1. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
HGIOS 4
Where does it link to How Good is Our School?
2.2 – Curriculum
2.3 – Learning, teaching and assessment
2.4 – Personalised support
The notes section in each presentation is primarily for the facilitator, indicating additional requirements or information.
Reading Between the Lines – Promoting thinking in reading
The objective of this PPT is to explore the research and views around developing thinking skills in reading comprehension, and to generate professional dialogue and action relating to this with a view to improving experiences for the young people in school.
This PPT will address the following Quality Indicators from HGIOS 4:
QI: 2.2 – Curriculum – Themes:
Rationale and design
Development of the curriculum
Skills for learning, life and work
QI: 2.3 – Learning, teaching and assessment – Themes:
Learning and engagement
Quality of teaching
Planning, tracking and monitoring
QI: 2.4 – Personalised support – Themes:
Universal support
Removal of potential barriers to learning

2. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Agenda
Activity 1 – Introduction / Starter Activity (5 mins)
Activity 2 – How’s it going / feedback (10-20 mins)
Activity 3 – New Learning (25-40 mins)
Activity 4 – Personal Action Planning (10 mins)
Activity 5 – Summary of Learning (5 mins)
This agenda is fixed and is the same for every presentation in the toolkit.

3. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 1: Voice on the table
In a maximum of 30 seconds: What do you think the image below is a magnified view of?
To start the session choose an activity which is non-judgemental and everyone can contribute.
“Think of something that happened in a lesson that made you smile. You have 30 seconds per participant to tell the group what it is. No participant can ‘pass”
The role of participants when it is not their turn is active listening
You may use a stopwatch
Choose respondents to share their thoughts -everyone must be involved in this activity
Max 5 Minutes for this activity

4. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 1: Voice on the table
When concentrating on the finer details, were you able to see the bigger picture?
Facilitator to reveal the image.
Max 5 Minutes for this activity [continued from previous slide]

5. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 1: Reading is thinking
This video attempts to summarise what is happening inside your head when you are reading.
Reading is Thinking
Questioning is fundamental to the reading process. As well as asking questions, what other strategies are we developing when we are attempting to comprehend a text?
The following video is from Youtube and can be accessed on:
The video attempts to summarise what is happening inside your head when you are reading.
The statement and question ‘Questioning is fundamental to the reading process. As well as asking questions, what other strategies are we developing when we are attempting to comprehend a text?’ can then be posed by the facilitator, and discussed as a group.
The facilitator may need to prompt participants; suggestions may include:
Making connections
Visualising
Predicting what is going to happen next
Summarising the main points
Decoding unfamiliar vocabulary etc.
5 minutes

6. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 2: How’s it going?
Reflecting on the ‘Super Six’ comprehension strategies, discussed in Teaching Comprehension Strategies: New South Wales, what opportunities are you providing in your current reading programme to support:
Making connections
Prediction
Questioning
Monitoring
Summarising
Visualising
Where do you feel you are with this?
What evidence do you have?
The facilitator should have one copy per person of the Comprehension Skills (Super Six) audit which can be accessed on:
Staff in pairs should be given the time to read each of the comprehension strategies, and work individually or with a partner to complete the audit [only the first two columns] before sharing their responses to the activity.
The original strategies are available here:
If this is the first time you meet, the purpose of this activity is for
staff to share experiences in relation to the issue.
If staff have met before and completed Personal Action Plans –
this should be referred to now.
15 minutes

7. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 3: New Learning
It is important that all learners are given appropriate opportunities to develop their thinking skills. These skills can be developed across a range of contexts including through more practical or applied learning opportunities:
Remembering  
Understanding  
Applying  
Analysing  
Evaluating  
Creating
CfE: Building the Curriculum 4
Facilitator to share this quote from Building the Curriculum 4.
Using the previous sheet, participants should suggest where each of these thinking skills link to the Super 6. Providing post-it notes at this time would be useful. Staff should use these to write the names of the Thinking Skills above. Staff will need duplicates. The facilitator should print out a copy of the definitions for each pair/ group [accessed here: Participants can then cut these up, laying them out as six headings. Starting with one of the headings, the should place the relevant Thinking Skills under the Super Six i.e. Which of the Thinking Skills would you develop whilst working on each of the Super 6?
The purpose of this exercise is to allow participants to see the links between the Higher Order Thinking Skills and the Reading Comprehension Skills.
An example may be shared:
When I am predicting what is going to happen next, I have to understand the text, evaluating previous events, and apply my understanding through creating a possible future scenario.
10 minutes

8. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 3: New Learning
Using the Education Scotland – Literacy and English benchmarks for reading, highlight:
a) Where comprehension skills feature in these benchmarks?
b) Where thinking skills feature in these these benchmarks?
Where are the links between developing thinking and comprehension skills in these benchmarks?
In pairs/ as a group, using the Education Scotland – Literacy and English benchmarks: Reading [ highlight:
a) Where comprehension skills [including the ‘Super Six’] feature in these benchmarks?
b) Where thinking skills [including skills highlighted in BTC4] feature in these benchmakrs?
In pairs/ as a group, discuss:
Where are the links between developing thinking and comprehension skills in these benchmarks?
Facilitator to collect responses from each pair/group.
10 – 15 minutes

9. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 3: New Learning
Referring back to the Comprehension Strategies, and with your knowledge of Thinking Skills and the Literacy and English Reading progression, complete the last column:
What could be your next steps?
Facilitator to refer participants back to the Comprehension Strategies audit, and outline task:
Referring back to the Comprehension Strategies, with your knowledge of Thinking Skills and the Literacy and English Reading progression, complete the last column:
What could be your next steps?
Participants to work with partner/ in groups. Facilitator to collect responses. The facilitator may find it appropriate to provide the participants with some of the Teaching Ideas within the ‘Teaching Comprehension Strategies’ booklet; pgs 8 – 10.
At this point, you may also feel it appropriate to direct practitioners to the Bloom’s Taxonomy Question Fans available on:
10 – 15 minutes

10. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 4: Personal Action Planning
Over the coming weeks, look for opportunities to prioritise a Thinking Approach when developing reading comprehension.
Choose one or two elements that you are going to explore and evaluate.
Bring back your findings to the next session
Using the Personal Action plan sheet each teacher chooses one or two elements s/he is going to explore and use during the next month. This may involve doing more of some things and less of others and teachers may need pushing on this.
Activity 4: Personal Action Planning
Have copies of My Personal Action Plan ready to distribute
Pair-share: two minutes sharing your
plan with your partner then swap.
Randomly choose two or three
teachers to share with the group
what their partner is planning
5 – 10 minutes

11. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
Activity 5: Summary of Learning
Write your name on the card or post-it and one new thing you learned about promoting thinking in reading.
Leave your card or post-it on your way out.
EXIT CARDS
Distribute exit cards( pieces of card or post its) and ask each member to write their name on the card and one thing that they learned in the workshop on the card.
Collect in the exit cards.
Read through the cards so that you can feedback to the group at the start of the next workshop.

12. Reading Between the Lines
Promoting thinking in reading . . .
Literacy
Toolkit
FOLLOW UP LINKS:
Education Scotland Reading Strategies
Teaching Comprehension Strategies
Comprehension Handbook
Education Scotland – Literacy Benchmarks
CfE - Developing Skills
Bloom's Question Fans
FOLLOW UP LINKS
The facilitator should refer participants to the follow up links which can be accessed independently for further information.