owls (extract) The Owl and the Pussycat (extract) |
George's Marvellous Medicine Life Savers Poem from GMM |
|
Year 3/4 (A) |
The Wild Robot Robots Robots in the School (extract) |
Charlotte's Web Roar Like a Lion Outside in Nature |
The Infinite Wonderfully Wired Brains Being Me |
|
Year 3/4 (B) |
The Firework-Maker's Daughter If I Were a Kid in Ancient China Courage in a Poem |
The Iron Woman Marvellous Machines The Coming of the Iron Man |
The Butterfly Lion Big Cats Riding a Lion |
|
Year 5/6 (A) |
A Boy Called Hope Martin Luther King (extract) The Book of Hopes (extract) |
Jaz Santos She Shoots, She Scores Reaching the Stars |
When Secrets Set Sail Who Are Refugees and Migrants? On the Move |
|
Year 5/6 (B) |
The Midnight Fox Ban Fox Hunting (extract) The Thought Fox |
Emil and the Detectives The Changing Police (extract) Macavity: The Mystery Cat |
The Letter with the Golden Stamp Children Who Changed the World The Emotional Menagerie |
Home Reading
Pupils accessing phonics lessons or phonics interventions will reinforce their reading at home through fully decodable phonics books, in line with what they are learning and accessing in their phonics sessions. This gives the pupils the opportunity to practice what they have been learning in school.
Langwith Bassett Primary Academy’s main focus is to improve reading by developing the children’s fluency (reading accurately without lots of sounding out). Therefore, pupils will only have their book changed once per week. This will allow them to become fluent and confident in what they are reading.
If a pupil is reading a phonics book, then please be aware that they should be able to read 100% of the book using the phonics they have been taught. This may appear ‘easy’ but this is to aid fluency and give them the chance to practice what they have been learning. When hearing your child read at home, check the inside cover for any words they need to be taught before they begin.
The table below shows the different books pupils will take home:
When pupils are heard reading in school, staff will sign their planners to show that they have read. We ask that parents/carers also sign planners when hearing their children read at home (this includes all children – Phonics Home Learning Books, Phonics Books, Coloured Book Band Readers, Free Readers) in order that pupils’ planners are used as a two-way communication between home and school. Regular home reading has a positive impact on children’s learning across the whole curriculum.
Love for reading:
‘Love for Reading’ is a key driver for our curriculum at Langwith Bassett Primary Academy. We want all our pupils to develop a lifelong love of reading. Children visit our school library weekly and have 'reading for pleasure' texts daily to expose them to a wide range of texts and to encourage their love of reading. We advertise and promote books in the library and in individual classroom reading areas, and we give time for our pupils to enjoy and share these books with peers. Books relevant to other areas of the curriculum are available to deepen knowledge and help discover a passion through reading.
We celebrate reading in a variety of ways; World Book Day, reading bingo, weekly raffle and a range of competitions through the year.
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