Support For Reading at Home

Learning to read is a vital life skill that our children need to acquire at a young age. Children progress through different reading stages and all children will progress through these stages at different rates. Sometimes children progress slowly, sometimes fast and sometimes they plateau for a short while they consolidate their learning.  It is often helpful for children to overlearn/repeat their learning to ensure their skills are secure before moving onto next stages.  This helps them to build confidence in their abilities.

Reading is not only about segmenting and blending words to actually say a word aloud.  It is also about really understanding what they have been reading about.  Often, we ask children to repeat reading scheme books so that they can work on their comprehension skills rather than simply reading the words and sentences.  If your child repeats a book, please focus upon their comprehension skills.  Do this by asking questions that look for simple answers within the text and then more complicated answers which ask their opinion about something that happened in the book, the way a character may be feeling or predict what may happen next.  Without these comprehension skills, foundations to their reading ability will be missing and they will find it very difficult to move through later reading development stages inhibiting them from becoming a fluent reader.

We recognise that reading development is a joint effort between the school and parents, and we hope these resources help you to support your child's learning at home. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or need further support.

What does reading do for us?

Children are individuals who progress, develop and grow in a range of ways. As they do, and whether consciously or otherwise, the wide-ranging life skills children gain from books of all types can never be underestimated. While reading independently, sharing a book or listening to someone read to them, children can:

• be transported to other places
• begin to form opinions (and gain an understanding of others’ opinions)
• develop a sense of humour
• become acquainted with people and characters (personified animals who talk and behave
• like humans) and their emotions
• develop empathy
• ‘visit’ parts of the world (and other worlds!) they had no idea existed
• develop their imagination
• learn facts
• make links between their own and others’ lives
• become discerning readers, make informed choices.

and so on…

How do children become better readers?

Reading to children

Once children begin to master the many skills of reading, gaining fluency and independence, the ability to understand and take meaning from texts broadens. In other words, they progress from learning how to read to reading for learning (sometimes described as becoming an ‘effective’ reader). It is still, nevertheless, very important to continue reading to children as it enables them to access and experience texts that they may not necessarily choose themselves, for example, longer books that require high levels of concentration and stamina, those with complex sentences and a wider range of vocabulary etc. And, of course, reading to children can be a very pleasurable shared activity, whether it’s with brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents…

If your family can read in a language other than English, it’s just as good to read to your child in that language. Experience in listening to stories and rhymes is great in any language and children cope very well with two (or more) languages.

Talking about reading

Independent readers will continue to require support while their comprehension and understanding of texts develops. This can be achieved through: talking about texts and asking questions; encouraging children to make connections between the text and their own experiences; see resources below for ideas on questions and discussion points.  All of these help children to become effective readers.

Supporting your child’s reading

As well as being an enjoyable shared activity, reading to children and listening to them read, can provide the motivation to further their own reading whilst also exposing them to a wide variety of genres and texts they may not necessarily choose on their own.

Being a role model

Whether a parent, carer, sibling or well-known personality, role models have the power to inspire children to read. If your child sees you (or other people they admire) enjoying a book, online text, magazine or comic, laughing at the characters, hearing you enthuse about the story and valuing books, they will be inspired and more inclined to do the same themselves.

What to read?

With such a rich and varied choice of children’s literature available (and in a variety of formats) knowing which texts to choose might seem a daunting task.

Choice of reading material is, of course, a personal matter. Many adults like to read something light and undemanding: entertaining as opposed to a heavy novel or ‘classic’ that requires concentration. Children deserve to be offered the same opportunities for choice when deciding what to read so, when selecting books, let your child choose as well. Studies have shown that children develop greater motivation to read when they can choose their own reading matter. Whether from the school collection, your local library, a book shop, or a charity shop, take time together to look through, consider and choose books, or other materials, that they find inviting; and, most of all, interesting!

The National Curriculum states that children should read a range of texts across their primary, including; stories, poetry, myths, legends, plays, non-fiction and text books/reference books.

If you're wondering what to read at home with your children, check out these book lists:

Love Reading Reception.pdf

Reception.pdf

Love Reading Year 1.pdf

Year 1.pdf

Love Reading Year 2.pdf

Year 2.pdf

Love Reading Year 3.pdf

Year 3.pdf

Love Reading Year 4.pdf

Year 4.pdf

Love Reading Year 5.pdf

Year 5.pdf

Love Reading Year 6.pdf

Year 6.pdf

Choosing books to share/read with/to children

Consider:

• The theme and the content of the book: does it look interesting/fun?
• The length of the book: is it compatible with your child’s concentration span? Will you/they be able to read the whole story?
• The illustrations: are the illustrations exciting and attractive? How do they complement or add to the text?
• Has the book the potential to be read over and over again (the sign of a good choice)?
• Have you read other books by the same author? Have your friends told you about a particular book they have enjoyed? Ask your teacher/librarian which books they would recommend.

Choosing texts for children to read independently

• Have a look at the text; is it challenging/too easy/hard for your child? If your child is having to work hard at many of the words, there is a danger they will become disengaged from the text as well as lose the overall meaning…and consequently the enjoyment.
• Likewise if a book is too easy to read they may become bored quickly, although it is important to remember that children benefit from the sense of achievement and satisfaction when re-reading a familiar text.
• Variety is the spice of life! At Abbeymead your child will bring home a reading scheme and reading for pleasure book. Scheme books are excellent for developing reading skills (with high frequency words and phonetically decodable language that is often repetitive) but there is an abundance of wonderful, high quality texts that will help develop your child’s enjoyment of reading (‘reading for pleasure books’!)

Asking your child questions whilst reading together will help them to gain a better understanding of the text, develop a broader range of vocabulary and enhance their creativity. 

Guide to Reading at home

Parent Reading Guide - Year 1

Parent Reading Guide - Year 2

Parent Reading Guide - Year 3

Parent Reading Guide - Year 4

Parent Reading Guide - Year 5

Parent Reading Guide - Year 6

Parent Reading presentation KS1

Parent Reading presentation KS2

Talking and questioning

Talking and asking questions during and after reading is immensely valuable. Not only does discussion reveal a child’s understanding and interpretation of the text but it gives an opportunity to explain reasons and form opinions.

Whilst reading and sharing books, asking open questions such as ‘does that make you think of anything/anyone else?’ or ‘why do you think that character did/said that?’ allows a child to share their thoughts and develop a deeper understanding of the text.

Children always like to share their ‘favourite’: a picture, character, even a favourite page, particularly in information books. Encouraging them to expand on their choices develops their vocabulary and offers opportunities to make links to real-life experiences. Ask them why they like – or dislike – a particular character, section or page.

Try including discussion and questions about the author (and illustrator); ask your child if they would have used a different word at certain points of the text, or what they think the author meant by creating certain characters. When appropriate, try to link your topic of discussion with your child’s own life and experiences.

Asking a reader to predict what will happen later in the story opens up further opportunities for talk as well as giving valuable insights into the reasons behind their expectations.

Talking also facilitates an interest in words; collect new, tricky and interesting words in a notebook or use fridge magnets; challenge each other to use one of your newly-discovered words during the day.

Asking questions can reveal not only what children understand but what they have inferred from a text, for example how they have interpreted what the author has said. Recognising simple inferences can give an indication that a child is not only an effective reader but an efficient one too;

You may like to use a selection of the questions below when reading with your child:

Fiction

• Look at the front cover. What could this story be about?
• Who is the author/illustrator? What do they do?
• Where does the story take place? (setting)
• Who are the main characters in the story?
• Can you retell the story using your own words?
• Tell me what this character was like?
• Tell me the most interesting/exciting/funniest/your favourite part of the story? Why?
• What do you think the character feels about...? How can you tell?
• What do you think would have happened if…?
• What do you think is going to happen next? Can you guess the ending?
• Which part of this book did you like best/least? Why?
• How has the author used words/phrases to make this character funny/sad/clever/frightening/excited etc.?
• Do you like the way the story ended? Can you think of a different ending?
• Do you know any more stories like this? Tell me how they are alike.
• Do you know another story with similar characters in? Tell me how they are similar.
• Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Non Fiction

• Tell me two things you found out that you didn’t know before.
• What does this part of the text tell us about ….?
• Which part of the text tells us about …? 
• Why are some words in bold?
• How does this text/layout help the reader?
• How does a diagram/picture/caption help you to understand the information on this page?
• What can you use to help you find the information you need quickly?
• How does a glossary help us?

 Online Texts

Although you can't beat the feel of a good book there are now a huge wealth of online reading resources that your child may wish to access/ find engaging as an alternative.

Help your child’s reading by visiting Oxford Owl which has 250 e-books for you to share with your child: http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading-owl/reading

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Education jargon buster

For phrases you might hear your child's teacher mention.

Alphabetic code
The code shows us the relationship between the sounds of our speech and the written letter(s) of the alphabet and how these are used to match those sounds.

Baseline Test
Many school already carry out a short test on entry to Reception, but it is compulsory from September 2016. Children are tested in the core areas of literacy and numeracy so that they can be supported to reach their goals by the end of the year. The test information will be used alongside a wide range of other activities such as home visits, observations of children and reports to create a helpful and accurate picture of your child’s potential and progress in terms of ‘expected’, ‘emerging’ or ‘exceeding’.

'Buddy' reading
Children read in pairs. The buddy is often an older child.

Blending
To say the individual sounds that make up a word and blend them together to hear the whole word for reading e.g. s-a-t becomes sat. We say you blend to read and segment (see below) to spell.

Book Bands
A system of grouping books in bands of colour to represent different levels of reading difficulty.

Catch Up
It is often used as a term for an intervention programme but it is also a not-for-profit organisation that provides training techniques to support teachers to help children identified as underachieving. 

Comprehension
The understanding of a text; at its simplest this may be an understanding of what the text makes explicit (e.g. the story is about a pumpkin) and at its most sophisticated, it is an understanding of what lies beneath a text (e.g. the authors' experience, historical context, themes and so on) which is often referred to as the deeper levels of meaning, inferential comprehension or higher order reading skills.

Decodable (books)
Books which have been specifically written, using a cumulative structured introduction of phonics, so that children can practise their developing reading skills.

Decoding
To read a word by saying the sounds then joining, or blending, those sounds together to form the word.

Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills. For further information visit www.bdadyslexia.org.uk

EYFS
The Early Years Foundation Stage sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old.

Flashcards
Cards to use in games to help children practise recognizing, at speed, a letter, group of letters, words and/or pictures.

Group reading
Similar to guided reading, but children take it in turns to read aloud from the same book whilst the teacher listens and supports.

GPS
An abbreviation often used in schools for grammar, punctuation and spelling. Also sometimes referred to as SPAG.

Guided reading
About 6 children, grouped by reading ability, read aloud from the same book at the same time whilst the teacher listens in and draws out teaching points. At junior levels children may read a book, or part of it, away from the session and then focus on particular aspects of understanding.

High frequency words
These are the words that occur most commonly in the English language. Some are 'decodable' like much (see above) whilst others are 'tricky' like the (see below).

Home books
Reading books sent home from school for your child to read. These may be from a reading series so your child can practise early reading skills or from the library so you can share and discuss.

Individual reading
Reading 1:1 or alone as it suggests.

Information books
Books that contain facts or information including reference books such as dictionaries, atlases and encyclopaedias.

Levelled books
Books from a reading series that have been written in levels of difficulty to enable a child to take small but steady steps to reading success. As children's skills increase so children read more and the need for such control lessens.

Mnemonics
Memory joggers such as a rhyme, a phrase or a shape. For example, seeing a dinosaur in the shape of a letter d to help your child to associate the dinosaur with the letter and sound d.

Non-fiction
A broad category of texts that includes anything that isn't story (information books, reference materials, newspapers, biography, Wikipedia etc.).

OFSTED
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills and is the organisation appointed by the government to inspect schools in England.

Phonic book(s)
see decodable books.

Phonics
A method of teaching children to read and write the English Language. It teaches children that the sounds of English are represented by letters or groups of letters (see also synthetic phonics).

Phonemes
The smallest unit of sounds in a word represented by letters or groups of letters.

Picture book(s)
Books in which the pictures play a major part in the story and the text is not levelled by difficulty e.g. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. Picture books are not necessarily just for the very young and they can support the understanding of quite complex ideas e.g. Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing.

Quiet reading
Children read by themselves for a short time.

Reading age
This is an average reading level we would usually 'expect' for a child of any specified age. It is only a guide.

Read at Home/Take Home
The books that the children bring home to practise reading with you.

Reading fluency
When children are reading easily with confidence and intonation and at pace.

Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is a short-term teaching programme of one-to-one tutoring for children identified as underachieving at 7 years of age.

Reading stamina
A child's ability to read substantial and often more challenging books for a longer period of time or in one sitting.

Segmenting
To write or spell a word by listening for the sounds in the word and deciding which letters represent those sounds. We say you blend to read and segment to spell.

Shared reading
A teacher reads and discusses a text with the whole class, demonstrating how to be a good reader.

Sight words
Words you need to learn by sight because they cannot be easily sounded out. (see also Tricky words).

Sounding out
To say the individual sounds that make up a word (sometimes also called Fred Talk or Robot Talk).

Special Needs
A term used to cover a wide range of needs that may need additional support whether a child is falling behind or far exceeding normal expectations. Also sometimes referred to as SEN (special educational needs).

Story time
The teacher reads a story aloud to the whole class.

Synthesising sounds
Blending or merging the sounds in a word together in speech so you can read the word.

Synthetic phonics
Synthetic Phonics is a way of teaching reading. Children are taught to read letters or groups of letters by saying the sound(s) they represent – so, they are taught that the letter m sounds like mmmm ... when we say it. Children can then start to read words by blending (synthesising) the sounds together to make a word.

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