How We Teach Reading at Taylor Road Primary School

At our school we explicitly teach children the skills of reading, following the content of the National Curriculum 2014 for reading. The programme of study for each year group is separated into strands:

• Word reading
• Wider reading and decoding
• Comprehension
• Response to text

For each year group, the strands of the programme of study are further broken down into objectives. The objectives within each strand are taught progressively and these are detailed in our reading skill progression document and detailed long- term plans.

In all year groups, there are a number of processes, skills and expectations which all children should develop; working with books at their independent level for reading and using good quality, challenging extracts and books which are shared and read aloud to them.

In foundation stage and year 1, the phonics element of the word reading strand is taught using Little Wandle and fluency, prosody and comprehension skills are practised through 3 x weekly guided reading sessions of 30 minutes, following the Little Wandle scheme structure.

From year 2 onwards, children are explicitly taught the skills of reading through the use of shared and guided reading lessons which are timetabled daily as a morning session from 9.00am to 9.30 am.

Reading lessons take place 5x a week comprising of 2 shared reading sessions and 3 guided reading sessions. Where the timetable does not allow for this on any day, the session takes place at a later time that day.

Each strand objective is focussed on for a two- week cycle. In the first week, teachers explicitly model fluency and prosody skills and the focus reading skill objective, through 2 shared reading sessions, following the I do, We do approach. These are followed by 3 daily sessions of guided reading which include opportunities for the individual practise of the focus objective on texts at an independent level.

In the following week, teachers focus on comprehension skills and model how objectives link together to aid general comprehension of the text with guided sessions covering linked objectives for comprehension.

How we use Accelerated Reader

Our school uses Accelerated Reader to track the progress of each reader and to allow children to independently practise their comprehension skills through reading texts at their level and taking comprehension quizzes on them.

At the start of the year and each subsequent half term, children take a Star Reader test which allocates them a ZPD (Zone of Proximal development). This gives the child a range of book levels that they can access.

To encourage fluency and progress, children begin at the lowest level of their ZPDs and after reading the text, take a comprehension quiz on its content. The expectation for understanding is for an 85% pass mark to be  achieved. For children who score 100% for three consecutive quizzes, their ZPD is raised by 0.1 to encourage progress and reward attainment.

The progress of each pupil’s ZPD and quizzing is recorded and tracked on a pupil reading record sheet which is kept in the pupil’s reading journal.

Struggling readers and children new to school with English as an additional language

The Star Reader Tests give children a standardised score which shows whether they are reading at the expectations for their year group and their reading age. For those children highlighted as needing intervention, a further screening session takes place (supported by the AR diagnostic tool) to ascertain whether the barriers to learning are for word decoding, fluency or comprehension.

For gaps in decoding skills, Little Wandle assessments are carried out to highlight gaps in phoneme recognition and subsequent blending. Children are placed on 3 x weekly Little Wandle rapid catch up sessions and 1: 1 read with a matching decodable book. Children who are struggling with comprehension skills are screened via a pupil profile to highlight where their barriers are and to inform the objectives for practice during extra 1:1 reads with these pupils. Inference training is also available in 6 weekly sessions of 45 minutes 2x a week for a target group of children.

Reading books in school and at home

Each class has a timetabled visit of 30 minutes to the school library which is organised by ZPD levels. Children choose 3 books at their ZPD level. Two of these books remain in school for daily reading , guided reading sessions and AR quizzing and one book goes home for independent practice. An AR quiz can be taken at home on this book as part of homework activities. A further book is taken from the class book corner as a ‘free-choice’ book to explore different genres and share with parents at home. Books are changed when quizzes have been completed and books returned to school.

Taylor Road Reading Spine

What is the purpose of our Reading Spine? 

We want our school to be a place where children are read to, enjoy, discuss and work with high quality books.

These ‘essential reads’ will be a store of classics that every child in that year is exposed to, either through independent or shared whole class reading, with the purpose of  creating a’ living library’ inside each child’s mind. 

The high-quality core fiction texts for each year are from the  Pie Corbett reading spine . In addition to these quality reads, we have also provided core non-fiction books linked to our topic themes , core poetry and diverse/PHSE themed texts. 

‘Children who are good at reading do more of it: they learn more, about all sorts of things, and their expanded vocabulary, gained from their reading, increases their ease of access to more reading.’

‘Conversely, those for whom reading is difficult fall behind, not just in their reading but in all subjects and a vicious circle develops.’

‘Teaching pupils to read as well as possible produces advantages for the individual. Without reading, it is much more difficult to access written information, on paper or online. Those who cannot read are also excluded from most social media.

Crucially, being unable to read significantly narrows the range of work and life opportunities a person can access.’

(DfE updated Reading Framework 11th July 2023)