Stage 6/7 Reading Comprehension Strategies

Strategy 1: PRIOR KNOWLEGE Pupils are taught how considering their prior knowledge of an author, subject, themes or characters can improve their understanding. Pupils work independently, in pairs, and as a class to collect their thoughts on the author, subject, themes and characters before starting to read, and throughout the reading process. For example, the book ‘Carrie’s War’ is about a child who has been evacuated. Pupils who research WWII beforehand will have a better understanding of the story!

Strategy 2: FLUENCY AND METALINGUISTICS Fancy words with simple meanings! Pupils are challenged to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words while reading a section of text. Pupils would note the word and page number before attempting to ‘figure it out’ and record their thoughts. Some strategies pupils would be encouraged to use include: looking for words within words, compound words, reading around the word for context, replacing the word and checking if the new word makes sense, using a dictionary, and researching online!

Strategy 3: VISUALISATION Pupils are encouraged to think about the movie that plays in their heads while they read! They will make notes about a particular character, setting, event or chapter and the images the author has presented. They will add their own words, the author’s words and a page number reference before discussing or writing about the images the author has created, and how the author has achieved this.

Strategy 4: INFERENCE Pupils are taught to read the text very closely to look for information which might not be immediately obvious. Often the group/class will discuss the inferences they can draw from the text or they may answer written ‘inferential questions’ such as: “John dragged his feet through the puddles on the way to school.” What can you infer about the way John is feeling from this sentence? Which word(s) give you a clue?

Strategy 5: Main Ideas (Themes) Children are taught to think deeply about the section of text they are reading, or the text as a whole, in order to identify main ideas. The children are then encouraged to give evidence from the text that supports their suggested themes. Some examples of typical main ideas and themes are: survival, family, death/loss, good vs evil, friendship, resilience etc.

Strategy 6: Summarising Children are taught to summarise aspects of the text in their own words, referencing the author’s language occasionally to provide evidence. Pupils will think about everything they know about a chapter/character/event/setting and then decide which pieces of information are the most important. Children would then write a series of paragraphs as a summary, including the main ideas and themes where appropriate.

What’s different about Stage 6/7 compared to Stage 4/5? Children will learn to sustain focused, silent reading for up to half an hour. Texts are more challenging in terms of volume and vocabulary. Texts address more mature themes and issues. Children will make increased reference to the text when providing answers, quoting the author’s words where appropriate. Children will provide longer, more fully formed responses to all oral and written questions. Children will routinely justify their choices and responses using both the author’s and their own language. Children will build towards applying the six strategies with complete independence. Children will begin to make use of multiple strategies simultaneously (Stage 7).