Reading

At Chilwell Croft Academy we believe children who read succeed!

We aim to develop enthusiastic and confident readers who can understand a wide range of texts. Children read for interest, information and enjoyment.

Children will:

• Have the opportunity to read for pleasure
• Develop the ability to read aloud fluently and with expression
• Develop the ability to read for meaning
• Develop the skills required for the critical reading of texts
• Be encouraged to read a range of fiction, poetry and non-fiction materials
• Be encouraged to listen attentively
• Gain awareness of the close links between reading and writing activities
• Be taught using a range of strategies which include:
  • Phonic (sounding the letters and blending them together)
  • Visual (whole word recognition and analogy with known words)
  • Contextual (use of picture and background knowledge)
  • Grammatical (which words make sense)

Whole class reading

In the school year 2018-19, we started teaching reading through ‘whole class reading’ lessons. In these lessons, all the children in the class are immersed in the same high-quality literature and the discussions that these texts promote. These texts could be whole books, extracts of books or short non-fiction pieces. We have found that teaching the whole class means that all pupils can read with the teacher more often, moving faster through more texts, or longer texts, and benefiting from the teacher’s expert explanations, modelling, questioning and feedback. It enables pupils of all abilities to access more complicated texts and content.

While planning and during whole class reading lessons, teachers use VIPERS from the ‘Literacy Shed’ website to assess understanding of the texts being read and to encourage the pupils to think more deeply about what they are reading (see below).

Key Stage 1 Vipers

	Vocabulary Draw upon knowledge of vocabulary in order to understand the text.		Vocabulary Find and explain the meaning of words in context.
	Infer Make inferences from the text.		Infer Make and justify inferences using evidence from the text.
	Predict Predict what you think will happen based on what you already know.		Predict Predict what might happen from the details given and implied.
	Explain Explain your preferences, thoughts and opinions about the text.		Explain Explain how content is related and contributes to the meaning as a       whole.? Explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of language.? Explain the themes and patterns that develop across the text.? Explain how information contributes to the overall experience.
	Retrieve Find information in the text.		Retrieve Retrieve and record information and identify key details from fiction and non-fiction.
	Summarise Sequence the key events in the text.		Summarise Summarise the main ideas from more than one paragraph.

Whole-Class Reading Coverage