Bridging the Gap

As secondary school teachers, we frequently find ourselves struggling to teach students who do not have the ability to decode texts and orchestrate a range of cues whilst reading.

Aims O The aims of training will be: O To provide opportunities to develop professional knowledge about teaching and learning, with a focus on supporting the less able reader

Outcomes O Expected outcomes: O For teachers of weak readers to gain some understanding of the learning needs of less able readers O Weak readers become engaged and make meaning from their reading so that they make progress O Teachers gain new strategies, to meet the needs of the less able readers, and continue the development of their own skills

Level 2 Reader O Low level 2 – students who are at a very early stage of competence with a basic and incomplete grasp of phonic O Mid level 2 – have a stop and start feel to their reading O Upper reaches of 2 – sometimes pause to look ahead, sometimes look at context and guess at word. Impatient reader, sometimes leap over words

Level 3 Reader O Level 3 - Pupils read a range of texts fluently and accurately. They read independently, using strategies appropriately to establish meaning. In responding to fiction and non- fiction they show understanding of the main points and express preferences

Level 4 Reader O A Level 4 reader attends to the ‘sense’ of what they are reading and this becomes their prime motivation to read. They see images of events, identify with characters and anticipate what will happen next. They also take a giant stride forward and read between the lines. The acquisition of inference and deduction is the defining moment of Level 4 reading.

Why are they stuck? Surely they’ve had lots of intervention? O Emotionally and cognitively weak O Still grappling with the mechanics of reading O Teachers leave off teaching them reading skills at primary because they have attained a certain amount of independence O For some pupils this does not work. They start to generalise O Appropriate text provision does lead them to the next stage but … Something more is needed

Perins Intervention O Accelerated Reader programme - paired reading for Level 2/3 readers O Literacy support - small class teaching for Level 2/3 readers O Accelerated Learner programme, Level 3/4 students removed from across the English classes

Level 5 Reader O The acquisition of inference and deduction in Level 4 reading will propel pupils into Level 5 where they will recognise (and study) the text as something created by a writer O Comparable with others O Beginning of literary criticism

How can we help these students access texts across the curriculum? O Imaginative participation is the core to the continued development of readers KEY MESSAGE O The task for us as teachers is to develop their capacity to interact with the text, animating the words in their minds so that they create a virtual world in which the events or information are played out

How do we do this? O Our aim is to create active readers who see images as the text unfolds: O Why is she doing that? O What’s going on here? O Make links with characters/places/historical figures/scientific facts O What will happen next? O They make judgements O Compare textual experience with own life experience O Reread and revise opinions

How? O In literacy support, we work with these students spending time on a range of reading strategies: O Visualise O Think as you go – as you read, ahead, back O Getting involved O Read between the lines O Get the Gist O Choose and use information O Spot the writer making choices

Across the Curriculum These strategies can be used across the curriculum to help these students access your texts.

Seeing what you read O See what you read O Use clues O Imagine what happens Good readers see pictures in their mind when they read

Thinking aloud O Hear your mind thinking about what you read O Ask yourself questions about what you read O Be an active reader

Reading like a detective O Find clues and put them together O See things you are not told in so many words O Picture what is happening

Sounding out words you don’t know O Sound out words O Look for the root word O Read clusters of letters

Working out words you don’t know O Break a word into easy bits O Work out the word from the sentence/context O Work out what parts of a word mean

Reading longer sentences O See the shape of a long sentence O Find its main meaning O Chunk it up for reading

Making notes O Decide what to keep as notes O Make the notes short O Choose a good way to show them

In Conclusion O In English, we will identify less able readers. O We will continue to provide intervention using a range of reading strategies O As the students reading ability increases, these strategies, when deployed in other subjects, can help them access texts across the curriculum