Developing Reading at Horwich Parish October 2016 Anne Washington & Diane Cashmore

Introduction Introduction of the New National Curriculum last September The pitch has been raised significantly We want the pupils at Horwich Parish to be as well prepared as possible We have always had excellent support from parents and feel we need to explain some of the changes so you can give your child/ children the best possible chance to succeed

Last Year's KS2 On analysis of data: Our pupils were generally very accurate in their responses. However, they found it difficult to complete the tasks in the allocated time in Y6 There was also an increased focus on vocabulary

Guided Reading Sessions Rather than always using a scheme book to deliver the sessions, we have been selecting shorter more focused texts in order to develop the skills of inference and widen the knowledge of a range of vocabulary

Where do we go from here? We recognised the need to evaluate our approach to reading comprehension with the pupils

What a Guided Reading Session looks like (Inference Model) Prior Knowledge/ Prediction Key vocabulary Questions Hidden sentence Get Visual Summary/ prediction

Comprehension Lessons Each class will also have a dedicated whole class comprehension session These often link to the current topic and may even introduce the topic through text There will be a focus on vocabulary, inference and different question types

Reading Journals Your child’s reading journal builds a picture of your their reading journey over the course of the year in a similar way to the FS Learning Journey They are used for assessment purposes along with a teacher’s reading records from taught sessions

Reading Journals Contents My Reading Targets Supporting Developing Comprehension Skills at Home Key vocabulary Record of activities completed both at home (from their novel of choice) and independently in school (from the Guided Reading text) Record of books read along with the names of the author (at the back)

How you can support your child Encourage your child to read a range of books and record these in the back of the Reading Journal (there is a suggested list if your child is unsure) Most weeks your child will be given a task related to a novel/ chapter book they are reading. These help them to develop a deeper understanding of the text. In order to build the picture of your child’s reading, we would encourage you to comment on how they are progressing or difficulties they may encounter

How you can support your child However, we don’t want to make reading solely a homework activity that must be completed on a certain day Please encourage your child to read a range of texts, both fiction and non-fiction for the pure pleasure of reading We have also found that even our Year Six pupils still enjoy having a story read to them and this allows them to hear how the voice can be used to enhance understanding