1. Helping your child read at home
Reading Workshop
Helping your child read at home

2. The reading scheme
We use the Oxford Reading Tree as our main reading scheme.
Your children have already been introduced to the ORT characters in school and have started to bring reading books home. Books will go home every Tuesday to be returned by Thursday and every Friday to be returned by Monday.

3. The reading scheme Stage 1
These books concentrate on the language and pre- reading skills children need to be competent readers.
These books encourage children to talk about themselves and their experiences in relation to the stories.
Purpose of these books:
To help children to develop listening skills
To enable children to make a link between the stories and the pictures.
To introduce the main characters.
During Stage one children will begin to learn some key words and the characters names.

4. Stage 1+
These books continue to introduce key words, such as can, you, me to children as well as practising the words learnt during Stage 1. Your child will begin to use their phonic skills to sound out and blend some words and begin to learn some ‘tricky words’ by sight.

5. Helping your child with their reading at home
Why?
Quality time together
A time when they have your undivided attention
A great opportunity to talk e.g. about how they are feeling, what they have been doing.
How Long?
Let your child be your guide.
For ORT book 5-10 minutes of reading together is usually long enough.
Don’t force your child to read to you if they don’t want to.
Agree to do something else, then try again later.

6. Where and when? Try to find somewhere with no distractions.
Make sure that you are in a position where you can both see the book.
Reading should be little and often and become part of your routine e.g. try to keep to the same time each day.

7. Developing a love of reading
Be a good role model. Let your child see you reading.
Make sure you continue to read to your child regularly e.g. at bedtime.
Be positive! If your child says something nearly right to start with, don’t say ‘No. That’s wrong,’ but ‘Let’s read it together’ and point to the words as your say them. Boost your child’s confidence with constant praise for even the smallest achievement.
Ask questions and talk about the books you share.
Don’t worry if your child wants to read the same story over and over.
Introduce new vocabulary you encounter in the books you share.
Make it fun!

8. Reading at home
The new reading books are designed to be enjoyed and discussed over a few sessions.
In order for your child to get the most out of them you will need to use the suggested activities.
Reading at home with your child should not just be about reading the text.
It is vital to
Question them
Discuss the story
Retell the story

9. Questions/Discussion
There are questions in your child’s reading journal to use during the text and at the end of the book.
They can be as simple as:
What did you like or dislike?
What can you remember from the story?
Who was your favourite character?
Link it to their own experiences- can they remember something similar?

10. Questions/Discussion
There are questions at the back of the books specific to that story. These are a really good way of assessing your child’s understanding of the story. You can develop these further to allow children to practise and develop other skills.

11. Questions/Discussion
Discuss the text with your child as they are reading- don’t wait till the end of the book to question them.
E.g.
That’s an interesting word I wonder what it means?
Do you think she/he made the right decision?
What do you think they will do next?
I really liked how the character … Did you?

12. Retelling the story
Retelling the story (whether rereading or telling it with prompts) allows children to build their confidence and fluency. Childhood is an oasis of repetitive acts- in their play, in their language- it’s one of the ways they learn. It will help them to understand story structure and this will follow through into their writing.

13. Retelling the story
With repetition the task of reading becomes simpler and faster due to the familiarity of characters, plot and language.
The reader can understand new things when freed from the restraint of reading the new words.
Rereading offers the opportunity to reflect on and savour the language, the characters and the events.

14. Many of the new reading books (Traditional Tales and Project X) have one of these story maps at the back to allow you to retell the story

15. Retelling the story
Most traditional tales follow the same structure and this is a unit children are taught in Literacy in KS1.
By retelling the story together using the pictures children will:
Become familiar with the structure, language and characters that appear
Become more confident at telling their own stories
Transfer this knowledge to their writing
The way we teach writing at TDS ensures children orally learn and retell stories as this has been proven to aid and improve their writing.

16. Retelling the story You could: Take it in turns to retell the story
Do a picture each
Tell the story and miss one out- which one was missing?
Retell the story but change an element- how would it affect the ending?
Add in some of the language from the book e.g. connectives, adjectives to encourage your child to start using them
Draw your own story map
Put actions to it

17. Retelling the story
If your child is struggling to read their book read the story to them on the first day then on the second day get them to read it. On the third day they can discuss it and re-tell it in their own words
Not all the reading books have a story map but there are many other activities that you can do (see the handout) and they can retell a story in their own words.

18. Reading at home
The process
Discuss the front cover, what the story might be about, read the blurb, what genre of story is it- what do they know about these types of stories already, what are their predictions? Introduce the main characters and explain how to pronounce their names
Read the story whilst discussing it together/ read the story to them
Reread the story/retell the story using story map
Questions
Activities
This should take at least 2 nights and therefore children will not have their books changed daily.

19. Reading at home
If you spend time questioning or discussing the book, retelling the story or doing the suggested activities please record this in your child’s reading journal so we know what your child has been doing at home. Please write a brief summary in the comments box.

20. Reading at home
We hope you enjoy reading at home with your child. If you have any further questions please stay behind to discuss them with us. Thank you