A form tutor programme across KS3
Across Key Stage 3, we are aiming for all students to have benefitted from reading 9-12 stories through a form tutor-led ‘Reading for Benefit’ programme in their time with us from Year 7 through to the end of Year 9.
These stories will expose students to a range of issues, themes, voices and different genres of writing. These books will help to extend access to cultural capital through access to high quality fiction and non-fiction.
Guided questioning by the tutor will encourage and promote oracy skills across KS3 in addition to comprehension, speculation, prediction and inference skills.
Our goals for a tutor led reading programme:
Our students will benefit from expert modelling.
“One of the biggest benefits of reading aloud is that students are exposed to and come to know what the artful syntax in beautiful sentences, varied, rich ornate sentences, sounds like.”
Doug Lemov, Reading Reconsidered.
How does it work at MSSC?
Every Thursday in AM registration, all KS3 tutor groups have a reading slot.
Year 7 = week 1 silent reading, week 2 Guided reading
Year 8 = both weeks guided reading
Year 9 = both weeks guided reading
Form tutors read aloud to their groups with students following in provided copies of the texts or listening.
Every week a ‘celebrity’ reader will drop into a form group and join in with the reading and discuss the book with students.
Example texts that will be read over the 3 years of KS3
2021-22: 3 key development aims
Disciplinary Literacy – explicit vocabulary instruction
‘Reading for Benefit’ tutor programme – KS3, weekly, fully resourced and supported.
Disciplinary Literacy – promotion of tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary
Establishing a culture of reading across MSSC at all levels.
We want our students to be word curious, cautious and confident!
Implementation of Bedrock Learning across KS3 through the English Department – addressing the vocabulary gap/ vocabulary acquisition.
Disciplinary literacy is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum. It recognises that literacy skills are both general and subject specific, emphasising the value of supporting teachers in every subject to teach students how to read, write and communicate effectively in their subjects.
Explicit instruction – Tier 2 and Tier 3 Vocabulary
Every department across the school are promoting tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary in their teaching to extend student vocabulary knowledge and application.
At Moulton School we are now using an online vocabulary and reading curriculum called Bedrock Vocabulary.
Bedrock Vocabulary is a research-based curriculum that teaches students the language they need to succeed at school.
The digital vocabulary curriculum teaches through a series of multi-modal and interactive activities. The rigorous assessment feeds data back to their English teachers, enabling us to easily monitor progress.