Everybody’s Reading – Reading ‘Flash Mob’ before school

Reading at Fosse

At Fosse Primary School we aim to foster a love and a passion for books and reading alike from the very first day your child starts with us. We create a reading culture that starts with reading and sharing books and texts for pleasure, and this love of book then permeates through the rest of your child’s time at school. Our ultimate aim is, that by the time children leave us, they are fluent readers who have a lifelong love for reading!

We encourage you to listen to your child read everyday. All children are expected to take their reading books home daily and return them the following day for use in class. We have recently spent a large sum of money upgrading the books available for Years 5 and 6 – so be on the look out for some new titles!

A wide range of reading books are sent home depending on the year group your child is in, ranging from phonetically decodable books (Reception and KS1), ‘Project X’ stories (Years 3 and 4) and ‘Star Reader’ texts by a range of authors (Years 5 and 6). Similar to the guided reading sets, these books are all leveled and will match your child’s ability. They start with books that have no words, to develop good reading behaviours, and progress to complex fiction and non-fiction.

KTC Phonics 

At Fosse in EYFS and KS1 we use the KTC approach to teaching phonics. This is a whole class, daily approach, with the children sitting in differentiated rows. All lessons follow the same structure and are pacey. The children are taught a variety of decoding strategies to help them read unknown words. These strategies are then built upon in Shared Reading lessons.  For more detailed information about how  we teach KTC phonics, please speak to Mrs Garton (KTC lead).

Phonics assessment

Every child receives a Phonics Passport in F1 – this then accompanies them throughout their phonics learning journey and is passed on to their new teacher each year until they complete the phonics program. The passport itself is split into each of the Phases and allows assessment and tracking for each individual. There are accompanying gaps analysis grids which are then completed using the information to ascertain which sounds are not yet secure (we work on 85% of children knowing a sound). This information is then used to ascertain which sounds need to be revised before moving on to the next phase. Phonics assessments can be completed at any time but this information is requested formally during assessment weeks and at Pupil Progress Meetings.

Shared reading is the explicit teaching of reading strategies in order to develop the reading skills needed to comprehend a text. Within the lesson the teacher models and demonstrates the thought processes, decision making and strategies used by “good readers”. At Fosse, shared reading is taught daily in F1 and twice a week in F2 and Year 1 using the KTC approach.

Each lesson lasts roughly 20 minutes and focuses on the explicit teaching of reading strategies. The texts used are chosen carefully to enable correct teacher modelling of the strategy, they are also suitably challenging for the pupils as they are pitched at a level slightly above where the majority of the children currently are.

The lesson is planned using a specific shared reading planning proforma (differentiated depending on year group). Children are sat in mixed ability groups or pairs and contribute to the lesson by practicing and then applying the skills taught by the teacher.

EYFS and Year 1

In EYFS and Year 1, the focus is on teaching print concepts and beginning to develop children’s understanding of the text that they have read.

For EYFS and Year 1 we teach:

  1. Front of book, back of book
  2. Book the correct way up
  3. Where to start
  4. Identify the difference between print and illustration
  5. Which way to go (L to R) pages as well as print
  6. Return sweep
  7. One to one matching by using my reading finger
  8. A letter and a word
  9. Punctuation (full stop, exclamation mark, question mark, commas in lists, apostrophes for contraction, inverted commas – NOT speech marks)
  10. Capital/ lower case letters
  11. Letters/ sound links
  12. High frequency words

Years 2- 6

In Years 2-6 we teach reading using the “comprehension jigsaw”. The reading strategy selected to teach is specific and matched to the next steps in children’s reading learning. We use The Parks Progression Statements to assess the reading of our children and identify the next steps. These provide clear statements for both decoding and comprehension strategies for each year group and are used to select the specific strategy you need to teach. There is a set structure for the lesson, which lasts approximately 20 minutes and can easily be incorporated into an English unit, especially at the start of English units where the children are exploring the text. Only 1 element of the “comprehension jigsaw” is taught in a lesson. There is no hierarchy of these strategies but it is recommended that the initial focus is on those which relate to decoding earlier on in the year (e.g. understand grammar, understand vocabulary) and then move onto more difficult concepts later.

Guided reading is an essential part of the teaching of reading from Reception to Year 6 and beyond. In school we use a reading recovery system in order to level all books within school. This ensures that the books children are using, match their abilities.

We also use the KTC approach to teaching Guided Reading. Below is guidance regarding the structure of Guided Reading sessions. Please note that the guidance below is for the teaching of fiction texts only. There are specific planning proformas for the preparation of Guided Reading and these are differentiated by book bands.

General guidance:

  • Guided reading groups contain 5 children as a maximum so that each child can have access to a book as well as the teacher.
  • There are no more than 6 groups in total and these groups form part of a rolling programme of teaching.
  • Each session lasts for no more than 30 minutes.
  • Confident, fluent readers are seated further away from the teacher with less confident children closer.
  • The text used for each group is read by the teacher before the session is planned.
  • Each text is used in a maximum of 3 sessions. However, children can continue to read the text as part of reading independently when not in a teacher led group.
  • The chunks used from each text are chosen to suit the intended purpose of the teaching in that session. We use post-its to mark the pages where children are to stop or start.
  • The texts chosen for groups are at a level where the children can read 90-95 %  of the text (the instructional level). This relates to the children’s PM Benchmark level – which is a way of carefully ‘banding’ books so support the small steps of progress children make when learning to read.
  • All Guided Reading sessions follow this structure:
    • book introduction,
    • strategy check,
    • independent reading,
    • return to text,
    • respond to text.
  • Notes about individual pupil learning are made in the session. These are then used to inform teacher assessments. (We use ‘Parks Progression Statements’ created by Parks Primary School).
  • Independent activities to be completed are chosen from the following: follow up tasks relating to the book read, phonic/ sight word activities, independent reading, reading for pleasure, comprehension activities, spellings or grammar activities.

Reading interventions at Fosse

Better Reading and Writing Partnerships (BRWP)

BRWP is a specialist 1-1 reading intervention designed to target both phonics knowledge development and comprehension strategies. Those who deliver this intervention have received specialist training.

Lexia

Lexia is a computer based reading software programme which works by monitoring the individual performance of children and adapts automatically to their learning needs. The feedback provided by the programme is easy to interpret and weekly reports of the progress and areas to work on can be printed. The programme can also provide plans which are tailored to groups or individual needs based on identified gaps in their learning. The intervention covers a wide range of reading aspects including: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Finding the right starting point for the children in the programme is achieved through a 15 minute assessment task that the children complete independently. From this assessment the needs of the child are identified and then the software chooses the correct starting point by automatically generating lesson plans and practice worksheets. These worksheets can be printed and given to the children as homework to complete or as part of an independent reading activity within the school day. Lexia is also accessible at home as it is a web-based programme, meaning that children can continue their learning on a computer, iPad, tablet or Android device. The Lexia software has been installed onto all computers, laptops and iPads within school.

Inference

Inference is when background knowledge is used to make connections with the text being read. The reader identifies and links important parts together, thinking like a detective. We have purchased the inference training package from Leicester City Council. The aim of the intervention is to develop the inferential skills of readers in order to increase their comprehension of the text.  When delivering the session, it is vital that there is explicit modelling of the mental tools and strategies used to identify meaning of texts. This is delivered through conversations therefore also increasing the speaking and listening skills of the children in the group. The package itself contains 20 lesson plans with accompanying resources (45 text extracts). The children must be able to decode what they are reading. Those children who are on the SEND register or EAL particularly benefit from this intervention.

Accelerated Reader

Accelerated reader, or Star Reader as it is known, is a computer based programme used exclusively for Years 5 and 6. Within this programme, children read books and then take quizzes on them. They are not allowed to move up levels in their reading unless their comprehension skills are accurate. Each child has their own log-in and teachers are able to track progress to ensure that children are reading accurately and comprehending adequately.

KTC Early Words

For some children, learning to read using phonics doesn’t work. In this case, Early Words intervention may be of benefit. It is a 1-1 programme which can be delivered by a Teacher or Teaching Assistant and involves teaching children to read the sight words in order. Each lesson is short and pacey and involves assessments of previous taught sight words, teaching of a new word, games and then an opportunity to apply new learning. There are homework sheets which must be completed and the programme itself is intensive.