Questioning

Spice up your reading strategies

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.

Mix them up

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

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).

Streamline follow-up activities

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

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?

Create a stimulating reading environment

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)

The activities in this book are broken down into these seven key comprehension skills to help you focus your guided reading and whole-class reading sessions and meet the curriculum requirements. Four of the skills are relevant to the National Curriculum for both KS1 and KS2, while commentating, prediction and authorial intent are predominantly relevant to the National Curriculum for KS2 only. I’ve mapped the skills to the curriculum requirements for each key stage.

KS1 National Curriculum

KS1 National Curriculum requirement

Draw on knowledge of vocabulary to understand texts. Identify and explain key aspects of fiction and non-fiction texts, such as characters, events, titles and information. Identify and explain the sequence of events in texts. Make inferences from the text.

KS2 National Curriculum

Comprehension skill

Vocabulary Retrieval

Summarising Inference

KS2 National Curriculum requirement

Give and explain the meaning of words in context. Retrieve and record information and identify key details.

Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph and make comparisons within the text. Make inferences and explain and justify them with evidence. Predict what might happen from details stated and implied and identify how meaning is enhanced through choice of words or phrases.

Comprehension skill

Vocabulary Retrieval and summarising Summarising and commentating Inference Prediction and authorial intent

The key elements of a carousel guided reading or whole-class reading lesson

Reading is taught in different schools at different times and in sessions of different lengths. Some schools teach it discretely every day for 20 minutes, focusing on a specific reading skill in each lesson, whilst other schools may have two or three longer sessions per week, each covering more than one reading skill. There is no right or wrong way to do this and the best approach will depend on context.

That said, there are some key elements that I believe are crucial in every whole-class or carousel guided reading lesson and I would like to share them with you below, along with some tips for running each element, which I have developed in my own practice.

This formula works well for me when running a reading lesson, so I hope it will help you too or at least give you some advice and guidance that you can slot into your own reading lessons. I have also given a guide as to the amount of time I’d advise you to spend on each element within your session.

1. Tricky word scan

Time < 5 minutes 2. Text reading

Time < 15 minutes 3. Mixed skill questioning

Time ≈ 20 minutes 4. Focused skill activity or mixed comprehension

Time ≈ 25–30 minutes

Time < 5 minutes

Pre-select any challenging vocabulary that the children will come across in the text and discuss the meaning of these words before reading. Alternatively, you could ask the children to circle any vocabulary they do not understand whilst reading and then have a discussion about potential meanings by studying the context of the sentence or by using dictionary definitions. This helps to ‘level the playing field’ before comprehension.

2 Text reading

Time < 15 minutes

Children are exposed to the text almost immediately. The text should be on their table prior to their arrival in the classroom to maximise learning time. The length of the text will differ depending on the year group, but the reading of the text should take no longer than 15 minutes. If the majority of the class have not finished reading in this time, it will be worth revisiting the difficulty and suitability of the text for next time.

Mix up your reading strategies so the energy and engagement of the lesson remains high and there is an element of unpredictability. Sometimes, ask the children to read independently in their heads. On other occasions, use teacher-led reading, class reading, choral reading, paired reading, repeated reading and echo reading. Here is a breakdown of these reading approaches:

Independent reading

Pupils read individually and independently in silence. You should also aim to be silent in this time to maximise the opportunity for comprehension.

Paired reading

Exactly what it says on the tin. Pupils are sorted into pairs and read to one another. This can be done paragraph by paragraph or page by page.

Class reading

Also called ‘Control the game’, this is where the teacher selects children to read passages of text. Doug Lemov (2016) suggests improvising this process rather than pre-selecting children, so every child stays alert and is ready to read if called upon.

Choral reading

With an appropriate passage of text, the children and the teacher read in unison. This can be altered slightly by giving each table a paragraph from the text to read to the rest of the class. It is a good way to find out who can keep pace and who needs further support.

Teacher-led reading

Pupils follow the text with their finger whilst the teacher reads. The teacher should aim for a high level of intonation and expression so children can see ‘how it’s done’. A fun way to do this is switch off the lights and give each child a finger torch. They read the text in the dark whilst I provide the audio. Or, give children headphones and an online version of the text. You could pre-record your reading of the text.

Repeated reading

This is more commonly used in KS1 with younger children reading shorter texts, but can often be used with older children too. This may be done after children have been given a focused skill question. They then go back into the text and read it again to try and find evidence to support their answer for that question.

Echo reading

This is when the teacher models expression and intonation, whilst the children provide an echo and attempt to repeat those high standards. This is a great method for reading poetry, picture books or short stories.

Time ≈ 20 minutes

Practise skills of retrieval, inference, summarising, understanding vocabulary, prediction, commentating and authorial intent through exam-style questioning. Children can look at these questions on the interactive whiteboard and answer either verbally or in their books or journals. Some questions require the children to work as a pair, some require them to talk as a table, whilst others may ask them to stand up and discuss their answers with someone they might not usually work with. Again, mixing up these strategies keeps the children on their toes and encourages ‘book talk’.

It’s important to note here that the style of questioning does not necessarily need to change significantly depending on the year group you are teaching. Instead, the complexity of the answer is what will differ from Year 1 to Year 6 and how you aim to facilitate this will be crucial.

Modelling good reading responses to a skilled question is also useful. This is so children can see what effective answers look like and can model theirs on yours. For example, you may model a prediction answer like this:

I believe in the next chapter, Character A will… because in the text so far it says…

Or for an inference question, a model answer may look like this:

I believe the character is feeling… because the author used the word…

This part of the lesson should last for around 20 minutes. As this is such an important part of the reading lesson, I have included some additional guidance and example questions for each comprehension skill on pages 10–14. You may wish to refer to this when planning the questions you intend to ask in your lesson.

4 Focused skill activity or mixed comprehension

Time ≈ 25–30 minutes

Focused skill activities or mixed comprehension are an important element in any carousel guided or whole-class reading session and should be used regularly to consolidate the seven comprehension skills required by the National Curriculum. It is in this part of the reading lesson that this book will be very useful, as there are lots of engaging activities to support children with their focused skill activities for retrieval, inference, summarising, understanding vocabulary, prediction, commentating and authorial intent.

These activities will require children to dive back into the text, which by now they will have already read in its entirety using one of the reading strategies mentioned on the previous page. In this part of the lesson, the children are usually encouraged to work independently but sometimes they can work in pairs or small groups or may have teacher-led support. It is fine to provide scaffolded activities to match their abilities.

It is important that you cover a range of skills and genres of writing across the year with your class. Not only is this essential for children to develop the comprehension skills they require to become confident readers of many different text types, but it is also important for attainment in SATs. Although SATs coverage in 2018 had inference at 44 per cent and retrieval at 26 per cent, the other reading skills still featured. For example, vocabulary had a 20 per cent coverage in Year 6 reading SATs in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Choosing the right text

Schools are required to ensure a coverage of genres in reading lessons, as the National Curriculum states, ‘All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world they live in, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.’

It will usually be the class teacher or the literacy lead who chooses the texts that are studied. In some schools, the class teacher will have a planning meeting with the literacy lead to discuss what might work well and what might not. Class teachers will sometimes be given the autonomy to choose the texts the children study. If this is the case, your literacy lead will still be likely to want to see evidence that a range of genres have been covered, such as fiction, poetry and nonfiction. If you do not have that autonomy but have a burning desire to study a specific text, approach your literacy lead and enquire about a reading coverage meeting where you can discuss your ideas. A teacher’s passion for a text is likely to rub off on pupils and promote a reading ‘buzz’ in the classroom.

It’s unlikely you will read every text with the children from start to finish. You may choose chapter samples or specific pages to study in detail, but there should be many opportunities to read through a whole text outside of your guided and whole-class reading sessions. You can do this through story-time. It is effective practice to create a class novel spine across the whole school of high-quality texts that can be read by the class teacher at ‘story time’. A class novel spine is a list of books that the teacher will read with their class in their entirety.

You should therefore go down two avenues when picking the texts for the children in your school.

The first avenue is producing a class novel spine, promoting reading for pleasure and enjoyment. Which texts do you want to expose your children to from start to finish? Which stories should they leave primary school with accurate knowledge about? It is these texts which will ‘live with them’. These texts are read exclusively by the class teacher during story time. Expression and intonation are modelled to a high standard and children enjoy these texts being read to them every day. I’m definitely an advocate for ‘doing the voices’! Collecting staff and pupil voice is useful when creating the spine to guide your decisions on which books should make it and which shouldn’t. This part of the day should not fall off the timetable.

The second avenue to go down is selecting the texts you want your children to study in guided and whole-class reading to develop their comprehension skills. Sometimes you may study part of a book that is on your class novel spine in a carousel guided or whole-class reading lesson. You won’t cover many of these texts in their entirety, but the children will still have exposure to them. Reading widely in this way also enables children to create their own reading identity by discovering the authors they like to read.

A useful tip here to promote reading for purpose is to select texts that have an association with your topics. For example, if you’re teaching about chocolate in Year 3, why not find a book that explores the Mayans or the Aztecs, who used cocoa beans for trade? Perhaps you could study a text that explores the impact of too much sugar on the body to link in with your science topic of ‘healthy humans’. This really gives the children a 360-degree learning experience where their learning has a clear sense of direction and we can give them the tools to build their knowledge. The main learning goal is still to develop their comprehension skills, but the children can also lock in some valuable knowledge too.

For both ‘avenues’, ask yourself these general questions as a starting point when selecting texts:

⊲ Do you have a range of genres for each year group? (Think about poetry, chapter books, newspaper reports, song lyrics and picture books.)

⊲ Do you have texts that reflect the school’s context?

⊲ Are some texts chosen to match the school’s curriculum? (For example, if Year 4 study the Stone Age, do they study the text Stone Age Boy by Satoshi Kitamura?)

⊲ Have you fed diversity and inclusion into the reading curriculum? How do you ensure children see a range of characters from diverse backgrounds?

⊲ Can children see themselves in the texts that you choose to study?

⊲ Have class teachers been part of the selection process to ensure their enthusiasm about texts?

⊲ Do class teachers know which texts are studied in each year group? Can they support the children in making links between texts, as the National Curriculum requires them to do?

Now let’s look at both avenues in a little more detail.

Choosing a class reader

As Doug Lemov (2016) points out, ‘In many schools, reading has come to be tacitly defined as “the act of asking and answering questions about a text.” ‘ Allowing time in the school day for ‘story time’ is an opportunity for children to participate in a low-stakes, enjoyable reading experience that does not revolve around answering skill-based questions. Instead, children can simply sit and enjoy listening to a story, whether it be a classic or contemporary.

In terms of selecting texts to be read to the children at story time, as I’ve mentioned, it’s best to create a class novel spine that runs across the whole school. These are the texts that can be read for pleasure, in their entirety, to the children in an allocated story time slot each day. These texts should be very challenging. Most children in the class should struggle to read these texts independently. This enables you to raise your reading expectations of the children without losing them.