Supporting Reading Comprehension Purpose of this meeting To share with you different ways in which we help children to develop their comprehension skills at school. General advice that is relevant from YR – Y6 which can be applied with all children regardless of their reading ability. We will focus on ‘reciprocal reading’ which is taught throughout the school and supports children with a range of important comprehension skills. For specific advice relating to your child’s individual learning needs, please see your child’s class teacher.

How To Support Your Children To Be Better Readers Reading with your child is vital. Masses of research shows that it's the single most important thing you can do to help your child's education. Reading supports children with all subjects, not just English, it supports vocabulary, understanding, sentence construction, builds empathy, supports research skills and many more life skills. It's best to read little and often, so try to put aside some time for it every day. Think of ways to make reading fun - you want your child to learn how pleasurable books can be. If you're both enjoying talking about the content of a particular page, linger over it for as long as you like. Reading doesn’t just have to be books, children may enjoy the variety of reading other things such as comics, fact cards relating to a particular interest, leaflets such as rules for a game, recipes, instruction manuals for toys, magazines etc.

How To Support Your Children To Be Better Readers Being able to decode and read new and unfamiliar words is an important skill when learning to read. Reading is made up of decoding as well as comprehension. Children can sometimes read a text confidently but then show a lack of understanding when questioned about what they have read. When it comes to assessing children’s reading ability, comprehension is vital.

How Is Comprehension Taught In School? Whole class guided reading. Small group guided reading. Class discussion in English lessons. Independent or guided comprehension activities. Whole class high quality reading sessions.

What Is Reciprocal Reading? Reciprocal reading enables children to work in small groups and become the expert in a particular skill. Teachers first introduce the skills, then help children learn to guide their own group discussions using a set of four core strategies. Reciprocal reading helps to develop pupils’ reading skills, promote deeper thinking and develop listening and talking skills. When using reciprocal reading roles, pupils are focusing on key information in the text and examining the text more carefully. It is also fun!!

What Is Reciprocal Reading? Reciprocal reading uses four core reading strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarising. These are key skills in developing comprehension and enable children to deepen their understanding of a text through discussion.

Reciprocal Reading Roles The Predictor The Predictor asks all the readers to make predictions about the text. What do you think will happen? What will happen next? What will this character do now? The predictor uses information from what they already know or have experienced to predict what will be in the text. The Clarifier The clarifier helps the group to identify confusing or unknown words, sentences and ideas. They help the group to understand the text. The Questioner The questioner asks questions about the text. The Summariser The summariser helps the group to identify the most important ideas in the text and what the text is mainly about.

Reciprocal Reading Roles Other additional roles are… Feelings Finder: The feelings finder finds word or parts of the story which show or describe feelings or emotions. Word Finder: The word finder picks out new or interesting words used by the author and can give their definition. Link Maker: The link maker links between this story and other stories or real life events.

Embedding The Roles And Terminology We use actions and props to embed the roles and terminology and make reciprocal reading more fun. Each class has a small display to refer to when teaching to remind children of the different skills/ roles.

Year 5 & 6: Reading VIPERS Children are taught to answer questions relating to each of the skills. They are also taught to identify which skill is being tested when answering test-style questions.

3 Types Of Questioning We encourage the children to vary the types of questions they ask to make sure they show a good understanding on a number of levels. Looking questions Thinking questions Clue questions

Levels Of Questioning To Develop Dialogue 1. Looking questions What colour is the sky? Addressing literal comprehension – not retrieval. It might involve inferring about words or sentences. Likely to be linked to character/ setting. 2. Clue questions Do you think it is going to rain? Seeking evidence from within the text. Text-based inferences and connections. It involves seeking causal links within the text. 3. Thinking questions Would it be good if it rained? Application of background knowledge, experiences and making links to other texts. Their knowledge and experience needs to be related back to the text.

Modelling Reading Skills When Reading With Children ‘Think Alouds’ : Modelling thought processes involved in reading e.g. modelling the thought process involved when making inferences.