The Reading Journey

Reading is prioritised at Mawnan School and so is under constant review to ensure that the best provision is being given and that the pupils are immersed in a world of high-quality picture and text books.


Most recently, the teachers have spent time considering and mapping out the journey that the children will take and the books that will be experienced as they move through the years. Working in Key Stage teaching groups, this began with a close inspection of the National Curriculum. 


The first priority that came from this was to try our best to ensure a love of reading by investing in creating a culture for reading and developing positive attitudes to reading. This was then closely followed and backed up by the realistic ‘need’ for reading and ensuring that the pupils were given lots of opportunities to read for a reason. These priorities would only be affective when they are preceeded by our rigorous and well thought out phonics program, the continuous development of fluent readers and also giving plenty of opportunity for the pupils to reflect and discuss their understanding of the text.

 

Reading in Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2 (KS2) the teaching of reading comprehension begins to take precedence following the KS1 drive for fluency. However, the teachers and teaching assistants ensure that phonics is still taught to those who need it and that this follows the strategies taught in KS1.

 

How does KS2 continue the love of Reading?

Early on in KS2 high quality texts are introduced to each class as every pupil begins to be given their own copy of the half termly class text. The texts have been carefully selected to ensure equality and diversity as well as Cultural Capital. This also continues to ensure a progression in our culture for reading as at this stage the pupils are now engaged in a text together and the impact of this has meant that they talk about the text and exchange thoughts and ideas about what they had read the night before or in class.

An example of the class texts that will be provided for each pupil in KS2 for one year:

The books for each year have been mapped out carefully by the teachers who worked together to ensure that there is progression in the level of difficulty of each book, that each book works upwards through both the Accelerated Reader (AR) program and appropriate age bands. At this stage, the pupils will now be reading one novel per half term that is linked to the class Topic. This was carefully designed for the pupils at Mawnan School to deepen their knowledge of the Mawnan’s wider curriculum through maximum immersion in the subject matter.

 

A love of reading is also brought about through deepening pupils’ understanding of the text and the way that book are written. To this end, the texts for each half term are also the main influence in their writing and the teachers design lessons to use the best parts of the books to exemplify the writer’s craft. In KS2 we are encouraging the pupils to become ‘active’ readers who are constantly looking to books to help improve their writing.

 

In both KS1 and KS2, encouragement to deepen their love of reading has been taken further by ensuring that the library and classroom book area are well stocked with texts that create opportunities to read the best examples of challenging books. To this end we looked to the ‘Reading Reconsidered’ spine of books.

Reading Reconsidered: The 5 Types of Text

In his book ‘Reading Reconsidered’, Doug Lemov points out that these are five types of texts that children should have access to in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence. These books are rich and complex and will demand more of the children than other types of books. https://teachlikeachampion.com/wp-content/uploads/5-Plagues-Reading-Spine.pdf

The Five Areas are:

Archaic Language

The vocabulary, context and cultural references are vastly different in texts that are 50 – 100 years old. They are typically more complex than texts written today.

Non-Linear Time Sequences

These texts may start and finish at different points in time or cause the reader to be read a second parallel version of the story from another point of view.

Narratively Complex

These books might contain stories from a point of view that might challenge their own view on things. Some narrators are even non-human! There can also be multiple narrators each giving separate points of view or stories that only link together later in a book.

Figurative/Symbolic Text

These may contain an underlaying narrative, message or metaphor.

Resistant Texts

These are texts that are written deliberately to resist easy meaning-making by the children. They will have to draw on inference through hints and clues to assemble meaning. Tricky stuff! 

 

Not only will you find Mawnan’s school library stocked with great examples from the Five Areas, it now contains the sequels to all of our class books and a range of other novels by the same authors to encourage the pupils to explore further.

 

The teachers and teaching assistants in Mawnan School are readers and as such we aim to act as reading role models; on our classroom doors you will find the books we are reading and our recommendations. Most importantly you will find us reading to the class. Every afternoon the children are read a second class text which (once again) links to the topic (even in lockdown there was always a book read to our pupils in the afternoon).

What does Reading look like in a Mawnan School KS2 Classroom?

 

Reading is taught implicitly through a ‘Mastery’ approach. The ‘Mastery’ approach involves high quality whole class teaching and that pupils, where possible, will work together at the same pace. All lessons are pitched with high expectations as outcomes. The teachers work with a ‘low threshold – high ceiling’ to create accessible lessons and materials that the pupils will then journey through in small steps, whilst being given the opportunity to work collaboratively through tasks which encourage discussion and debate. We endeavor, through excellent levels of support and intervention, to ensure that no one is left behind.

 

Vocabulary is taught as a precursor to any new chapter in the class text. These slides are made available to the pupils through Google Classroom or are shared as slides. Vocabulary is also added to our reading display boards.

Once the chapter has been read either in class together or at home for homework then they may move onto VIPERS (Vocab, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise) questions. These sets of questions are completed on at least a weekly basis for each novel. This strategy ensures continuity through KS2.

In Mawnan School we also recognised the pupils’ continued need to read fluently and at pace and so we use ‘60 second reads’ on a weekly basis. These are differentiated by year group and the expectation of the number of words completed within 60 seconds or the difficulty of the text increases as they get older.

Listening comprehension is important. We use pieces of music that the pupils must listen to then retrieve information from or explain what the artist was meaning (Inference). A great deal of the artists or pieces of music are from the Model Music Curriculum and provides the pupils with a great deal of Cultural Capital. Listening comprehension may be alternated with Video Comprehension which is excellent for encouraging prediction and also for inference and has the same rich properties for cultural capital as our listening comprehension.

 

As a new topic begins the class will be introduced to the Idioms that they may experience. The retention and use of these idioms by the pupils has been significant in furthering all of our pupils’ vocabulary and thus their Cultural Capital.

 

The Let’s Think In English program will form a part of both our reading and writing strategies as its focus on oracy is integral to our Mastery approach to comprehension and inference. The strategy focuses on evoking group discussion through the use of their prior knowledge, which leads to comprehension of a text. There will then be a time for ‘Cognitive conflict’, which will challenge the pupils through conceptually big questions.  Links to other texts and bridging into their own experiences are then focused on. Finally the session will move on to a time for metacognition and reflection.

Interventions and pre-teach endeavor to promote a love for reading and ensure that all pupils are a part of our culture for reading. Depending on individual need, teachers and teaching assistants may use a range of programs or focuses: Phonological awareness, Read Write Inc phonics or reading with fluency and confidence. All teachers and teaching assistants in KS2 are phonics trained.

What does Reading look like in other lessons?

Below is an example of the texts that will be used to support the Mawnan Curriculum in KS2 throughout one year of the three year teaching cycle:

Vocabulary is the beginning for all of our subjects – be it a maths lesson, science lesson or history lesson, this is where we start. The walls in our classroom, parts of Google Classroom and the first pages of their books enable pupils to read, understand and use an ever increasing range of vocabulary.

The writing strategies employed by the teachers at Mawnan School have been heavily influenced by Jane Considine’s ‘The Write Stuff’ and Pie Corbett ‘Talk for Writing’ and his Reading Spine https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/reading-spine . Both of these strategies require the use of high quality picture books (something we continue to use throughout KS2), stories, poems and non-fiction texts and work very much in tandem with our ‘active’ reader ethos. Here the pupils will use novels and extracts as motivation and inspiration for their writing. The opportunity to delve into the writers craft enables the pupils to consider their own readers.

Writing based around images from Pobble has been very powerful and extends our pupils’ inference skills by allowing them to continue half-finished stories or stories they have created from the images presented.

We often start the week with topic comprehension reads. We read around what will be explored in the topic work for that week. There will be reading in afternoon that further promotes reading for a reason as they may be reading as a writer, as a scientist, historian or geographer during these research opportunities. These types of reads are often followed up with topic based VIPERS or comprehension questions.

How do we encourage reading at home?

Reading at home is given priority when setting homework in KS2.

Pupils are encouraged to read at home every night. Sometimes this is by setting an amount to read from the class text and other times it is purely based on providing them with a book from the library that they just can’t put down.

 

Any reads can be recorded in the Reading Record. Each class tries to build up a number of reads collectively to earn a class reward. In Pico Class, the expectation is that each read is signed and that a parent/carer comments or communicates on their child’s reading. Fusion and Dart Class have moved towards the pupils now commenting as active readers; they must gather words and phrases that capture their imagination and will be used in their writing at a later date.

 

Each class produces a Homework Grid, this sets out the expected reading homework and any associated tasks.

An example section from a KS2 homework grid:

Regular meetings with parents/carers also ensure that they are up to date with how best to support their child at home with reading. 

How do we assess reading in KS2?

 A range of the most informative assessment techniques are employed to ensure that teachers and teaching assistants have the valuable information they require to help and support our pupils:

  • Teachers and teaching assistants check that the pupils can read the age related Common Exception words from the National Curriculum.
  • Reading records are also used to check that pupils are reading and understanding the text at home.
  • Pira testing is carried out termly to provide the pupils with an opportunity to use all of the skills they have been gathering.
  • Moderation materials: Mawnan School has designed its own moderation materials to ensure continued progression and continuity up to Y6. To support continuity across both key stages we use a set of Oxford reading Tree books.
  • Star Assessment is an online test carried out termly
  • Accelerated Reader (AR) quizzes are done when a child finishes a book from the library or our class text.

What is the future of reading in Mawnan School?

 The teachers at Mawnan School partake in constant professional dialogue about how best to improve reading for the school, key stage, whole class or individual reader. This ensures that reading in Mawnan will continue to go from strength to strength and will always be evolving. Our continued aim will be to provide the very best teaching, through the very latest thinking, using the very best books. The culture for reading will continue to deepen and the pupils love of reading will continue to increase.

Every day is World Book Day at Mawnan school!