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VLA Reading Guidance
1
VLA Reading Guidance
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Here at Victoria Lane Academy, we want our pupils to be fluent,
confident readers who have a love of books! In order to help them we
use a two-pronged approach. We provide a book-rich environment,
starting in Nursery, where stories, rhymes and poems are read aloud
every day, to promote a love of reading. As children progress through
the school, and become more fluent confident readers, we continue to
promote story-telling with the use of class novels, read to the pupils
at the end of every day. Alongside this, children are taught to read
using a mix of phonics programs and ‘real’ books. Our reading schemes
align with the phonics phase, so that children learn to read ‘in
context’ – this means that reading schemes focus on the sounds being
taught, so that pupils see the sounds within texts, rather than as
separate to them.
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From Reception, children have daily phonics lessons, where they will learn a sound each day as
well as the letter formation that goes with the sound. At the beginning of the year, lessons
are 20 minutes long and are taught as a whole class. As children’s knowledge and
understanding develops at varying rates, these lessons will be taught in differentiated
groups, as the year progresses. At VLA, we use Letters and Sounds as our systematic phonics
program; we then implement this with activities, songs and games, so that we have a bespoke
program, which fits exactly with our pupil needs. Children are given the chance to consolidate
and practise their new sounds, using a range of reading and writing activities.
The ‘StoryTime Phonics’ resource uses ‘real’ books (those that children will already be
familiar, for example, fairy tales!) and allows children to see and hear their new sounds
applied in stories. The use of this program helps children to understand that phonics is not
only for phonics lessons and that they are actually the building blocks of reading. This
resource has recently been purchased to further develop our phonics teaching in EYFS and
KS1 and actively engage all of our children.
Some terms children will learn are:
Phoneme – this is the smallest unit of sound, e.g. Rain has 3 phonemes – r/ai/n
Grapheme – the letter or letters, which represent a sound, e.g. ee/ea/ey all make the same
sound but are spelled differently!
Digraph – when 2 or more letters come together to make a sound, eg. ‘oa’ in ‘boat’
Blending – bringing the sounds together to make a word, e.g. c/a/t becomes ‘cat’. Blending
smooth, when a child reads well.
Segmenting – used in spelling, this is when a word is ‘split’ or ‘segmented’ into a words
constituent sounds, e.g. c-a-t.
Tricky words – these are words that can’t be accurately sounded out so need to be learned,
e.g. the, was, said.
High frequency words – the words which children will come across most often in their
reading and writing, e.g. there, because, to.
Reception children also have a dedicated story time at the end of each day, when they simply
listen to and enjoy a story!
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This school year, we have changed our home reading, to reflect the key roles that reading
for pleasure and fluency of reading have in developing our children as readers. Parents can
support this 'reading journey' through regular reading at home. Reading to and with your
child every evening for at least ten minutes can make a dramatic difference to your child's
achievement within school.
Children on Banded/Scheme Reading Books
As our children begin to learn to read, they will be sent home with 3 reading books. These
books will be given out on a Friday and children will keep them for a week, returning them to
school to change, the following Friday.
Children will be given 2 books, appropriate for their reading ability, which they will read to
practise their phonics, high frequency words and reading aloud. To improve their fluency
(speed and ‘smoothness’ of reading), children should read these books more than once.
Children will also be given a ‘Storytime’ book – we have chosen this set of books for children
to be read to by an adult. We would NOT expect children to be able to read the books and
these books are simply to enjoy! ‘Storytime’ books will be marked with sticker on the back of
the book:
Children should still bring one of their reading scheme books to school each day, so that
staff can listen to readers, as normal. If children read anything else at home, (eg. Comics,
magazines, etc), these can also be recorded in home reading diaries.
Independent Readers
Once children become ‘free, independent readers’ and are no longer reading the banded
reading scheme, children will not bring home 3 books, only one independent book. This is
because the content of the independent reading books is generally longer and more complex,
so more than one book at a time will not be needed.
Some books from our Storytime lists are:
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As before, reading books and diaries should still be brought into school each day; home
reading can be recorded in class and children have a book to read, in school.
It is really important that children become confident, independent readers and so we ask
that they read for ten minutes each day, at home. Any children who are consistently not
recording any home reading, will be contacted by either Mr Blake or Mrs Carr, and asked to
attend Homework club on a Monday after school.
As a school, we believe very strongly that the teaching of reading is imperative if a child is
to be a fluent and confident reader. The teaching sequence that we use is based on the John
Murray model and advice taken from across the Trust.
John Murray is an experienced teacher and author, who has had huge success with his
teaching methods. It relies heavily on modelling, asking and answering questions and that a
child can read ‘mechanically’, (this means that they can ‘decode’ or break down text). It
makes links between a child’s working memory of other texts, allowing them to make links
between other similar texts and characters. Reading should have a purpose; much of our
reading teaching uses a class novel or texts similar to our novels. We want children to value
themselves as readers and we’ve found that if children struggle with the ‘mechanics’ of
reading, this enjoyment is lost and reading becomes a chore!
With this at the heart of our teaching, we’ve tailored our lessons to fit with our new
curriculum: we intend to develop our pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding; character
and values and behaviours.
Shared reading moves away from the idea of a child reading aloud to a teacher or teaching
assistant. It is better that a child sees ‘modelled’ reading, or that they are read to initially,
by the teacher or teaching assistant. This allows them to see and hear the text read
accurately, with appropriate intonation. Following this children are asked questions such as,
‘What do you think?’ or ‘Why did I read that piece of text out loudly?’ The child then may be
asked, ‘Do you want to read?’ In this way, a child is eased into reading and is encouraged to
reread text and continue, taking the pressure off them!
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To encourage a love of books, we will teach children to talk about books and how they can use
the pictures, to support their understanding. We may ask children:
Which of these books would you like to read? Why?
Which of these books looks the most exciting?
Do you like this book?
What do you think this book is about? Why?
Have you ever been anywhere like that?
What does it make you think about? Do you think…would like this book?
What’s happening in the picture?
What do you think the words might say?
How do you think he’s feeling? How do you know?
Do you like…? Why?
‘Functional readers’ are those who are able to read age-appropriate texts, accurately and
fluently, without the need to focus on the mechanics of reading. Before children have
transitioned into functional readers, they may work with their teacher or teaching assistant
on a shared reading intervention. When shared reading is carried out as an intervention,
children are in groups of between four and six, with others of a similar ability.
Across a week, a typical intervention timetable will look like this:
Day of Week Activity (Supported by T or TA)
Monday Group 1: Shared reading with a focus on comprehension (understanding
of text) and vocabulary (language), but not phonics!
Tuesday Group 2: Shared reading
Wednesday Group 1: Revisit text, recap and recall! The text is then used to teach
the mechanics of reading, depending on the needs of the group.
Thursday Group 2: Revisit text.
Friday Free Friday: Whole class; may be used to teach a song or rhyme
relating to the text looked at that week.
This type of intervention will take place as well as phonics teaching.
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When children can read fluently and accurately, we focus on teaching reading skills so they
are able to consolidate and extend their understanding across different texts. We do this in
daily reading lessons, which take place between 9.00 and 9.40, every morning.
In KS1, initially the reading focus will be on phonics. Pupils are grouped according to the
phonics stage they are working on. Pupils will begin to work on simple comprehension
questions as soon as they are able; initially, answers will be given orally, pupils will record
written answers when teaching staff are confident they can do so.
The simple retrieval questions will come from Read Write Inc story books, in Year 1 and
initially, in Year 2.
Year 1: Pupils taught in groups, supported by the class teacher, teaching assistant or are
working independently, to consolidate previous phonics work, (e.g. games, treasure hunts,
etc.) and whole text work.
A typical weekly timetable looks like this:
Day
Number
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
1 Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Games
Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
TA
Phonics (20 mins.)
Games
2 Phonics (20 mins.)
Games
Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Games
Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
TA
3 Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
TA
Phonics (20 mins.)
Games
Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Games
4 Phonics (20 mins.)
Reading
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Reading
TA
Phonics Phonics (20 mins.)
Group Reading
Teacher
5 Phonics (20 mins.)
Whole Class
Shared Reading
Phonics (20 mins.)
Whole Class
Shared Reading
Phonics (20 mins.)
Whole Class
Shared Reading
Phonics (20 mins.)
Whole Class
Shared Reading
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Year 2: Pupils taught in groups, supported by the class teacher, teaching assistant or are
working independently, to consolidate previous work.
A typical weekly timetable looks like this:
Day
Number
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
1 Phonics (20 mins.)
Comprehension (20 mins.)
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Comprehension (20 mins.)
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Comprehension (20 mins.)
TA
Phonics (20 mins.)
Comprehension (20 mins.)
TA
2 Comprehension
Teacher
Comprehension
Teacher
Comprehension
Teacher
Comprehension
Teacher
3 Reading
Teacher
Reading
TA
Reading
Teacher
Reading
TA
4 Phonics (20 mins.)
Reading
Teacher
Phonics (20 mins.)
Reading
TA
Phonics Phonics
5 Whole Class
Shared Reading
Whole Class
Shared Reading
Reading
Teacher
Whole Class
Shared Reading
Reading
TA
Whole Class
Shared Reading
Support will swap the next week, so that every group receives the same amount of support
from both Teacher and Teaching Assistant.
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The teaching of reading is split into different areas, with priority given to the key skills of
retrieval, inference and deduction and vocabulary. Each of these key skills are taught in a 2-
week block; this 2 weeks of teaching is then followed by a week of comprehension and
‘reading for pleasure’ activities. Children are given a new text, which will allow them to apply
skills taught (and other reading skills!). Throughout these sessions, the children carry out
work independently, though they will receive support if it is needed.
Following this session, the class teacher is able to plan for the next block, ensuring that each
group looks at the skills needed in order for them to continue to extend and consolidate
their understanding and knowledge.
Pupil’s ability will be regularly assessed and there may be some fluency between the reading
group they are working in.
As well as the 3 key skills, there are a range of ‘mini-skills’ – summarising, predicting,
comparing, sequencing and ‘whole text’ – which are taught in a shorter time-frame of 1 week
blocks.
All pupils are taught in groups of similar ability, though the groups will be fluid, meaning that
a child can move from one group to another, depending on the skill being taught.
Year 3 – Pupils are taught in 2 groups, by Class teacher and Teaching Assistant.
Year 4/5/6 – Pupils are taught in 5 groups, according to areas for development, by 2 Class
Teachers and 3 Teaching Assistants.
An example timetable will look like this:
Week
Number
Group A
(Y6
Objectives)
Group B
(Y5/6
Objectives)
Group C
(Y5
Objectives)
Group D
( Y4/5
Objectives)
Group E
(Y4
Objectives)
1 Inference and
Deduction
Teacher
Inference and
Deduction
TA
Retrieval
Teacher
Retrieval
TA
Retrieval
TA
2 Inference and
Deduction
TA
Inference and
Deduction
Teacher
Retrieval
TA
Retrieval
Teacher
Retrieval
TA
3 Comprehension (whole text) and Reading for Pleasure
Each week, the teacher and teaching assistant will exchange groups, so there is an equal
balance of support for every child.
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For Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils, we use the additional support of the ‘Reading Plus’ ICT program.
This is an online resource, which pupils access independently, once they have undertaken a
Reading Plus assessment. Across a week, each Year 5 and 6 child will have three 30 minute
sessions, working on Reading Plus. One of these sessions will take place on a morning, during a
reading lesson and the other two sessions are timetabled on an afternoon.
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The ability to answer and ask questions about texts is vital, and children will be asked a wide
range of question types. There are four basic types of questions:
1. Closed - implies that there is a ‘correct’ response.
2. Open - allows for a range of responses
3. Literal - recall of simple facts or simple comprehension – the answer is clearly stated
within the text
4. Higher Order - encourages children to think and often is based on interpretation of
the text.
The higher order questions are the ones that children often find the most difficult and it is
these, which we spend time modelling and practising during our reading lessons.
Pupils are ALWAYS encouraged to highlight key words and phrases and annotate (write on!) a
text AND in a question to help them answer the questions accurately. Pupils will SKIM and
SCAN a text in order to find the relevant information.
Question ‘stems’ for various question types are shown below for both Key Stage 1 (year 1 and
2) and Key Stage 2 (year 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Literal (Retrieval)
Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2
What does …do? Where/when/why…?
What happened to…when...? How would you …?
Give two things that happened…? According to the text, what /when/why…?
Tell me what…did? How can you tell that…?
What could…see/ hear/ taste? Who / what/ why/ when/ where/ which…?
What did…? Is it true that …?
How did / do…? Where in this book would you find…?
Where did / was…? Tell me three ways which…?
When did / do / were…? Who is the narrator in this story?
Describe… Describe…
Why did / does / were …? What happened to…when…?
What had…? Give two things that happened.
What is good / bad about…? Tell me what…did?
Tell me …things about… What could ….see/ hear/ taste?
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What did you learn about…? What did…?
Literal
Key Stage 1 (Sequencing) Key Stage 2 (Summarising)
What order did ….happen? What is the key point in the
chapter/section/text? Why?
Put the events of the story in order Put the events in order – what happened
first? After…? Before…?
What happened after / before…? Tell me in a sentence what you have found
out.
Why has the information been presented in
this order?
Why has the information been presented in
this order?
Which other word could they have used to
describe the……?
Which other word could they have used to
describe the……?
Who…first? Can you sum up each paragraph in one word?
Sentence?
When did …happen? What do you do after…?
What do you do after …? Can you retell the story?
Can you retell the story? Can you tell me how to…?
Can you tell me how to…? What could the title of this chapter be?
What happened at the beginning/ middle /
end?
What do you think the text is trying to tell
us?
If you were adding sub-headings to this
section, what would they be?
Order these paragraph summaries.
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Word Knowledge
Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2
What does…mean? What does…mean?
Which word in the text tells you or
describes …?
Which word in the text tells you or
describes …?
Find the word that tells you… Find the word that tells you…
What do these words ….tell us about…? What do these words ….tell us about…?
Which word tells us how…was feeling? Which word tells us how…was feeling?
Find and tell me one word that shows…
Draw what you think…looks like.
What does the word…mean in this sentence
/ context?
If the text says…what does that mean
that…did?
Can you think of another word we could use
instead of…?
Which other word could they have used to
describe the…? Draw what you thin
What do these words tell you about the …?
Which other words tell you…?
Word Choice
Which words do you think have made the
text sound …?
What does the use of …tell you about …?
Why has…been used to describe…? What other words have been used to
show…?
Which other words might have been used
instead?
Why did the writer decide to use that word
/ phrase to describe…? Why do you think the author chose that
setting? Has the author chosen any words for impact
and effect? What difference would it have made if the
author had used… instead of…? How does the writer compare…to…?
How has the choice of words created an
impression of…? What do phrases such as…tell you?
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Inference and Deduction (Deduction – means reaching a conclusion using clues from the text, inference is the
unwritten or unsaid in the text.)
Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2
Why did…? Why did…?
Why was … happy at the end of the story? Why were the…doing…?
How can you tell that…? How can you tell that…?
How do you think…was feeling? How do you think…was feeling?
How do you know that…? How do you know?
Which words tell us…? Which words tell/show/imply …?
When is the story set? How do we know that…?
Why did…behave like that? Why did…behave like that?
What does…think about…? What does…think about…?
What do you think it was like in…? What do you think it was like in…?
How would you have felt if you were…? How does…feel when…says…?
How is…like a…? How is…like a …?
How was…different after…? How was…different after…?
Why is that event important in the story? What gives the impression that…?
Explain why you think that… What is the same/different about…?
Evaluative (KS1 and KS2)
What makes you think that?
What do you think?
Which words make you think that? How do you feel about…?
What kind of picture does it give you in your head?
Draw what you can see in your head. Can you explain why…?
Do you agree with…?
What questions would you like answered?
Which character would you like to be? Why?
Can you convince me that you’re right?
What makes you think that?
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Other questions may include:
Predictions
Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2
What might happen next? Why do you think
that?
Based on what you have read so far – what
might happen?
What would you do next? How do you think the story will turn out?
How might this story end? What is going to happen next? Why?
What information might we learn? What other information might you learn
from this book?
What do you expect to happen? Do you think you are going to find this text
useful – why / why not?
What do you think…will do? What evidence supports what you think?
Who do you think is going to…? What might this character think about…?
What would you do next?
What do you think…will do?
What information might we learn?
What do you expect to happen?
Explain why you think that…is going to
happen?
Who do you think is going to…?
Who is most important in this story?
Comparing (KS1 and KS2)
How has………………’s behaviour changed?
Which word shows how…has changed towards…? Why do you think this happened?
Has your opinion of…changed? Why? Why not?
Which chapter was the best in your opinion?
Which is the most effective paragraph?
Are there any common themes?
Give a difference between the first and second verses of the poem.
How are the sentences different in the…and…paragraphs?
Is this text similar to any others you’ve read?
Has anything similar happened to you before? How was it the same? In what ways was it
different?
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Whole Text (Features of Fiction/Non-Fiction)
Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2
What does…do? How has the layout helped the reader?
What happened to…? When? How do we know that time has passed?
Give me two things that happened to… Are these chapters/ sections/ paragraphs
linked in any way?
What could…see? What style of writing has been used?
What did…? Has the author adopted a tone/ style of
writing? Why?
Why did…? Why has that font / picture been chosen at
that point?
What is the text about? What tense are we in? Why?
Why do you think that information is in a
different box?
Are there any recurring patterns / themes
in the book?
What kind of character is…? How do we know the same author as that
one has written this book?
Is this like any other book or story you’ve
read before? How?
What sort of book would you expect this
author to write? Why?
Why are these words printed in bold?
How does the table make the information
easier to understand?
How does the layout persuade people to…?
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