Reading at school
Teaching children to read is a fundamental part of their primary education. All schools dedicate time every day for teaching reading and helping children to learn and develop their reading skills.
Reading is a complex process and there has been debate for many years about the best way to help children learn the skills they need. The information here is general and schools may approach the teaching in different ways. You will be able to find out more from your child's teacher.
Beginning to read
- Phonics: Children need to learn how to hear sounds in words and understand that words are made up of phonemes. In their first year in school, children will do lots of activities to help them to identify phonemes and will learn that the letters of the alphabet are used to represent phonemes in words. They can then use this knowledge to read and spell words. Examples of vowel phonemes are: OW - ow/ou (as in howl, or house); and AW - aw/au/augh/al ( as in yawn, August, caught or chalk).
- Shared reading: Teachers use 'big books' for shared reading so that the children can follow the text as the teacher demonstrates how to read. The teacher shows them how to tackle unfamiliar words. They learn how to apply their phonic knowledge by sounding out words and how to recognise the words that are used most frequently. They will talk about what the sentence means and look for other clues in the pictures.
- Independent and guided reading: Teachers carefully choose books for children to read by themselves, ensuring that individuals will be able to use and develop their skills. Schools sort the books into different reading levels so that children can make small steps forward and tackle more challenging texts when they are ready. Teachers work with groups of children who are at the same reading level to provide the instruction and support that they need to read a book independently. This is called guided reading.
Growing in confidence
- Phonics and spelling: Once children have learnt about phonics, they can use this knowledge to tackle words more confidently. They continue to learn about the spelling system and to apply this to their reading and writing.
- Reading a range of material: Teachers continue to share texts with the class to help children understand how different types of stories, poems and information texts work. They learn about the range of reading skills that are needed, such as scanning an index or finding information on a chart or table.
- Responding to the text: Reading is all about making meaning and children learn how to reflect on what they read. Teachers use questions and discussion and activities to help children to understand what they have read. For instance, children might take on the parts of different story characters in a role-play to help them to think about their actions and motives.
Reading fluently
- Developing reading comprehension: As children become confident and fluent readers, their comprehension of what they are reading develops further. Children continue to learn how to check that they have understood the literal meaning of the text and also learn how to read ‘between the lines’. Children have the chance to discuss their responses to the text and answer written questions.
- Developing research skills: Teachers continue to demonstrate the application of different reading skills as they read a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. Children are taught how to identify key points, make notes and present the information in a different form. These research skills are used for work across the curriculum.