Reading
Progression in Reading
At King’s Ford Academy we are passionate about Reading and ensuring our children are provided with every opportunity to become confident readers allowing them to access the Curriculum and be prepared for their next steps in education and life. To support their development within this area we implement a sequential approach to reading development. This begins with an on-entry assessment which highlights the strengths and development areas of each child. From there we provide them with the guidance and support to become fluent and fully comprehend what they are reading.
Stage 1 - Assessment on entry
When children arrive at King’s Ford Academy they undertake an Accelerated Reader assessment. This will highlight the age children are reading at and the specific books that they should access. This also informs staff as to any specific needs that the children have. Should a child be reading at a level below their chronological age they are provided with intervention and support relevant to their needs. This includes the use of a systematic synthetic phonics programme (Little Wandle) to support development and meet need.
Stage 2 - Importance of fluency
At KFA all children will participate within a Reading fluency session each day. This will follow a school sequence which is:
1.Revisit prior chapter to check understanding of the text and activate any prior knowledge.
2. Vocabulary pre-teach
3. Fluency session: One focus vipers skill per week. During the session, children will be exposed to different strategies to support and engage reading. Some examples include: choral reading, echo reading, paired reading, group reading and responding to key vocabulary with an action.
4. Comprehension session: two questions with first one based on retrieval from the passage read. Second based on an age appropriate skill linked to the focus of the session.
Stage 2a - Intervention Strategy at KFA
For children who require additional phonics teaching, they will be provided with regular intervention support alongside their fluency programme. This intervention will either involve the teaching of Systematic Synthetic phonics or SNIP literacy programme.
Phonics (Little Wandle)
Phonics teaches children to be able to listen carefully and identify the phonemes that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read words and to spell words. Phonics interventions are the repetitive and consistent approach to learning, made up from games, songs and actions. Sessions last for approximately 30 minutes per day.
In phonics lessons children are taught three main things:
GPCs - These stands for grapheme phoneme correspondences. This simply means that they are taught all the phonemes in the English language and ways of writing them down. These sounds are taught in a particular order. The first sounds to be taught are s, a, t, p.
Blending - Children are taught to be able to blend. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word and are able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is. This skill is vital in learning to read.
Segmenting - Children are also taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending. Children are able to say a word and then break it up into the phonemes that make it up. This skill is vital in being able to spell words.
SNIP
The SNIP Literacy Programme is a structured reading intervention designed to support children who struggle with literacy. Developed by dyslexia specialists, it aims to address gaps in phonics knowledge and improve reading and spelling skills through targeted practice.
Key features of the SNIP Literacy Programme:
- Target Audience: It is suitable for pupils aged 8+ with standardised literacy scores of 80 or less, who have already been exposed to effective phonics teaching but still face challenges.
- High-Frequency Words: The programme focuses on high-frequency words, grouping them in a way that visually distinguishes them from each other.
- Analytic Phonics Approach: It uses an analytic phonics approach, helping pupils break down words into their component sounds.
- Overlearning: The programme emphasizes overlearning to ensure that pupils achieve fluency and automaticity in reading and spelling.
- Measurable Progress: Records indicate that pupils using the SNIP programme show significant improvements in reading and spelling over time.
Stage 3 Reading within English lessons
During English lessons Reading plays an integral part. At KFA we utilise texts as a hook and vehicle to promote the lesson learning intentions, whether reading or writing focus. During the shared text aspect teachers might use a range of strategies to unpick the text content and will promote effective reading through the following ways:
- Teacher Reads-Aloud: Teachers read books aloud to the class, demonstrating fluent, expressive reading. This helps children understand how reading should sound and introduces them to new vocabulary and concepts.
- Guided Reading: Small groups of children read a text with teacher support. The teacher guides them through the text, asking questions and discussing the content to improve comprehension and critical thinking.
- Independent Reading: Children choose their own books and read independently. This fosters a love for reading and allows them to practice reading at their own pace.
- Shared Reading: The whole class reads a text together, often with the teacher leading. This can include choral reading or echo reading, where children repeat after the teacher.
- Phonics and Word Study: Lessons include activities focused on phonics, spelling patterns, and word recognition to build foundational reading skills.
- Reading Comprehension Strategies: Teachers explicitly teach strategies such as predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing to help children understand and engage with texts.
- Discussion and Questioning: Engaging children in discussions about the text and asking open-ended questions helps deepen their understanding and encourages critical thinking.
- Writing Activities: Integrating writing activities related to the reading material helps reinforce comprehension and allows children to express their understanding creatively.
Reading comprehension can be improved by teaching pupils’ specific strategies that they can apply both to overcome barriers to comprehension. Strategies we deploy are:
- Make Connections/Activating prior knowledge —Readers connect the topic or information to what they already know about themselves, about other texts, and about the world.
- Prediction—pupils predict what might happen as a text is read. This causes them to pay close attention to the text, which means they can closely monitor their own comprehension.
- Ask Questions—Readers ask themselves questions about the text, their reactions to it, and the author's purpose for writing it.
- Determine Text Importance/Clarifying—Readers (a) distinguish between what's essential versus what's interesting, (b) distinguish between fact and opinion, (c) determine cause-and-effect relationships, (d) compare and contrast ideas or information, (e) discern themes, opinions, or perspectives, (f) pinpoint problems and solutions, (g) name steps in a process, (h) locate information that answers specific questions, or (i) summarize.
- Make Inferences—Readers merge text clues with their prior knowledge and determine answers to questions that lead to conclusions about underlying themes or ideas.
- Synthesise—Readers combine new information with existing knowledge to form original ideas, new lines of thinking, or new creations.
- Summarising—pupils succinctly describe the meaning of sections of the text. This causes pupils to focus on the key content, which in turn supports comprehension monitoring. This can be attempted using graphic organisers that illustrate concepts and the relationships between them using diagrams.
Reading supporting writing: Reading a text not only embeds the skills of reading, and its importance but can significantly support guided writing in several ways:
- Modelling Writing Techniques: When children read a text, they are exposed to various writing styles, structures, and techniques. This exposure helps them understand how to organise their own writing and use different literary devices effectively.
- Building Vocabulary: Reading enriches children’ vocabulary, providing them with a broader range of words to use in their writing. This can make their writing more expressive and precise.
- Understanding Text Structures: By reading different types of texts, children learn about various text structures (e.g., narrative, persuasive). This knowledge helps them plan and structure their own writing appropriately.
- Generating Ideas: Reading can inspire children and provide them with ideas for their own writing. It can spark creativity and help them think of new topics or angles to explore.
- Improving Comprehension and Analysis: Engaging with texts through reading helps children develop critical thinking skills. They learn to analyse and interpret texts, which can translate into more thoughtful and well-developed writing.
- Practicing Writing Conventions: Reading helps children see correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling in context. This reinforces their understanding of writing conventions and helps them apply these rules in their own writing.
Independent reading at KFA
Independent reading is a crucial part of literacy development. It involves children reading books of their own choosing for a sustained period, which helps foster a love for reading and improves various reading skills.
Key aspects of independent reading are:
- Choice and Engagement: Allowing children to choose their own books increases their motivation and engagement. They are more likely to read regularly if they are interested in the material.
- Reading Fluency and Comprehension: Regular independent reading helps improve reading fluency (the ability to read smoothly and accurately) and comprehension (understanding what is read).
- Variety of Materials: Providing a range of reading materials, including fiction, non-fiction, and digital texts (MyOn), caters to different interests and reading levels.
- Reading Environment: Creating a comfortable and inviting reading environment in the classroom encourages children to read more. This can include a well-stocked library and classroom library.
- Building Reading Stamina: Regular independent reading sessions help children build stamina, allowing them to read for longer periods without losing focus.
End of year Reading expectations at KFA
At KFA we strive to ensure all children achieve the end of year non- negotiables as set out below, regardless of starting point. Our aim is to ensure all children can access all areas of the reading curriculum by the time they leave King’s Ford, with the significant majority fluency, confident readers.
Year 3
Fundamentals
- Read words with unfamiliar spelling patterns
- Use an understanding of morphology and etymology to aid them in reading unfamiliar words (link to spelling strand)
- Continue to build a knowledge of unusual grapheme phoneme correspondences
Love of reading
- Listen to and discuss a range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction, reference and text books
- Identify and remember common structural and language conventions in different text types
- Read for a range of purposes
- Retell stories, adding key details
- Retell fairy stories or folk tales focusing on the theme
- Know and recognise some forms of poetry
- Prepare poems and plays to read aloud and perform
- Use dictionaries to check word meanings
Year 4
Fundamentals
- Try out different pronunciations to aid the decoding of unfamiliar, longer words
- Use an understanding of morphology and etymology to aid them in reading unfamiliar words (link to spelling strand)
- Continue to build a knowledge of unusual grapheme phoneme correspondences
Love of reading
- Listen to and discuss a range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction, reference and text books
- Identify and remember common structural and language conventions in different text types
- Read for a range of purposes
- Know and recognise some forms of poetry
- Prepare poems and playscripts to read aloud and perform, considering speed, volume and action
- Prepare poems and playscripts to read aloud and perform, considering speed, volume, action, intonation, tone and word emphasis
- Retell myths and legends focusing on the themes
Year 5
Fundamentals
- Use an understanding of morphology and etymology to aid them in reading unfamiliar words (link to spelling strand)
Love of reading
- Read and discuss a range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction, reference and text books
- Increase their familiarity with fiction genres including books from other cultures
- Increase their familiarity with fiction genres including modern fiction
- Increase their familiarity with fiction genres including traditional stories
- Know a range of children’s authors and poets
- Read for a range of purposes
- Learn poems by heart
- Learn more complex poems by heart
- Prepare poems and playscripts to read aloud and perform, showing understanding through speed, volume, action, intonation, tone and word emphasis so that the meaning is clear to an audience
- Recommend a book and explain why
- Recommend an author and explain why
- Use pertinent and technically specific vocabulary when talking about books
- Discuss a text confidently with others, responding to their ideas and challenging their views courteously
Year 6
Fundamentals
- Use an understanding of morphology and etymology to aid them in reading unfamiliar words (link to spelling strand)
Love of reading
- Read and critically discuss a range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction, reference and text books
- Increase their familiarity with fiction genres including myths and legends
- Increase their familiarity with fiction genres including classic fiction
- Increase their familiarity with fiction genres including modern and classic fiction
- Discuss and compare a range of children’s authors and poets
- Discuss and compare a range of children’s authors and poets (including classic authors)
- Read for a range of purposes
- Prepare poems and playscripts to read aloud and perform, showing understanding through speed, volume, action, intonation, tone and word emphasis so that the meaning is clear to an audience
- Learn classic poems by heart
- Identify, discuss and compare themes
- Use pertinent and technically specific vocabulary when talking about books
- Show an understanding of texts through formal presentation and debate
- Show an understanding of texts through formal presentation and debate, maintaining a focus on the topic and using notes where necessary