1 of 18

�Session 2 – Supporting all pupils to access the curriculum – developing reading and writing

2 of 18

Session overview

In order to access the curriculum, pupils need to able to read. Every teacher can develop pupils’ literacy skills, including their reading ability.

To support you to do this, in this session you will explore:

How do pupils learn to read?

Word recognition
Language comprehension

Engaging parents and carers
Developing writing

Approximate session length: 45 minutes

3 of 18

How do pupils learn to read?

Reading ability can pose a barrier to many pupils in accessing the curriculum. Therefore, in order to support all pupils to succeed, you should develop their ability to read so they can meaningfully engage with the curriculum.

4 of 18

The Simple View of Reading

5 of 18

How do pupils learn to read?

Of course, reading is much more complex than simply decoding and comprehending; these two elements are made up of multiple strands. Listen to Ruth Everett, an English and Literacy consultant, talk in more detail about the Simple View of Reading and how it can help you develop your pupils’ literacy. When watching the video, consider the following questions and record your responses in your notebook:

Which components enable word recognition?
Which components enable language comprehension?
How can the Simple View of Reading help you to support pupils who are struggling?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWXNGFu_PA&feature=emb_title

6 of 18

Word recognition

Early reading should be taught using systematic phonics. Systematic phonics is part of the National Curriculum as it is underpinned by extensive research that shows it is the most effective way to teach pupils to read words (EEF, 2016).

Systematic phonics should form part of a balanced approach to developing reading during Early Years and in Primary-aged children. If you are in the Secondary setting, you should be aware of how early reading is taught, so that you can support pupils to continue strategies they learnt in the Primary setting where necessary.

Teaching phonics develops pupils’ phonemic awareness (the ability to hear individual speech sounds) and teaches pupils about the relationships between speech sounds and letter combinations. When applying phonics during reading, pupils will break up unfamiliar words into individual sounds (segmenting) and then put those sounds together (blending) to say the word.

This is a very effective way for pupils to decode unfamiliar words. However, not all words are phonetic. That means there are some words which can’t be broken down into individual sounds. Therefore, a part of teaching phonics involves explicitly teaching pupils these ‘tricky’ words, so that pupils recognise them from sight.

Teaching phonics supports pupils with their reading and spelling, as it enables them to sound out a word as they write it.

7 of 18

Word recognition

You can watch Sophie teaching phonics to year 2 pupils to see what it looks like in practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpfviPQBco&feature=emb_title

8 of 18

Language comprehension

A balanced approach comprising of teaching both phonics and comprehension should be taken when teaching pupils to read. For pupils to understand words and sentences that they have decoded, they need to have good comprehension, but how can you support this development as a teacher?

9 of 18

Comprehension strategies

Activating prior knowledge – pupils think about what they already know about a topic, from reading or other experiences, and try to make links. This helps pupils to infer and elaborate, fill in missing or incomplete information, and use existing mental structures to support recall.

If reading Cosmic – a story where a boy finds himself in space – pupils might consider what they already know about space
If reading a text about Henry VIII, pupils might consider what they already know about life in Tudor times

10 of 18

Comprehension strategies

1. Prediction – pupils predict what might happen as a text is read. This causes them to pay close attention to the text, which means they can closely monitor their own comprehension.

If reading Chinye – a fairy-tale – pupils could predict what might happen to the character based on what they already know from the story, as well as what they know from similar stories
If reading about Migration in the UK, pupils might predict the impact of international migration on English seaside towns

11 of 18

Comprehension strategies

2. Inference – pupils infer the meaning of pictures or sentences from their context, and the meaning of words from spelling patterns.

If reading a poem about World War Two, pupils might infer what different similes or metaphors are describing
If reading Tuesday – a picture book – pupils might infer why the frogs are looking up to the sky

12 of 18

Comprehension strategies

3. Questioning – pupils generate their own questions about a text in order to check their comprehension.

If reading Oliver Twist, pupils might generate five key questions they hope to answer in the next chapter
If reading about an artist, pupils might generate five key questions they hope the text will answer

13 of 18

Comprehension strategies

4. Clarifying – pupils identify areas of uncertainty, which may be individual words or phrases, and seek information to clarify meaning.

Pupils might come across words they don’t know the meaning of and seek to find this out
If pupils are reading non-fiction, they might check that they understand any images or graphs that are presented alongside the text

14 of 18

Comprehension strategies

5. Summarising – pupils succinctly describe the meaning of sections of the text. This causes pupils to focus on the key content, which in turn supports comprehension monitoring.

After reading Little Red Riding Hood, pupils might tell their partner the key events that happened. A teacher might scaffold this using picture prompts
After reading a text on photosynthesis, pupils might write a summary of this process

15 of 18

Teaching comprehension strategies

It is important that pupils are explicitly taught these strategies. Detailed explanations and high-quality modelling, such as ‘Think Alouds’, should be used to teach pupils how to apply each strategy when reading. This helps to make the implicit strategies of a good reader explicit to pupils, providing them with techniques they can apply independently.

Before pupils are expected to apply these strategies independently, they must be given multiple opportunities to try out each one during guided practice, with a partner, or in a small group. Their independent use of these strategies should be built up gradually, until they are able to apply multiple strategies at once. The level of independence that pupils are expected to achieve when using these comprehension strategies will depend on the phase you are teaching, as well as any specific barriers to learning for a child.

16 of 18

Engaging parents and carers

Listen to Kelly Challis discuss shared reading. Consider the following questions and make notes in your notebook:

Why is it important for parents to read with their children?
How can you support parents to read with their children?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LCWdxj2e4c&feature=emb_title

17 of 18

Building relationships

Another benefit to engaging parents and carers in their child’s reading development is that it creates an opportunity for you to build effective relationships with them. This can improve a pupil’s motivation, behaviour and academic success.

18 of 18

Developing writing

Listen to Ruth Everett and answer the following questions in your notebook:

Why is writing challenging?
How can you support pupils’ writing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqeeTUMwvMU&feature=emb_title