Reading Policy

There are four main purposes for this policy:

• To establish an entitlement for all students;
• To establish expectations for teachers of this subject;
• To promote continuity and coherence across the school;
• To state the school’s approaches to this subject in order to promote public, and particularly parents and guardians’ understanding of the curriculum.

Introduction

The ability to read is fundamental to students’ development as independent learners. In order to read across the curriculum with fluency, accuracy, understanding, and enjoyment students need to orchestrate a range of strategies, drawing on knowledge of context and grammatical knowledge; applying phonic knowledge and skills; applying graphic knowledge, and developing word recognition.

The Curriculum states that students should be taught to read fluently, understand extended prose, and be encouraged to read for pleasure. Reading is singled out as having extreme importance in the curriculum and is split into two main dimensions:

• Word reading
• Comprehension (both listening and reading)
  It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all students are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.

Reading development is closely related to that of writing, for it is by reflecting upon and talking about the texts they encounter, that students come to understand how writers write and the special relationship which exists between author and reader. It is through their critical and imaginative engagement with texts that students’ reading of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction texts enables them to make sense of the world and their place in it.

Strategy for implementation

Entitlement and curriculum provision

The Curriculum provides a detailed basis for implementing the statutory requirements for reading. Much of the Program of Study needs to be taught through Literacy, and guided reading but it is expected that the children will read widely across the curriculum.

Literacy Lessons

Literacy lessons provide the structure which enables reading to be taught. The role of the teacher is:

• to follow the school’s policy with the aim of helping students to become independent readers;
• to model the act of reading through shared reading and to provide focused support through guided sessions;

• to assess the student’s progress as a reader and provide explicit guidance for their development;
• to use reading as a means of locating the information that students need to learn;
• to foster a love of reading as an enjoyable, stimulating and worthwhile activity;
• to create a supportive environment for reading.

In shared reading, the teacher models the reading process to the whole class as an expert reader, providing a high level of support. Teaching objectives are pre-planned and sessions are characterized by explicit teaching of specific reading strategies, oral response, and high levels of collaboration. The children’s reading targets are taken into account and included in the planning where they are being taught. In k – Grade 3, when modeling reading, the students are encouraged to join in where appropriate. The texts are rich and challenging, being beyond the current reading ability of the majority of the class. In Grades 4 and 5, children have access to the text either individually or with a partner. They are expected to follow the text as the teacher reads and occasionally read out loud.

During the independent part of the Literacy lesson, Students take on the responsibility of developing their reading ability. In all classes, children have a wide range of abilities, and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all groups of learners by matching the activity to the ability of the child. During some lessons this is achieved by differentiated work while in others, children are given the opportunity to talk and collaborate with their peers, thus embedding and enhancing their learning.

Teaching Assistants (TA’s) and Co-teachers may be used to provide further support in the classroom. These adults are all used effectively to support either group of learners or specific learners. They are supported and directed by the class teacher and all receive appropriate training and direction to deliver their role as effectively as possible.

In guided reading, the responsibility for reading shifts to the learner. Totsland Schools uses the Amira Program for guided reading. The majority of the students should be reading the same text, though progress is dependent on an individual child’s ability where necessary. This mirrors the expectation of the assessment where all children are expected to read the same text. It is important, however, to support children who are not working at the expected standard and who will therefore need a less challenging text type. It is intended that guided reading provides growth in fluency, intonation, and listening skills and builds the student’s vocabulary. The application has students demonstrate what they have learned about in their daily reading class. The focus of the reading is concerned with reinforcing and extending strategies and/or objectives already taught in literacy lessons.

In the journal aspect of reading, the children are in control of their reading. Independent reading is a less structured program. Students are at liberty to pick up any book of their choice from the class or school library. Specific requirements are, however, demanded hence the journal. In a less structured environment, the student can go through the literature of their choice and sift out the journal’s requirements. The reading focuses on reinforcing and extending strategies and objectives already taught in literacy lessons.

Continuity and Progression

At the end of Kindergarten the students will have experienced shared, guided and independent reading and learned the routines and responsibilities which enable the class to operate efficiently and effectively. Building on what students already know about reading and stories, the teacher helps develop early reading behaviors through shared reading, e.g. holding a book the right way up and following the text from left to right, knowing that print carries meaning, identifying the protagonists in a story, recognizing signs and symbols in environmental print.

The students develop curiosity and enthusiasm about print. They are able to select, read and talk about a range of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. They have many stories told and read to them and they have opportunities to retell narratives themselves. The focus, particularly at the early stage, is on developing understanding and conveying the meaning of the texts they read rather than on reading words accurately.

At this stage the emphasis is on developing students’ interest and pleasure as they learn to read independently and with confidence. They focus on words and sentences and how they are put together to form texts. They bring meaning to the texts they read and say what they like or dislike about them. Enlarged texts, selected from the appropriate range of texts – fiction and non-fiction – are used for shared reading at Key Stage One. Teachers model a range of reading strategies, including the identification of sentence structure and the function of punctuation marks, and give students opportunities to practice phonic skills and word recognition in context.

Students meet a wider range of texts in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Teaching focuses on developing students’ reading skills, e.g. generalizing and making inferences by drawing on evidence from the text. There continues to be a high level of interaction between teachers and students with teachers inviting students’ individual responses and interpretations rather than narrowly focused comprehension.

The texts chosen offer challenges to all students in the class. The texts chosen are of high quality and children can follow as the text is read to them by having a book individually or with a partner. Throughout the reading part of the literacy journey, the children undertake tasks to deepen their understanding of the text. Sometimes these work best before the reading of the text (e.g. raising prior knowledge, making predictions on the basis of title and illustration, whetting the reader’s appetite), sometimes during (e.g. giving advice to a character at a point of crisis or decision, noting personal response in an on-going reading journal), sometimes after (providing opportunities for reflection on the whole text, mapping a character’s literal or emotional journey). The intention is to illuminate the text and keep the students focused on their personal response and critical interpretation

As such high importance is placed on reading and in particular fostering a love of reading, the children at Totsland Schools read various genres of books for their home reader which allows them to read a rich and varied selection of texts. By following the program the children are given a reading range that they can read between allowing them to select books for pleasure and also books for the challenge. Once the children have completed a book, they are able to fill in a journal to show their understanding of what they have read. School staff tracks the children’s progress from the journals and Amira and supports students’ where necessary.

Children who struggle with the reading program are taken through a phonics crash course, the children are given a phonics matched scheme book to develop their phonological awareness and word reading skills. These books are matched to the phonic sounds the children have been working on during their phonics sessions. In addition to a phonics-matched home reader, the children have the opportunity to choose a book from their class library.

The Curriculum is for all students and the expectation is that the principles of inclusion pertain. Where necessary, the teacher will support children with SEN through differentiated activities and adult support from either the class teacher or TA.

Individual programs for teaching and support are drawn up as appropriate by teachers in conjunction with the SEN coordinator. Care is exercised to ensure that parents and guardians are involved appropriately and kept fully informed.

All classrooms have well-stocked book areas with fiction and non-fiction titles. Care is taken to ensure that a wide range of texts is available in terms of content, form, and genre, e.g. texts which are accessible and challenging, texts which show cultural diversity and avoid stereotyping of race, gender, and class.

The learning environment should also promote reading in an engaging way. There should be an abundance of vocabulary for the children to access. Lower down the school, the classrooms have displays with graphemes to support the teaching of phonics.

In addition, students are made aware of the importance of print both inside and outside the classroom through the use of interactive displays, notices, charts, posters, advertisements, signs, etc.

Reading is regarded as a regular homework activity. Parents and students are encouraged to respond to books students read by using the home/school reading diaries. There are also times when reading-related activities are used for homework. Through the Reading program, children are encouraged to change their books whenever they finish reading books. This means children can change their books on a more regular basis.

The school informs parents and guardians about the school’s approach to reading through the familiarisation program for students starting school, the school booklets, and year group introduction sessions, and open house. Reading diaries provide a means of communication between home and school. Students undertake a variety of daily reading activities supported by reading undertaken at home with a parent or guardian.

Reading is not restricted to the Literacy session. Many opportunities are provided for students to practice and extend their reading in other subjects. The children often complete a Reading activity and reading for pleasure and enjoyment is given a high priority. Monitoring ensures that there is sufficient breadth and challenge in the range of reading that students undertake.

Other areas of the curriculum offer many opportunities for students to apply their reading skills, particularly reading for information.

Assessment is used to inform the planning and the teaching of reading. This takes various forms:

Key learning objectives for reading are identified from the Curriculum and are translated into learning outcomes. Students’ progress is assessed during guided reading, supplemented by observations in shared reading and through individual assessments.

Phonic assessments are carried out based on the developmental Letters and Sounds program. Each child has a phonics tracking booklet that follows the Letters and Sounds progression and the booklet stays with the student throughout their school journey. Teachers assess the phonic development of the students on a termly basis to clearly see where the learning has been achieved and where the gaps in learning are.  

Monitoring and evaluation

The staff and management hold this policy in review. The head of programs reports to the Director on its implementation and impact on standards and quality across the school as part of the regular monitoring program of the school.

The purpose of the review is to enable staff to evaluate:

• the policy’s value in supporting and challenging the staff, subject advisors, head of the program, and the governing body;
• the impact of the policy on raising standards.