Reading

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty.  It should be offered as a gift.” – Kate DiCamillo 

At Godolphin Primary School we believe that the teaching of reading is fundamental to all children’s progress across the curriculum.  By teaching every child to read well, making time within the school day to read, and embedding a culture of reading into the core of what we do, we believe that we have the opportunity to make a profound difference to children’s education. We know that extensive reading and exposure to a wide range of texts makes a huge contribution to students’ overall educational achievement .

Reading great literature opens children up to ideas, experiences, places and times they may never otherwise experience in real life as well as opportunities to learn about a multitude of people, places and ideas not covered by a school curriculum.

“Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible.” – Barack Obama 

Learning to read opens the world around them and has an impact on their future life choices and chances. We believe that every child can learn to read with the right teaching and support. When the basics are embedded and mastered, subsequent learning becomes easier.  At Godolphin, we have high expectations of ourselves and seek for all children to make rapid progress, so they become fluent and confident readers by the age of 6 and able to access the world around them.

Early Reading

“The most important starting point is to read to children. Reading to children is the best way of encouraging them to love books and reading.’

‘I don’t think there’s a big secret about what to do; we need to show children how much we love stories. Read great stories, poems and non-fiction every day, all through school. What we love today they might read tomorrow.’ Ruth Miskin (creator of Read Write Inc)

Children in EYFS, Year 1, and Year 2 who are still on the programme, take part in high quality daily phonics sessions using the RWI strategy. All children participate by listening and responding, by practising and applying the core fundamental skills to build their word recognition, and to read with growing speed and accuracy to become confident and skilled readers.  We strive for children to crack the phonic code as soon as possible so they change from learning to read to reading to learn.  Children practise their reading with decodable books that run alongside the programme. The pace and the consistency of the programme is a key element to developing reading skills at a level where the children can confidently access the reading materials and learn new skills.

During the children’s RWI journey, the children will learn all the 44 speed sounds and corresponding letter groups and then match the corresponding graphemes as they progress through EYFS and KS1.  By learning to recognise and read letter sounds, they will be taught the skill of oral blending which is a vital skill for the initial stage of early reading.  As they become confident with the initial sounds and blending simple words, they will be introduced to digraph and trigraph sounds.  As the children become more confident in segmenting and blending words, they will be taught how to blend silently using ‘Fred in their head’. Children will also be exposed to ‘alien words’ (nonsense words) throughout to ensure they are reading by blending.

Assessment is ongoing and therefore groups are fluid with a formal assessment half termly to ensure they are taught at a level where they will be successful and confident in their reading ability. The reading leader has regular release time to monitor and coach staff.

This consistent, rigorous and daily approach to phonics provides our children with the foundations to become enthused readers with a passion for storytelling, literature and vocabulary.

All pupils need to understand the alphabetic code if they are to become accurate readers and spellers.  Some children with SEND may require additional ‘top up’ to secure and embed learning.  Children will learn to read and spell words that do not conform with alphabetic patterns (common exception words) to ensure they can decode both fiction and non-fiction texts through discussion, performance and teacher led activities.

From Year 2, once the children can confidently and fluently decode and have completed the RWI programme, they will move onto chapter books and follow the VIPERS approach to reading with expert modelled prosody.

Vipers lessons from Year 2

Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading (outlined in the National Curriculum) using the VIPERS approach.

As the children in Year 2 are introduced to the VIPERS approach, they are taught how to echo and choral read.  This is further supported during whole class Literacy lessons.  Questions linking to the VIPERS are scaffolded to ensure children are using the VIPERS approach correctly. The VIPERS are linked to the KS1 content domain.

In KS1, questions are mainly based around the retrieval approach in order for the children to learn the key skill of finding relevant information in their text as ‘Explain’ doesn’t feature in the content domains. Vocabulary, prediction and summarising are also practised to ensure the children are familiar with the concepts once they reach KS2.

In Key Stage 2, all lessons follow a methodical approach where the content domain of the VIPERS will be shared with the children and elements of VIPERS are discussed each lesson.

During whole class guided reading, children have access to high quality texts which link to the focus text in Literacy lessons and where possible, the overarching topic being taught in class.  Children explore tier 2 vocabulary so that they are secure in the definitions of these words, and they are understood and embedded when they are encountered in the text and over the wider school day.  Wow word walls are also in classrooms so tier 2 words can be displayed and referred to frequently.  Tier 3 words, those that are specific to subject discipline are displayed on subject specific displays.

Children read in the VIPER sessions in a variety of ways.  They will hear the teacher model fluent reading with prosody, repeat by echoing the teacher and will also participate in choral reading.  The teacher, when necessary, will chunk a sentence and put it back together.  By repeating the sentence, children acquire automaticity and practise the rhythm of reading to aid comprehension.  This will be a daily reading experience. Essential vocabulary will be shared at the point of reading so that children understand the content of the text.  Vocabulary is then later explored as part of the VIPERS lesson.  Teachers will ask a variety of quick fire warm up questions involving who, what, where, when, who and why,

During the daily reading lesson, the children are asked VIPERS questions which link to the extract of text they’ve read.  The questions planned for the children will link to the KS1 or KS2 domain.  To support this, children are given sentence stems and vocabulary which they are expected to use.  They are encouraged to provide evidence for their answer based on the extract of text they have read.

During these sessions, children will be exposed to both fiction texts and non-fiction from a range of sources predominantly from Literacy Tree and The Literacy Shed.  These units are chosen to support the fiction text and learning in other curriculum areas.

Recording and Assessment during VIPERS sessions

At Godolphin, we actively encourage children to orally talk through their answers to ensure it is their best thinking before writing anything down.  They can discuss this with their peers or with an adult in class, but if they are working individually, they are encouraged to edit their answer accordingly to make it the best answer it can be.  Whole class discussions take place where children share their thoughts and ideas.

During reading sessions, staff will provide live feedback – this means they will be able to listen to individuals as they read.  This gives the class teacher an opportunity to assess a child’s reading ability and understanding of the text.  Children are expected to edit their own learning.

Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader is introduced at Godolphin when the children can demonstrate that they are becoming more fluent and confident in their reading ability.  This can be as early as from Year 2 when the children have completed the RWI programme.  Books on the AR scheme are matched to the child’s reading ability so they text is ‘just right’ for them to enjoy.

AR is research-proven, pupil driven and teacher-guided.  The children are ‘in charge’ while the teacher guides the child in ensuring the text chosen is accessible and completely at the right level for them.   Children participate in engaging quizzes and activities that help support and hone reading skills – encouraging further growth and development.

During Accelerated Reader time at Godolphin, teachers focus on specific children by listening to them read individually.  Children are given time to share texts in pairs or read individually.  Time is also given for children to complete the Accelerated Reader quizzes from the books that they have chosen to read in the library system.  These quizzes, along with other regular assessments ensures the books being read are matched to their reading ability.  Parents can also follow their child’s progress through the Accelerated Reader app.

 Love of Reading

“The greatest gift is a passion for reading.” -Elizabeth Hardwick

Here at Godolphin, teachers actively promote a love of reading with energy and enthusiasm.  They model prosody when reading class novels, focus texts and literature linking to other curriculum areas.  Our vibrant classrooms, school library and book-based English curriculum provide many opportunities to promote reading in school.  Texts chosen for English lessons are high quality. We ensure that every child has the same access to reading and promote a love of reading for all.   We believe that our passion and enthusiasm for reading will captivate, motivate and have a positive impact on the children.

We actively encourage teachers and other children to recommend texts they have enjoyed, and these are shared in class and the Google classroom.  We encourage our children to visit the local library, take part in the Summer Reading Challenge, World Book Day Vocabulary Parade and every two years a sponsored read raising funds for “READ FOR GOOD” -providing books and story tellers/author visits for children in hospital.  We know that if we are passionate about reading for pleasure, then this will have a positive impact on our children’s future life chances.

Children at Godolphin have the chance to read independently, read aloud and be read to during the school day. We believe that every teacher should be an advocate for reading and therefore time is devoted to training staff, so they are equipped to support children’s enjoyment of reading.

Sometimes children need additional support to make expected progress. The following strategies are used to support this further development:

  • RWI ‘Pinny Time’ and ‘fast track’ tutoring in EYFS and KS1
  • RWI ‘Fresh Start’ in KS2 when needed.
  • Precision Teaching
  • Accelerated Reader
  • Star Reading Assessments to target improvement in teaching.
  • Priority/ targeted readers – we aim to hear approximately 3x weekly as a minimum.

‘I don’t think there’s a big secret about what to do; we need to show children how much we love stories. Read great stories, poems and non-fiction every day, all through school. What we love today they might read tomorrow.’ Ruth Miskin

Reading Spine Autumn Godolphin 24-25