What skills should we be focusing on? What do the skills look like?

1. Netley Abbey’s Reading Café! Today’s slides will be put on the website shortly. • What skills should we be focusing on? • What do the skills look like? • What books should my child be reading? • Let’s try it! • Adult vs child reading challenge!

2. What skills should we be focusing on? Year 4 are really focusing on vocabulary, inference and explanation.

3. Vocabulary Your children will be exposed to increasingly more challenging texts throughout their education. One of the ways it is made more challenging is through the vocabulary. You may be surprised by the words and phrases your child does/does not know! The less words they know, the less of a story they understand!

4. 98% comprehension Live and work in Tokyo. Tokyo is a big city. More than 13 million people live around you. You are never borgle, but you are always lonely. Every morning, you get up and take the train to work. Every night, you take the train to go home. The train is always crowded. You don’t like your work. Tonight you are returning home. It’s late at night. No one is shnooling. Sometimes you don’t see a shnool all day. Only 1 in 50 words unknown. This is the ideal level of understanding.

5. 95% comprehension In the morning, you start again. You shower, get dressed and walk pocklent. You move slowly, half-awake. Then, suddenly, you stop. Something is different. The streets are fossit. Really fossit. There are no people, no cars. Nothing. “Where is dowargle?” you ask yourself. Suddenly, there is a loud quapen – a police car. Its speeds by and almost hits you. Then, another police car farfoofles. The police officer sees you. “Off the streets!” he shouts. “Why?” you shout back but it’s too late. He is gone.

6. 80% comprehension “Bingle for help!” you shout. “This loopity is dying!” You put your fingers on her neck. Nothing. Her glid is not weafling. You take out your joople and bingle 119, the emergency number in Japan. There’s no answer! Then you muchy that you have a new befournassengle. Its from your gutring Evie. She hunwres at Tokyo university. You play the assengle. “…if you get this…” Evie says. “…I can’t vickran now.. The important passit is…” Suddenly, she looks around, dingle. Now imagine being asked 10 questions about this!

7. Vocabulary • We can’t teach children all the words in the English language overnight! • Reading more challenging books together can help expose them to the language necessary to succeed. • Encourage them to use different skills to work out the meanings. • use root/related words - think about the context - work out the word class

8. Vocabulary When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great grey prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a grey mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades of grass. (Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum) Which word tells you that the weather is hot? What does the word “blade” suggest about the grass? Find the word in the text that is closest in meaning to “interrupted”?

9. Inference • Inference questions require children to use the clues in a text to answer it. They tend to be based on the characters’ emotions, thoughts and motives. • If understanding of a story is poor, it can be down to inference skills. • Is a daily skill – inferring a friend’s mood or the motives of a person with a clipboard in the street. • Lots of inference often required in Disney Pixar films (shorts)

10. Inference “Fine!” he shouted, stamping over to the door. He snatched the dog’s lead and hollered at Rex, his Labrador, to come to him. How is he feeling? How do you know? What is he going to do next? How does he feel about this?

11. Explain Can use APE to answer vocabulary, inference and prediction questions. Prove it – word for word! Use the word “because”

12. Explain The rest of Harry's sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. He looked down and found himself gazing into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling) What do you think is next to Harry? I believe that the thing next to Harry is a cat.

13. Explain The rest of Harry's sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. He looked down and found himself gazing into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling) What do you think is next to Harry? The text includes the words “high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles” and “lamp-like yellow eyes.”

14. Explain The rest of Harry's sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. He looked down and found himself gazing into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling) What do you think is next to Harry? This makes me think that it is a cat because cats make a mewling sound and are small creatures so they would be near his ankles. Also they have bright yellow eyes.

15. Explain The rest of Harry's sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. He looked down and found himself gazing into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling) What do you think is next to Harry? I believe that the thing next to Harry is a cat. The text includes the words “high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles” and “lamp-like yellow eyes.” This makes me think that it is a cat because cats make a mewling sound and are small creatures so they would be near his ankles. Also they have bright yellow eyes.

16. Explain Explaining the effect of a word choice, technique or phrase is another big part of year 4. To help with this, we use the acronym PUFT. What does the word choice make you: -Picture -Understand -Feel -Think about.

17. Explain What does the word choice make you: -Picture -Understand -Feel -Think about. Fuming, Nearly Headless Nick stuffed the letter away. The word “stuffed” makes me understand that he doesn’t care about the letter as he put it away without looking after it.

18. Explain What does the word choice make you: -Picture -Understand -Feel -Think about. In the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone; and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather. (Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum) The simile “as easily as you could carry a feather” makes me picture the house floating up gently, as feathers move gently in the wind.

19. What books should my child be reading? • Year 4 website page gives a suggested list - We have some of these in our library. • Dyslexic friendly books in the back left corner • They should have 2 books • One for pleasure (such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dogman etc.) • One for challenge (1 in 50 words unknown for independent reading, 2-3 in 50 words unknown for joint reading)

20. What now? • Find a book for challenge in the library with your child. • Come back to class and try taking it in turns to ask questions from the sachets. • APE sentence starters in the pack of napkins. • Could complete a Trip Advisor review using APE

21. And finally…. • Take an adult vs child competition pack. • Includes a few, simple reading related tasks to complete that don’t take a long time or necessarily any paper. • Bring back completed by Friday 15th March to be entered into a class prize draw (goodies for adult and child!) • Keep reading at home! Try to read a more challenging text with your child twice a week.