Cambridge Reading Adventures (Teacher's Guide)

A Teacher’s Guide to …

Institute of Education

Welcome to Cambridge Reading Adventures!

Cambridge Reading Adventures is an exciting and comprehensive Primary reading scheme for young children learning to read English in countries all over the world.

Created by Cambridge University Press in partnership with the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), Cambridge Reading Adventures consists of 90 high quality, engaging books for children, carefully graded into 11 book bands. By progressing through the series, new readers will steadily gain in confidence and ability, whatever their language background, with the goal of becoming fluent and able to enjoy reading independently.

The series includes both fiction and non-fiction books covering a wide variety of topics. Stories are set in international contexts, ranging from traditional fables and animal tales to more contemporary adventures. In addition, non-fiction titles feature accessible explanations of technology, science and the natural world.

Structured around the IOE’s highly successful Book Band framework, each book is meticulously levelled and includes notes and guidance for teachers. The series also includes teaching and assessment guides to help teachers get the most from the texts and support each learner’s reading progress.

Why Choose Cambridge Reading Adventures?

Cambridge Reading Adventures combines engaging stories and texts that young international readers will love with a rigorous banding and assessment framework that ensures every child progresses in their reading. As a result, Cambridge Reading Adventures gives children and teachers the most effective method for developing and advancing reading skills.

Cambridge Reading Adventures Books Feature: • Book Bands framework developed by UCL Institute of Education, the foremost authority on Primary reading • Highest quality writing coupled with wonderful design and illustration • A wide variety of fiction and non-fiction titles in each Book Band • Full guidance and activities to support effective guided reading lessons at the end of each book • Endorsed for reading by Cambridge International Examinations for the Cambridge Primary curriculum framework • Direct links to other international curricula including the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, International Primary Curriculum and YLE framework • Internationally relevant content that supports wider learning

About University College London Institute of Education Cambridge Reading Adventures was developed in partnership with UCL Institute of Education (IOE), the world’s leading centre for education research and related areas of social science.

Active across 100 countries around the world, the IOE’s research, consultancy and partnerships shape policies in every continent. They are committed to research that has a global perspective focused on reducing inequality across the world through education.

A key part of this mission is the IOE’s International Literacy Centre (ILC). Recognised as a worldwide authority on Primary reading, the ILC promotes literacy education from age 3 to 13 (Early Years Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3). As well as providing high quality professional support for teachers and teacher educators, the ILC develops materials and approaches to support teachers of literacy.

One of these is Which Book and Why?, the definitive guide for grading books to support early Primary reading. In creating Cambridge Reading Adventures, we worked closely with the ILC to put this proven framework at the heart of our new series of books.

This collaboration has brought together literacy learning experts and a worldrenowned publisher. The work has resulted in texts designed specifically for guided reading.

This will contribute to effective literacy teaching in locations across the world. The UCL Institute of Education is proud to be involved in a venture that seeks to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Professor Chris Husbands Director of UCL Institute of Education and Professor of Education Policy

About the Authors Cambridge Reading Adventures authors have been carefully selected for their expertise and experience in children’s education and teaching.

Our international line-up of contributors includes award-winning writers and renowned photographers and illustrators.

Lauri Kubuitsile has published books and short stories across the world. She has gained numerous awards, twice winning the pan-African Golden Baobab prize for children’s literature and was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize.

Ian Whybrow is a prolific writer of children’s books. Probably best known for the million-selling series ‘Harry and His Bucketful of Dinosaurs’, which has been adapted into an animated television series, his books have been translated into many languages and published all over the world.

Claire Llewellyn was an editor of children’s non-fiction for over a decade before becoming an awardwinning writer. She has won the Times Education Supplement Award as well as the English 4-11 Book Award and was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Prize.

Jonathan and Angela Scott have won many accolades including the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and have been named as Canon Ambassadors in recognition of their photographic expertise.

Support for Teachers Cambridge Reading Adventures is more than just a suite of books for Primary reading. The series also includes a range of resources to guide teachers and help them assess each child’s progress.

Teaching and Assessment Guides These provide detailed notes on every book and practical advice and resources to facilitate the most effective approaches to teaching and assessment. Each guide contains: • A book-by-book overview, including learning objectives, curriculum links and supporting activities for each title • Detailed information on each Book Band and its learning focus • Benchmark running record and comprehension assessment resource sheets provided for each band for correct placement and progression within the scheme • Practical advice and ideas for teaching reading, including classroom organisation and lesson plans

Professional Development The Teaching and Assessment Guides provide a detailed introduction to best practice for developing the teaching of reading. In particular, the guides focus on guided reading and the use of Book Bands as the most effective way of teaching reading in a classroom environment.

There is also thorough guidance on carrying out detailed assessments of a child’s reading using running records and other assessments provided within the Guide. This allows teachers to diagnose where a child is struggling and to ascertain their reading band.

Teacher Guidance Notes The back of every book has comprehensive teacher guidance notes including: • Detailed lesson suggestions for using the text for guided reading, including introducing the text, reading and returning to the text • Scripted questions to support teachers new to teaching reading or who speak English as a second language • Phonics links • Spelling, grammar and comprehension points • Follow-up activities Each book also includes a key facts table, listing the word count, key words, high-frequency words (where appropriate) and topics within the book that link up with the wider curriculum.

Curriculum Links The teacher guidance notes in each book show how the texts connect to a range of international curricula. As well as being endorsed for reading by Cambridge International Examinations, the scheme is fully linked to the IB Primary Years Program, the International Primary Curriculum as well as supporting the Cambridge English YLE assessments. The titles are also linked to the topics used in our Cambridge Global English series.

What are Book Bands?

The Cambridge Reading Adventures series is built around the Book Bands developed by the International Literacy Centre, part of UCL’s Institute of Education. Books in the series are divided into 11 colour-coded bands, guiding the reader all the way from first steps to fluent, independent reading.

Within each band, benchmark titles allow teachers to assess each student’s progress and check they are ready to move up to the next band. However, books within each band can be read in any order and it is not necessary to read them all before progressing to the next stage.

In this way, book-banding provides a flexible approach to guided reading that focuses on the needs of the individual reader. Children can progress at their own pace and choose the titles they want to read, encouraging an enjoyment of reading for its own sake.

Colour Band

No. of Titles

Pink A

9

Pink B

9

Red

10

Yellow

8

Blue

9

Green

8

Orange

8

Turquoise

8

Purple

7

Gold

7

White

7

Features of the Colour Bands

§

The Pink-Green bands specify high frequency words

§

All books include a word count and interest words

§

Resources within each Book Band will include specific links to Cambridge International Examinations, IPC and PYP – detailed within the teacher notes found in the back of each book

§

Every book, as a minimum, includes coverage of two Cambridge International Examinations syllabus requirements

§

Other books within the individual bands, where not directly applicable to other syllabuses, will support students’ wider learning in other Primary subjects

Pink A and Pink B Intended for new readers, Pink A and Pink B Band books support a child initially learning to use a book.

They feature colourful illustrations to support the story, highly predictable text and word counts of around 30 to 60 words in total.

Red In the Red Band, a sense of story begins to be developed. There are more challenging sentence structures and less repetition, but still lots of supportive illustrations.

Non-fiction titles in the Red Band reinforce familiar language patterns through themes that appeal to the interests and understanding of young children. These books are also slightly longer and help children to extend their word knowledge.

Yellow Yellow Band stories have longer plots to support young readers in developing the skills to link and relate subject matter. They include longer sentences and a wider range of vocabulary.

Books in this band start to place more emphasis on understanding stories by reading rather than relying on illustrations to convey meaning. Repeated words are used as a dramatic device rather than a way to build vocabulary knowledge.

Blue Blue Band stories become a little more complex, with several characters and episodes within one story to support the development of comprehension skills.

In non-fiction texts, the vocabulary is more technically specific but illustrations are used to support less commonly used words, giving opportunities for readers to build word-reading power and knowledge of spelling patterns.

Green Green Band fiction titles usually feature several characters and story events are more developed, often lasting several pages.

Longer, more demanding words require readers to apply word-solving skills flexibly, while longer sentence structures focus on the use of punctuation.

Topic-specific vocabulary is used, with moderate support from the illustrations and new words are often repeated to aid learning.

Orange Stories in Orange Band books are longer than in previous bands, featuring more events and greater complexity.

There is more text on each page and sentence structures are more challenging. Illustrations are used to support just one aspect of the story on each page.

Children will recognise a large number of the highfrequency words used in this band, helping them to become fluent and develop their understanding.

Turquoise Turquoise Band books include extended descriptions of places and people that offer new challenges to reading with phrasing and expression. They feature less common vocabulary that requires children to use their knowledge of spelling patterns.

The non-fiction books in this band introduce maps, charts and diagrams, while glossaries and indexes help children learn to navigate information alphabetically.

Purple Purple Band books introduce readers to stories told from the character’s viewpoint, giving opportunities to discuss motivation and response.

Story language develops further, with many occurrences of phrases found in traditional tales and story-telling, such as ‘Long, long ago’ and ‘Once upon a time’.

The Purple Band includes simple chapter books for the first time and non-fiction books provide more in-depth information and technical vocabulary.

Gold Gold Band books are for children approaching independence in predicting and evaluating the development of the story.

Books with chapters build tension, giving the opportunity for more sustained reading and texts become longer to match the growing ‘reading stamina’. Gold Band books include more demanding language structures and illustrations now offer only general support to the story.

White White Band books are for children who are becoming confident independent readers.

The stories are engaging and more complex than those in previous bands, encouraging children to ask and explore ‘why?’ questions.

Readers encounter more complex sentences that include several clauses, with a range of more advanced grammar such as “we’re” and “they’re”.

Pink A

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Jamila Finds a Friend The Sun is Up Packing my Bag A Hot Day Arif Goes Shopping Water Games Animal Homes Please Stop, Sara!

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

My Dad is a Builder The Last Lemon Our Den Leela can Skate Omar’s First Day at School Where do they Grow?

Who Lays Eggs?

At the Market Looking After Animals

15.

16.

17.

18.

Pink B

Red

19. In the Sea 20. Look! It’s Baby Duck 21. The Enormous Watermelon 22. Omar can Help 23. Leopard and his Spots 24. Seagull 25. Bedtime on the Farm 26. Houses and Homes 27. The Weather Today 28. Our Senses

Yellow

29. Little Tiger Hu can Roar!

30. Late for School 31. Diego Fandango 32. Oh Bella!

33. My School 34. Playgrounds 35. Stars 36. A House for Snail

Blue

37. A Day at the Museum 38. Lost!

39. Suli’s Big Race 40. It’s Much Too Early!

41. My First Train Trip 42. Making a Car 43. On the Track 44. All Kinds of Plants 45. The Pumpkin Monster

Green

46. The Lion and the Mouse 47. Turtle is a Hero 48. Hide and Seek 49. Take Zayan with You! 50. Baking Bread 51. A Drop of Rain 52. Big Bugs 53. Dressing for the Weather

Orange

54. The Best Little Bullfrog in the Forest 55. For Today, For Tomorrow 56. Omar in Trouble 57. The Great Inventor 58. Super Malls 59. Town Underground 60. Life on the Reef 61. Sang Kancil and Crocodile

Turquoise

62. Sang Kancil and the Tiger 63. The Great Jewelled Egg Mystery 64. Sinbad Goes to Sea 65. Power Cut 66. Clever Computers 67. How Chocolate is Made 68. Draw the World 69. Motorcycles

70.

71.

72.

73.

74.

Gold

77. Rags to Bags 78. Tefo and the Lucky Football Boots 79. Yu and the Great Flood 80. Lost at Sea 81. Scarface: The Real Lion King 82. Animals of the Ice Age 83. Giants of the Ocean

White

84. The Silk Road 85. The Great Escape 86. Mei and the Pirate Queen 87. Sticks and Bricks and Bits of Stone 88. The Great Migration 89. The Mobile Continent 90. Earthquakes

Purple

Pterosaur!

King Fox Sandstorm Sinbad and the Roc Ships, Boats and Things that Float 75. The Book of World Facts 76. Going on a Plane

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Institute of Education