The Reading Initiative

1. The Reading Initiative Argyll and Bute Council Community Services: Education December 2010

2. Definition of Literacy (CfE) ‘The set of skills which allows an individual to engage fully in society and in learning, through the difference forms of language, and the range of texts, which society values and finds useful.’ Curriculum for Excellence 2009

3. Assessment

4. Underlying Capacities • Knowledge about books • The ability to recognise the constituent parts of words • Knowledge of letters and sounds

5. Responsibilities for All • Making sure that the teaching methods used are informed by the best available research on effective teaching of reading • Being certain that each child’s progress is closely monitored to ensure that teaching approaches and the curriculum are planned to meet the child’s identified needs

6. Identification • Importance of robust assessment of the individual child • Building on available assessment information • Specifically considering literacy • Linked to planning, intervention and review

7. Reading Initiative Aims • To ensure that a greater number of pupils, particularly those with potential for underachievement, have opportunities to develop their phonological skills to a satisfactory level • Raise attainment in reading in all schools • Better equip educators with the skills to support pupils’ development of skills for reading

8. Early Literacy 0 - 3 • Parents, community services early years and family support workers • Encouraging parents to read with their child, sing songs and learn nursery rhymes • Promote the play@home programme • Promote Bookstart Rhymetime • Provide support for groups making provision for very young children around literacy development

9. Phonological Skills • Research shows that the vast majority of learners struggling with reading and writing have weaknesses in their phonological skills • That is, they are less efficient and fluent in their use of sound letter-correspondences than their peers, possibly due to • Developmental factors • A mismatch between learning opportunities and learner needs • External circumstances

10. Baseline Assessment • Section 1: Concepts of print • Task 1 – knowledge of books, words and letters • Section 2: Phonological awareness • Task 1 – nursery rhymes • Task 2 – initial letter sounds • Task 3 – rhyme detection • Task 4 – rhyme production Preschool or early P1P1 summer term P2 summer term

11. Baseline Assessment • Section 3: Early reading skills • Task 1 – lower case letter sounds • Task 2 – the alphabet • Task 3 – letter names • Task 4 – non-word reading assessment • Task 5 – word reading skills P1 summer term P2 summer term

12. Baseline Assessment • Suffolk Reading Test at P4 • PM Benchmarking at upper primary to provide information for transition to the secondary stage

13. Support Strategies • Staff in preschool units and schools should provide support for children not making satisfactory progress in literacy, through • Involvement of parents in the pupil’s learning • Differentiation of the curriculum • Tasks and activities appropriate to the needs of the learner

14. Role of the Literacy Teacher • Support schools to identify themes from the baseline assessment to enhance the development of literacy at the preschool and early primary stages • Provide advice and guidance on effective approaches to literacy in the early years • Support the process of identification of children with additional support needs in literacy • Help to plan and monitor appropriate programmes for identified individual children

15. Reporting to the Authority • The reading initiative will be monitored over a four year period to provide a clear picture of the success in ensuring that every child is given the best possible chance to learn to read.