Reading Workshop

1. Reading Workshop Year 3 and 4

2. Reading approaches There are two main approaches to reading in school: • Individual reading • Guided reading

3. Individual reading This helps support individuals and extend decoding skills and give opportunities for individual assessments.

4. Guided reading This provides opportunities to teach skills such as: • Retrieving information • Use references to the text • Deduce, infer or interpret information or ideas from the text • Comment on the structure and presentation • Comment on the writer’s strategies

5. Individual reading at home It is important that you try to – • Find time to be settled and quiet in order to give the task value. • An allotted time helps to build a ‘reading routine’ • Help to build your child’s confidence by using the 3Ps – PRAISE PAUSE PROMPT

6. Four types of questions • Closed – Closed questions imply that the teacher has a predetermined ‘correct’ response in mind • Open – Open question permits a range of responses • Literal – Literal questions are concerned with the recall of facts or simple comprehension where the answer is clearly stated in the text. • Higher order – Higher order questions make progressive cognitive demand on children. They encourage them to think beyond the literal. It is important that there should be an appropriate balance of literal and higher order questions for children in all age groups.

7. Questioning This helps to develop • Recall • Comprehension (understanding) • Application (transfer of knowledge) • Analytical skills (looking at setting, characters, etc) • Synthesis (drawing from a range of sources) • Evaluation (making judgements)

8. Questions you might try • What did you like about the book and why? • Which character did you like and why? • Could you suggest a different ending? • How did that event make you feel? • Have you read any similar stories? • Do you agree with…… • Discuss any ‘tricky’ words. • What did the author mean by…… • How do you know ______, what suggests this in the text?

9. Assessment During Individual and Guided reading sessions teachers are assessing your child’s progress. The reading assessment focuses are – AF1 Use a range of strategies including accurate decoding of text, to read for meaning AF2 Understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text AF3 Deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts AF4 Identify and comment on the structure and organisation of texts, including grammatical and presentational features at text level AF5 Explain and comment on writers’ uses of language, including grammatical and literary features at word and sentence level AF6 Indentify and comment on writers’ purposes and viewpoints and the overall effect of the text on the reader AF7 Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts and literary traditions

10. Levels The average child will be expected to attain, by the end of Year 3 – 2A/3C Year 4 – 3B National expectation Key stage 1 – 2B Key stage 2 – 4B Assessments tests used: • NGRT – October • Rising Stars – Half termly • Optional SATs – May

11. Enjoyment • Try to do some of the suggested questioning to extend your child’s reading skills BUT… foremost ENJOY the whole reading experience with your child. • Don’t forget to read TO your child as this models how texts should be read. • Pair read with your child too, as this means they can tackle books beyond their present expertise. • Support your child to make sensible choices of free reading – a book within their capability and a range of genre.