Ticehurst and Flimwell CE School 2 nd December 2014

 For you and your child to get more out of a session  Strategies with pictures  Solutions when your child is stuck  Reading comprehension

 Colour-banded  Mixture of fiction and non-fiction  Variety of texts: Oxford Reading Tree, Floppy’s Phonics, National Geographic, Big Cat to name a few

 Early books have no words  Children learn to ‘read’ the pictures  Questions to engage  Child needs to interpret:  Pictures  Characters  Events

 However tempting-don’t jump in and help!  The aim is to develop independence and resilience in reading  1) What sound does it start with?  2) Look at the picture-is there a clue?  3) Is there a word in the word?  4) Let’s miss the word out and see if we can guess from the rest of the sentence (context)  5) If they miscued e.g. Read bird instead of ‘bed’- does it make sense?

 Children learn what they live  Be enthusiastic about books and reading- they will learn to be too!  Read to them-model good reading  Lots of praise and encouragement

 They should be able to read approximately 75% of the words  Any more errors and they will lose fluency and comprehension  If you suspect your child is struggling with the text, please tell your child’s teacher  If they make next to no errors at all and understand what they are reading-the book is too easy

 Avoid closed questions - ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers  Useful question starters: how/why/when/where  Push them further- “how do you know?”  Get them to predict future events  Get them to relate things to their own experience and empathise with characters

 Let the child do the work, your talk should be minimal  Don’t over-scaffold. “How could you work it out?”  Encourage them to find sounds they have been working on in class  Get them to comment on language and interesting words  Make it fun!  Practise reading regularly – ten minutes a day WILL make a difference  Comment on punctuation  Encourage your child to read words in their environment and independently read  Question them more if they have little expression-not engaging with contents of reading  Know when to stop!

 Use a pen, ruler or other device to track for them- they should use their own finger!  Make reading a chore  Worry if your child makes errors, this is how they learn

 Word detectives- can they find the word that means the same as –dark (dingy)  Check their understanding of vocabulary- dictionary  Cover the pictures- chn predict the words  You read- make same errors as them- can THEY spot them? (more effective than correcting THEM)  Can they make a note of ‘good’ words for their writing?  Model issues they have e.g. no expression  Formulate good questions as you listen

 These are the most straightforward  Make sure they find the evidence in the text- not from memory  What is the name of the dog?  What colour is mum’s dress?  What did Kipper find under the rock?

Look for clues and read between the lines what and why These questions require the information AND how they know-what is the evidence? E.g. How is Kim feeling-how do you know this? She is angry because she marched up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door.

Evaluation: appraise author technique (use of vocabulary, sentence structures, imagery, description)- what makes them a good writer? What effect does this have on the reader?

Justification: make a statement. “I think Biff was selfish. What do you think?” Child MUST give their opinion and support with evidence.

 What do they think they need to do to improve?  What would they give their reading out of ten? What would make it a nine rather than a five?

 Please write a comment in their reading record  Something they did well, something to work on

 Self correction is a strength! If a child miscues and then realises that what they read did not make sense and re-reads it correctly  Don’t underestimate the difference home practise makes to a child’s progress!  Please ask your child’s teacher if you have any queries or concerns at any stage about your child’s reading