Reading Recharged
Here are some of the ways I’ve found useful to ‘bridge the gap’ between decoding and comprehension in the classroom:
Spice up your reading strategies
Mix them up
Children try different ways of reading the text so it isn’t always read ‘in their head’. Choral reading, echo reading, paired reading and teacher-led reading help to model expression and intonation. Children can then work to emulate expressive reading styles.
Arrange the class so that children are sitting in mixed-attainment pairs, therefore allowing the weaker reader to be exposed to a more confident reader. High-level comprehension can then be passed on simultaneously while reading as a class or in a group.
Control the game
Streamline follow-up activities
Pick one student to read at a time. Get them to read a short segment to maximise the concentration of the class. Make sure they do not know whose turn it is next, so that they all have to pay attention to the reading. Move quickly between readers to encourage a lively pace. ‘Pupils who struggle mightily with reading aloud will lose engagement unless this is done in a sharp, swift and seamless manner’ (Lemov, 2016).
Focused reading skill activities can be differentiated to reflect differing needs. The core text is not differentiated. All children are exposed to the same level of high-quality literature. As Lemov (2016) writes, ‘Low readers in particular are often balkanized to reading only lower-level books, fed on a diet of only what’s “accessible” to them – but which is also often insufficient to prepare them for college.’
Give them the tools they need to read
Create a stimulating reading environment
The obvious tricks are often forgotten. Does one child need a reading ruler because they have dyslexia? Does another child need a slope because they struggle with their body positioning whilst reading? Provide children with the tools they need to read. Support the process as best as you can. How do they feel most comfortable reading and can you support this?
Make reading part of your everyday practice. Children should be able to access fresh, vibrant and engaging texts in the classroom. Ensure you have a designated 15-minute slot for reading every day. It is the last thing that should fall off the timetable. Create this idea of reading being an endless opportunity to learn and escape to new, undiscovered worlds.
The seven comprehension skills We have ascertained that it is best to teach decoding outside of guided reading and whole-class reading, so these sessions can focus purely on comprehension. When teaching comprehension, there are seven key reading skills you must focus on developing. These reading skills reflect the National Curriculum requirements for children in a primary school setting. They are: ⊲ Retrieval: retrieving and recording information from non-fiction. ⊲ Inference: drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence. ⊲ Summarising: identifying main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarising these. ⊲ Prediction: predicting what might happen from details stated and implied. ⊲ Vocabulary: checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding, and explaining the meaning of words in context. ⊲ Commentating: asking questions to improve their understanding of a text. ⊲ Authorial choice: identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning. (Based on the National Curriculum in England: English Programmes of Study, 2014)
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Reading Recharged © Alex Barton 2021
05/07/2021 12:43
