Reading

At Parkfield, we love to read!

Reading will always be a high priority for our children, families and school community. Reading is taught to every child, every day, in every lesson. It is both a subject in its own right and underpins the teaching of the whole curriculum.

We prioritise developing a love of reading in every child to encourage them to be lifelong learners. There is an engaging library area in each classroom with a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Each class has high quality, engaging books to choose from. Parkfielders in Years 1-6 visit Middleton Library once every term and have the opportunity to borrow a book. We encourage all children to become members of the library and support families to engage with library activities.

Children who are gifted readers are encouraged to choose texts that will stretch and challenge them. Children who may find reading a little more challenging are supported to develop their fluency to allow them to progress.

From Reception to Year 6, each class has a whole class novel that is read at the end of every day by the class teacher. These carefully chosen novels can sometimes link to the current topic and often voted for by the children.

The children in all year groups have access to a friendly and inviting class library where books are well organised and accessible. Every child has a ‘Love to Read’ book which is for them to take home and read or share with an adult. Children will read once a week, if not more, with an adult in school.

Each time a book is completed, the children receive a ‘stamp’ on their bookmark which has three sections and is located in their reading record. When each section is complete, children are presented with a certificate in class. When the full bookmark is completed, a reading wristband is presented by Mr Kemp in a whole school assembly.

Each class has a Reading Tree on display in the reading area and each time children complete sections of their bookmark, they will move up the reading tree.

Reading is taught in Reception, Year 1 and the beginning of Year 2 using Read Write Inc phonics program. Some children will continue to access the RWI program beyond Year 2, until they become fluent readers. Early on in Reception, the children will be learning to recognise and blend sounds for reading and the teacher will send home information about how to help your child with this, in order for them to progress on to decodable reading books.

The children are assessed regularly and placed into groups where their learning needs can be met. Children learn to read a range of sounds speedily and this skill is then applied when reading words and sentences in books. Children will read a book together as a group and then take this book home to read to an adult. They will also take a 'book bag book' home to read which is unseen by the child, but has decodable words that they are able to read. Furthermore, they will take home a 'love to read' library book home to share and enjoy with an adult. Most books are changed weekly.

When the children have finished the phonics programme in Year 2, they will then use the Accelerated Reader programme for their individual reading at Parkfield which is explained in further detail below. Children will also access Read Write Inc guided comprehension sessions.

When the children finish their phonics program, they will move on to be taught in whole class reading sessions following the Parkfield Guided Reading Cycle.

From Year 2 to Year 6 the children will follow the Whole Class Parkfield Guided Reading cycle, which uses the foundations of John Murray’s Guided Reading approach with adaptations bespoke to Parkfield. Within the five day cycle, the children explore a carefully chosen, vocabulary-rich text extract from Monday – Thursday. On Friday, the children answer questions based on an unseen text, which is linked to the text used from Monday – Thursday by genre, style or theme.

The five day cycle comprises of:

Layer 1 (Monday) – an orientation and retrieval session

Layer 2 (Tuesday) – a vocabulary session

Layer 3 (Wednesday) – an inference session

Layer 4 The Warm Application (Thursday) – a guided comprehension task using the skills of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, prediction, summary and comparison.

Layer 5 The Cold Application (Friday) – an independent comprehension task using the skills of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, prediction, summary and comparison. An opportunity for the children to apply the skills built up over the week.

Throughout the week, the question types and skills used are interwoven and despite there being a specific focus skill each day, children will retrieve, predict, summarise, compare and infer in every session.

Each class will be taught by their teacher and the teaching assistant will support in class or take small groups.

Children will also have individual reading books that are appropriate for their level labelled with a 'ZPD' number which they are encouraged to take home and read each day. When your child has read, the parent or the child can record this in their home/school reading record. The children will also be listened to individually at leat once per week by an adult in school. These books are part of our Accelerated Reader programme which also has a wealth of texts online.

After children finish learning phonics they will then use the Accelerated Reader programme for their individual reading at Parkfield. This will be after Christmas in Year 2 all the way until they leave in Year 6.

Through Accelerated Reader, pupil’s will be able to demonstrate a deep understanding of what they have read and become used to answering questions based on what they have been reading. Pupils will have a wider choice of books to choose from and not only will the word difficulty of books be matched to their ability, but the content will be also be relevant to their age group.

Here is a brief overview:

The Reading test:

Children will take the reading test termly in school. It is an online test and adjusts to each individual child to see what their strengths and areas for development are. It then gives us useful information such as their ‘reading age’ compared to their chronological age, which will be shared with parents in their reports. The test also gives a ZPD number which informs the children which books match their reading ability.

The ZPD number:

The ZPD number is a range of numbers for your child. For example 2.8-3.4. This means they can choose books that are labelled 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 or 3.4. Your child should be choosing books within their range.

The lower numbers are books that are achievable, accessible and build confidence.

The higher numbers are more challenging for them. This is something to build up to and aim for over time.

The reading books:

Your child’s reading book will have a label to tell you its ZPD number. We are no longer using colour bookbands when we use Accelerated Reader. The children may choose a book that has previously been used for bookbands or they may choose a book that is a library style free reading book. Either way, it doesn’t matter, as long as the ZPD number matches their ZPD range.

The quizzes:

When your child has finished their reading book they can go to parkfieldprimary.com and press the ‘Accelerated Reader’ button and search for their book to take the quiz. They will log in using the same password as Showbie.

Reading with your child, no matter what age, is an important part of developing good reading skills and a lifelong love of reading.

Accelerated Reader is aimed to help children become better readers and encourages children to read more and rewards them for their effort and achievement. When children read books at their appropriate level they experience success and grow in confidence and reading stamina. Children can choose their own books to read. This makes reading a much more enjoyable experience as they can choose books that are interesting to them.