Reading at Colne Engaine
Reading
We want to develop and nurture children’s love of reading, so they become lifelong readers, and use this love to read for both study and pleasure. The firm foundations of reading are created through children’s phonic knowledge and skills.
We further build on these through developing fluency and accuracy when reading for different purposes and having a rich and extensive knowledge of vocabulary through reading a broad range of challenging, high quality texts. We aim for our children to flourish, unlocking lifelong learning in the classroom and wider world by being confident, resilient, reciprocal readers.
Our choice of books:
At Colne Engaine, we teach children both how to learn to read, and to read to learn. Learning to read focuses primarily on the phonics skills of the children and being able to decode and blend sounds to read. This also includes alien words and high frequency words. Reading to learn focuses primarily upon the reciprocal reading skills children require to read for pleasure and to develop subject knowledge. These reciprocal reading skills are taught explicitly in our daily reading lessons. Through careful research (Doug Lemov) and knowing our children and school community, we have chosen books based on the following:
- Authors we study
- Curriculum links we make with books
- Reading for pleasure
How We Learn
Our children will learn in a literacy-rich environment, have access to high quality texts and be exposed to extensive vocabulary and experience inspiring, effective learning. Our children learn resilience in reading by accessing challenging books, that are appropriate to their ability and texts that inspire reading for pleasure.
Learning to read at Colne Engaine begins with choosing from a wide range of engaging stories and information books to foster a love of reading and being read to. Daily synthetic phonics lessons using Little Wandle Phonics marks the beginning of a child’s journey towards becoming a fluent and enthusiastic reader. We use whole class reading from Years 2-6 as our main strategy to teach reading skills.
Using our progression, the children are exposed to a range of high-quality texts. Each session is sequenced using an introduction and recap, vocabulary check, modelled reading, and comprehension focus where skills taught are being applied.
Our children, as readers, are taught & encouraged to;
- be secure in their phonic knowledge and how to use this to decode unfamiliar words.
- recognise an ever-increasing range of familiar written words
- read fluently
- understand extended prose (both fiction and non-fiction)
- taught to read with purpose, recognising that there are different types of text and adapting their approach to reading accordingly
- actively engage as a reader, adjusting their approach to ensure understanding, e.g varying pace re-reading sections if meaning is lost.
- read for pleasure across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction
- use reading to support their acquisition of knowledge and vocabulary across all subjects.
Reading is taught daily and we use a whole class reading approach to ensure daily opportunities to work on the key reading skills. In addition to this, children are exposed to a wide range of reading opportunities across the curriculum and throughout the school day. Reading is promoted as an enjoyable and enriching experience to both children and parents. The children are able to enjoy books and texts throughout the week. The teacher reads to the children from the chosen class novel from our reading spine. This provides children with positive modelling of expression and intonation. In addition, adults in school hear children read daily to improve fluency, decoding and comprehension skills.
Whole Class Reading
Children are immersed in good quality texts through whole class reading because we believe the best way to develop comprehension skills is through children’s experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a wide range texts.
With the National Curriculum split into three key areas: Reading for Pleasure, Vocabulary Development and Oral Comprehension, a whole class approach to reading enables our children to develop their skills within each of these. The opportunity to read aloud, develop fluency listen to a text read by a teacher or peer and develop their ability to be able to discuss what they have heard in a constructive way and daily discussion of unfamiliar vocabulary ensures a breadth and depth to their reading as well as enhancing their enjoyment.
Clicks on our links below to find out more:
Reading progression at Colne Engaine
Please go to the Information Hub – Handy Guides – for information about lots of great books for each year group, to support your child to develop a love of reading
