Whole Class Reading Approach

Fluency Reading: intent

At Derwentwater, we explicitly teach fluency skills through text marking, bringing voice to the text and making children understand what they are reading. Children, who are using this overt reading aloud, read so it becomes part of the mental model when they are reading silently. This process will teach comprehension strategies as the lowest 20% of the children will receive modelling from fluent readers, exposure to challenging vocabulary, thereby gaining automaticity and accuracy. Others will gain choice and learn how to create an atmosphere. This process will encourage children to read more, transfer these reading skills in all areas of the curriculum reading from short bursts to longer reads.

Implementation

When teaching, there is one learning objective for the whole class based around the same text. Sometimes, texts are part of a class book or at other times they are a poem or non-fiction article depending on the writing focus. 80% of the texts should be narratives.

The whole class reading approach supports rapid progress of lower ability readers. The same challenging text will be pitched at the top end of the year group and will be used throughout the week. The text will be split into two halves: Week 1 and Week 2.

Each day, there will be a daily reading fluency skill and reading comprehension skill. The reading fluency skills are: echo reading, punctuation, emphasis, pace, dialogue. Reading comprehension skills in KS1 are vocabulary, retrieval, inference, sequencing, prediction.

Reading skills in KS2 are: vocabulary, inference, prediction, retrieval, summarising.

deric starter

Every Monday, the lesson will start with a short DERIC starter.

D for decode - this is the sounding out and blending of words and then becoming more confident with reading words on sight.

E for explain - asking the children to explain the meaning of words and being able to explain what is happening in the text they have read.

R for retrieve - asking the children questions where the answer can be found in the text or pictures. For example: How many cups are on the table? What colour is the bear's hat?

I for interpret - the children are to use their inference skills to use clues in the text and what they already know to make suggestions about what they have read. (Using ‘because’ in their responses). For example: Why do you think the bear was crying?

C for choice - asking the children questions about why the author has chosen to lay out the text in a particular way.

As part of these starters, the children will be presented with a stimulus (this could be a short film clip, a picture, diagram or a poem) and have to answer questions about it. These stimuli are chosen for developing children’s awareness of our DERIC skills: they are practising their comprehension skills without having the barrier of decoding to content with.

Teaching the fluency skills

Day 1 Monday

Fluency skill: echo reading.

Step 1: I do. The teacher reads the selected passage, line by line, to the class aloud as the expert model of fluency whilst pupils follow the text with their finger- using the same copy of the text in front of them- or follow the teacher as he/she points to each word.

Call and response reading

The teacher reads the first sentence aloud modelling appropriate fluency. The students read aloud the second sentence in unison. This turn-taking continues until the passage is completed.

Step 2: We do. Children echo back the same section read by the adult, line by line, emulating intonation, tone, speed, volume, expression, movement, response to punctuation marks etc.

Step3: You do. Children work in pairs or triads. All have the same text that has been modelled by the teacher. Children echo back the passage, reading aloud alternate sentences and emulating the teacher’s intonation, pace, expression, correct pronunciation.

Step 4: Repeated choral reading. Children echo read the text – line by line, I do you do- as modelled by the adult in the shared session.

Step 4: Reflect: Children evaluate their own or other’s performances and give feedback. Children may use a fluency rubric or the prompts as success criteria to support articulation of evaluations.

Meanwhile, the teacher walks around the class, listening to the children read or read with a focus pair/triad.

Day 2 Tuesday onwards

Fluency skills: punctuation marks, emphasis, pace, expression text marking.

The teacher will display the same text used in Monday’s lesson. The teacher introduces the day’s fluency skill and models how to text mark with a highlighter identifying punctuation marks, words to emphasise or express. The teacher follows the same process: I do, we do until the whole text has been marked modelled by the teacher.

Children then work independently in pairs or triads to text mark their own text then read the text, line by line in pairs or triads as before.

When the teacher models pace, he or she will use these symbols to show where the reading should speed up or slow down.

Children then echo read the text to each other as before, line by line reproducing modelling by the teacher in the shared part of the lesson.

Teaching comprehension skills

The focus of this part of the lesson is to develop skills to enable children to become complete readers, which include decoding, skimming, scanning, comprehension, fluency and prosody.

Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies:

summarising
questioning
clarifying
predicting

Class Texts

Children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1 have class texts, usually high-quality picture books which form part of the English curriculum and around which writing will be stimulated.

From Year 2 to Year 6 children will read whole class novels linked to writing. Exposure to such texts will ensure acquisition of rich and high-quality vocabulary, and allow all to enjoy an age-appropriate story regardless of reading ability.

Reading Aloud

All research indicates that reading aloud to children is powerful in fostering a love of story and encouraging creativity and imagination. Class teachers read their class novels to their pupils on a daily basis.

Individual Reading Book

All children will be heard to read on an individual basis and children struggling to read more than once a week. Parents will be expected to listen to children read every night and record pages and progress in their Reading Records.

Home Readers

The purpose of the Home Reader (Oxford Reading Tree Scheme) is to raise the profile and importance of reading. Children read ability-appropriate books. Children are aware of their progress/levels. Children love books and are excited to get their new books each week.

ReadWriteInc (RWInc) pocket and ditty books are the home readers for pupils in reception and year 1.

Home Readers are reading age-appropriate books which are changed weekly.
Home Readers are grouped into levels and genre themes.
Home Readers are organised in green boxes and labelled clearly with their level and genre themes.

Book Week

Our exciting curriculum comes further alive each year when we celebrate our annual Book Week including, World Book Day. We invite authors and workshops into school, pupils have opportunities to become aspiring authors. Parents are invited to share stories and read with children.

Library Visits

The purpose of the children’s library visit is to raise the profile and importance of reading for pleasure. Pupils look forward to their weekly visit to the library and have the opportunity to read a range of books and genres. The children have a free reading choice in the library. Books do not have to be reading ability-appropriate.

Reading for Pleasure

Whilst we place great emphasis on the mechanics of reading through phonics and comprehension we never lose sight that these are only conduits to become immersed in reading and therefore reading for pleasure is a habit we hope to instil in all children.

Early Reading - Nursery

To ensure children develop a love of reading the following activities also take place:

Songs and nursery rhymes to build phonetic awareness.
There is a wide selection of books that staff read to children.
Name recognition cards and tracing/writing opportunities.
A print-rich environment, which includes texts asking children questions, keywords, making statements and giving information.
Keywords and phrases to help children read and recognise them in context.
Story/circle time with props and visuals to support vocabulary.
Daily word games to develop experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. Activities include oral blending, rhyming stories and clapping out the syllables in words.
Magnetic letters with a focus on initial sounds of words.

Parent Engagement - nursery

There is a library system for children and parents to access. A member of staff is available to help advise parents/carers on their choice of books.
Parents have the opportunity to read with their child during stay and play.
Parents with younger siblings are encouraged to attend the weekly under 3’s singing group ‘little acorns’.
Parent volunteers stay to read stories to a small group of children. Stories and clapping out the syllables in words.

Additional support for children - nursery

Box Clever takes place every day to support key vocabulary.
Daily phonics groups support awareness of rhyme, alliteration, listening and attention.

Higher attaining children - summer term - nursery

Daily phonics groups to support oral blending and to say the sounds of letters with the help of mnemonics.

Additional reading time - nursery

Daily independent reading to promote looking at and sharing books.
Daily storytelling groups with an adult.

Early Reading - Reception

Reading is taught using synthetic phonics as the main approach to reading (Read, Write, Inc). Children are systematically taught the phonemes (sounds), how to blend the sounds through the word for reading, and how to segment sounds to write words. Children are also taught how to read high-frequency words, which do not completely follow the phonic rules.

For the first term of reception, we continue to practise the core skills of listening, sound discrimination, alliteration and segmenting and blending. Alongside this, every day children are taught phonics (Read, Write, Inc). This begins as a 20-minute carpet session, teaching 1 sound a day. Children are taught set 1 sounds in the Autumn Term and set 2 sounds in the Spring Term; some children will go on to learn set 3.

Children continue to learn a key set of phonic skills, including grapheme recognition, phoneme pronunciation, oral segmenting and blending and decoding, that can be transferred to reading and writing in familiar and unfamiliar contexts. This allows children to apply phonic knowledge to read words and sentences accurately. They are also taught to read some irregular common words, which cannot be segmented referred to as ‘red’ words.

When ready children read from a range of storybooks and non-fiction books matched to their phonic knowledge. Comprehension skills are developed in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions and reading back a sentence to ‘hold’ it. Children can then demonstrate an understanding of what they have read.

Assessment - reception

The phonics assessment takes place when 15 sounds have been taught. This allows us to reteach any sounds that have not been consolidated and identify children in need of additional support.

When set 1 sounds have been taught, children are reassessed and set into four ability groups which are streamed across both classes. These groups are fluid, and children can be moved in between groups when teaching staff feel another group may best suit the individual’s needs. Groups are reassessed every six weeks. This ensures that all children are reading at their correct level.

Phonic opportunities are also embedded throughout the environment, providing an opportunity to practise and master phonics skills, applying this to both reading and writing. As well as a vocabulary rich environment to support children’s reading, independent and open-ended resources enable children to practise and consolidate reading skills.

Additional support - reception

Where a child may need additional support they are provided daily, keep up phonics. In addition to this, individual and group needs are targeted with additional adult support and bespoke activities.
For higher attaining children as well as having accelerated exposure to set 2/3 sounds, there is also a focus on speedy reading for fluency.

Parent Engagement - reception

Reading records are updated each week; this informs parents on ways of helping their child at home.
Support and information regarding reading is shared with parents during stay and play and parents’ evening.
Information is sent out to parents regarding Book Bag Books. This explains how to build upon the ideas in the book that has just been read.

Reading - year 1

Read Write Inc - year 1

We continue to develop children’s phonic knowledge through the RWInc scheme. The children continue to learn set 2 and 3 sounds, which enable them to read and write a range of words. Children learn different representations of a sound (‘graphemes’).
Children are streamed according to their ability for daily phonics lessons. Each session is broken up into different parts, including revision of previous sounds taught, the teaching of a new sound, reading words with the new sound and writing them.

AssessmenT - year 1

Phonics assessment and screening take place every 6 - 8 weeks. If the children are on blue level or above, they are also assessed on their reading speed.
Children are set into ability groups and placed into five smaller ability groups. Children read from a range of storybooks and non-fiction books matched to their phonic knowledge.
Groups are fluid, and children can be moved in between groups when teaching staff feel another group may best suit the individual’s needs.
Year 1 common exception words: Children are assessed termly.

Talk Through Stories (Whole class reading) - year 1

Stories allow all children to extend and deepen their vocabulary and understanding of the books they will eventually be able to read for themselves. Talk Through Stories give all children the opportunity to build vocabulary through conversations and dialogue.

Reading a weekly story each day allows children to know the story well: the plot, characters, actions, and motives. Vocabulary and reading skills are planned precisely and systematically – step by step – to develop and build upon children’s existing knowledge and vocabulary.

Through introducing a variety of vocabulary each day, the children explore words from the story, specifically selected to develop their understanding of each word in the context of their everyday lives. Therefore, all children have a talk partner allowing them to practise new vocabulary in context and respond to questions.

The Structure of a Talk Through Stories Lesson at Derwentwater - year 1

Before Reading: Introducing the new vocabulary.

Sharing the learning objective and reading skill. These are referred to throughout each lesson so that children are clear about the skill they are learning or demonstrating.

Story Timetable

Day 1: Retrieval - Introduce the story and read it to the children. Discuss characters and problems.

Day 2: Inference - Re-read the story. Show facial expressions for characters’ emotions at different points of the story.

Day 3: Sequencing - Have fun with favourite phrases and do the freeze-frame activity so that children construct sentences orally.

Day 4: Predicting - Encourage the children to join in with more of the story, and discuss the problem. How was it resolved?

Day 5: Revise all new vocabulary - Invite the children to decide what they think about the characters – are they ‘nice’ or ‘not nice’ – and why they think so.

Parental Engagement

Year R-2: Every week pupils will take home a RWInc reading book which they are able to read independently. To encourage reading pupils will also take home a reading for pleasure book which they choose from the library. This book is a book that parents can share with their child as it will not be a phonic book.
Parents are expected to read with their child on a daily basis and sign their child’s reading record.
The school website has a list of recommended books to read for each year group.
The Scholastic Book Fair encourages parents to engage with their children’s book choices.
Support and information is shared with parents during open classroom mornings.
Invitations to reading events, e.g. author visits.

Support for children who are falling behind

Teaching Assistants lead KS1 phonics boosters.
Teachers send home RWI QR codes to support pupils to read at home.
The RWI Freshstart Scheme is run across KS2.

Individual Reading

In the morning, as the children settle during registration, teachers read with children. Teachers keep records of strategies children use when reading and identify gaps using reading analysis sheets.
1:1 reading also takes place elsewhere during the day with focus on children.
Teachers will listen to children read during their library slot and where possible, elsewhere during the day. They listen to children read and identify that they are using the correct sounds, segmenting and blending, suffixes and how they apply other reading skills such as chunking.

Derwentwater Primary School

Reading