Reading at

Earlsmead Primary School

Implementation

At Earlsmead, we maintain a structured and continually evolving approach to the teaching of reading through our whole-class teaching model. Our methodology is underpinned by the Department for Education (DfE) recommendations outlined in their Reading Framework (2023), as well as contemporary research, ensuring that our reading curriculum remains both robust and relevant. Each year group follows a detailed curriculum map that encompasses a diverse range of texts, exposing pupils to a high-quality fiction text, non-fiction material, and poetry every half term.

Our weekly teaching focuses on developing all the skills necessary for fluent reading and comprehension. Rather than concentrating on limited objectives, we teach pupils to draw upon and utilise a variety of strategies simultaneously, rather than isolating them to one at a time. The skills imparted to pupils include inference, retrieval, both explicit and implicit vocabulary instruction, predicting, and making connections to enhance their understanding. Additionally, they develop self-monitoring abilities, allowing them to independently apply these strategies to other texts as their confidence grows.

Each week, the children embark on a learning journey designed to enrich their experiences, commencing with a ‘word of the day’ within the following lesson objectives:

• Monday: To immerse ourselves in our new text.
• Tuesday: To explore how meaning is constructed.
• Wednesday: To analyse language choices.
• Thursday: To reason and justify responses with evidence from the text.
• On Fridays, pupils engage in explicit comprehension practice, with this focus also integrated discreetly throughout the week.

At every stage of the learning journey, modelling is a pivotal aspect. This begins with the teacher reading with expression and intonation, demonstrating how to correct inaccurate reading, before delving into high-quality discussions about the text, which we refer to as ‘book talk’ or ‘text talk’. Pupils are then given the opportunity to read aloud to one another and receive feedback from both their peers and the class teachers. Our lessons also incorporate a variety of carefully planned activities designed to motivate and engage our pupils, ranging from role-play to cross-curricular tasks, such as designing book covers with blurbs to attract particular audiences.

Where necessary, strategies used in phonics lessons, such as ‘robot arms’ to segment and blend, are also employed during Guided Reading as pupils learn to become fluent readers.

Progression from year to year is evidenced by:

• The complexity of the text concerning vocabulary.
• The maturity of the text’s themes.
• The length of the texts tackled.

We recognise the importance of reading whole texts and novels, which is why we ensure that pupils are read to at the end of the day during our "Drop Everything and Read" initiative. We have carefully selected storybooks as part of our reading-for-pleasure culture, ensuring representation of our diverse school community while exposing pupils to classic literature. This approach aims to introduce pupils to a wider array of texts, encouraging them to develop their own independent reading tastes and preferences regarding authors, genres, and writing styles.

Impact

At Earlsmead, children are not only taught the mechanics of reading but are also nurtured into accomplished, comprehending readers who develop a lifelong love of reading. We ensure that pupils' understanding is assessed through both formative and summative methods.

Formative assessments consist of regular questioning woven into lessons that encompass all domains of reading, with Bloom's Taxonomy serving as a fundamental component.

In terms of summative assessment, pupils are evaluated termly using NTS assessments, which are designed to familiarise them with the format of Key Stage 2 (KS2) assessments. Their reading levels are regularly assessed through one-to-one oral reading checks. Following these assessments, pupils are provided with books that align with their reading levels, utilising the Oxford Owl banded book system. Those who complete the Oxford Owl range are considered free readers, granting them the freedom to choose from a wide selection of chapter books available in the classroom book corners or the school library. Additionally, their reading speed is assessed termly using dedicated speed reading assessments.