Reading comprehension
Reading Fluency
What is reading fluency and why is it so important?
Reading fluency is much more than reading quickly. It is based on having a good understanding of what we are reading, involving a range of skills, including using appropriate phrasing, expression and accuracy, along with and appropriate rate of reading. Reading fluency is essential for understanding and enjoyment, building with time and repeated practise of appropriate texts.
Through group and guided reading, children are taught about the key aspects of reading fluency. In daily guided reading sessions across Key Stage One and Two, children read both independently and with their fluency partner, to read and re-read texts to build up their reading fluency. Children support each other, hearing others read fluently and practising.
Support your child to develop their reading fluency
When listening to your child read at home, it is important for them, especially in Reception and in Key Stage One, to have exposure to a book on more than one occasion. Reading a familiar book increases confidence, supports enjoyment and develops fluency. Re reading a text 3 times, ensures that children have time to move from a phonics focus, to reading fluently, reading many or most words from sight.
Comprehension:
Gaining a deeper understanding of what we read
Reading is a journey, allowing children to build on their knowledge and skills year on year. At Talbot Primary, reading skills are taught discretely through guided reading sessions across Key Stage One and Two. This supports pupils in gaining a deeper understanding of texts and the ability to discuss their views and preferences in a meaningful context.
Read Aloud and Think Aloud
We believe that reading is an action sport, whereby pupils are actively engaged with the text. Through Guided reading, children are taught a range of skills to enable them to access texts at a deeper level. Amongst these, we teach children to:
- Use their background knowledge
- Visualise
- Ask questions and predict
As children become more confident, they learn how to understand the ‘GIST’ of a text, infer meaning beyond the literal and resolve meaning breakdowns. Skills are built upon and revisited throughout each year and across year groups, at an increasingly sophisticated level.
Reception and Year One: Oral reading comprehension is key, with children encouraged to explore and discuss texts as a class, in small groups and one to one with a teacher. Children have reading groups 3 times a week in Early Years and Year One
Year Two and Key Stage Two: From Year Two to Year Six, children have daily guided reading lessons, planned over a 2-week block. This enables teachers to model and develop skills in week one and children to apply these skills independently in the second week.
Guided reading sessions link to what is being taught in English and often to the connected curriculum, so that children can apply their learning in different contexts.
Reciprocal Reading in Year 5 and 6
In Upper Key Stage 2, children learn to apply all the strategies that they have learnt, using an approach, called Reciprocal reading. Children analyse a section of text at a time, using all the skills that they have learnt; predicting, clarifying unfamiliar vocabulary, questioning and summarising. This enables children to build on what they have read and check their understanding.
Supporting your child to develop their reading comprehension
When listening to your child read, encourage them to use their background knowledge before they begin. Ask a range of questions to check their understanding
- Encourage your child to discuss key vocabulary and suggest what those words mean
- ‘’What other words means the same as …’’
- Find clues in the text to answer questions e.g. ‘’Why did they..’’ ‘’How do you know?’’
- Predict: What do you think will happen next? Why do you think that? What clues tell you?
This is what our children say:
‘’We love to predict, ask questions and visualise’’ Year 2
‘’We have been reading about a pencil that draws by itself’’ Year 2
‘’We get to learn new words’’ Year 1
‘’We love finding interesting facts’’ Year 1
Developing a broad, rich vocabulary
At Talbot Primary, talk really does matter!
We love to explore and learn new vocabulary in the books that we read and apply this when we are talking and writing. We focus on the key vocabulary, or topic words, singling these out for our special attention!
Traffic light words:
Red words: If it is word that we have never come across before these are ‘red’ words. We like to use our background knowledge, clues from the text and dictionaries to help us work out the meaning of these words.
Amber words: These are words that we may have come across before and think we have an idea about what they mean, but may not be able to use them just yet.
Green words: These are words that we are familiar with and can use confidently in different situations.
