Reading
The ambition for English at Woodchurch Road Academy is a commitment to fostering a love for reading and writing in all our pupils. Our vision is to create a learning environment where children not only achieve academic excellence in literacy but also develop a lifelong passion for reading. We aim to inspire every child to become an enthusiastic and skilled reader, prepared for future success and empowered to engage with the world around them. We are dedicated to Encouraging children to read for pleasure, cultivating a love for reading both inside and outside the classroom through organising trips to the library to expand students’ access to a wide range of literature. Through expeditionary learning we aim to create excitement around story time in class, making it a highlight of each day, where pupils look forward to exploring new stories. We ensure that our reading materials reflect a rich diversity of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, allowing every child to see themselves and others in the books they read.
Phonics
We follow the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme (RWI) in Reception to Year 2, which includes teaching synthetic phonics, sight vocabulary, decoding and encoding words.
Using the RWI phonics program we teach children to:
read easily, fluently and with good understanding
develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
In practice, children learn the 44 common sounds in the English language and are taught how to blend these sounds to decode (read) words. We start by teaching children to read and blend the first thirty Set 1 sounds. Once they have conquered this skill, they start reading stories and texts that have words made up of the sounds they know. This means that they can embed and apply their phonic knowledge and start to build their reading fluency. Once secure, children learn Set 2 and Set 3 sounds and then read texts with increasingly more complex sounds and graphemes. Throughout this process there is a focus on comprehension, reading with expression and reading for enjoyment.
Children are taught in groups which reflect their phonic knowledge and reading fluency. We regularly assess children so that they are taught in a RWI group which matches their phonic knowledge. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ability to read ‘tricky words’; so they experience early reading success and gain confidence that they are readers.
Children in Key Stage 2 who do not have secure phonics knowledge use RWI 'Fresh Start' to support their learning.
Read Write Inc Phonics: an overview by Ruth Miskin
Shared Reading
Shared reading is a teaching tool that allows reading to be taught on a whole class basis. We use the Steps to Read scheme which uses high quality texts that are pitched to a higher level than the children could access independently to push their learning forward. This scheme is carefully sequenced, coherent and progressive. Language rich texts allow children to build up a wider vocabulary and understanding of how texts are organised. All elements of comprehension are taught sequentially across each academic year and there is a clear focus on the skills and strategies needed to be a proficient and confident reader. The texts used in the first half of each term link directly to each year group’s overarching theme to enhance cross curricular knowledge and subject specific vocabulary. Engaging texts help to promote a love of learning and include poetry, non-fiction and fiction.
4 Stages to each lesson
Each lesson has 4 parts and is taught the same way consistently throughout the school.
Reading Plus
From year 3, we use an online reading program called Reading Plus (research-based silent reading intervention that helps students gain proficiency by improving comprehension, reading rate, and vocabulary) which helps develop and improve three particular skills in reading.
Reading Plus is a program for children that teaches them to be stronger readers. It does this by developing silent reading fluency (reading speed), then introducing more complex stories (for comprehension), and advanced vocabulary (for knowledge). Children have access to 800+ high quality online texts that are constantly updated and adapted to meet every child’s needs, regardless of what level they are reading at. Teachers can monitor exactly what and how children are reading, meaning they can offer the right kind of support when needed.
Children choose a text (typically 6-7 minutes in length) from a level appropriate to their reading ability. Once they finish the story they answer 10 questions to test if they understood what they have just read. Teachers can see reports detailing children's progress. Worksheets are available for extra support with specific reading skills. Reading Plus is not meant to replace reading books, and Reading Plus is not just an eLibrary - the program is designed to teach your child to become a more efficient reader which will add to their enjoyment of reading independently - developing a lifelong love for reading.