Reading CPD Videos

During the Coronavirus pandemic, I've been sharing some CPD via Facebook Live for free.  You can find the recordings of the videos below.

They are split into parts.
Part 1 (Thurs 26th March 8:15pm) - important elements when planning and teaching a reading unit.
Part 2 (Weds 1st April 6pm) - a structure for teaching reading, particularly with whole-class lessons.
Part 3 (Coming soon...after the Easter holidays) - KS1, poetry, comprehension activities, FAQs.

Whole-Class Reading VIDEO #TwinklTeach

Once again, I was asked by Twinkl to do a Livestream over on their KS2 Facebook Group.  Last time, I spoke about Feedback and Marking.  The topic of this more recent one was whole-class reading.  I could talk for a day (of INSET training!) about whole-class reading so it was difficult to squeeze everything in - I missed lots out.  I tried to cover many strategies which can be used in whole-class or carousel reading lessons so there's something for everyone to take away and try. As this was originally a Facebook Live video, you can hear me referring to people's questions in the comments and some links in the comments.  I've put the links which I refer to underneath the video on this page so please look there if you want to see it. 

You can view the video on YouTube below.  If you want to watch it on the YouTube site, click the video title and it will pop out into a new tab.

Links

Accelerated Reader Book Find (7 mins 56 secs)

arbookfind.co.uk

Reading Activities (22 mins 10 secs)
https://misswilsonsays.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/moving-beyond-reading-comprehension-sheets/

Reading Reconsidered (24 mins 50 secs)
http://amzn.to/2hk5Mfv

Nick Hart’s blog (25 mins 10 secs)
thisismyclassroom.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/what-i-think-about-reading/

RIC starters (31 mins 55 secs)
http://www.mrspteach.com/2015/08/ric-reading-lesson-starters.html

Tom Palmer's Free Texts (34 mins 15 secs)
http://tompalmer.co.uk/free-stuff/

Fiction Express (35 mins 25 secs)
https://www.fictionexpress.co.uk/

First News (35 mins 35 secs)
https://www.firstnews.co.uk/

Sourcing Texts (35 mins 50 secs)
http://www.mrspteach.com/2016/01/free-whole-class-reading-texts.html

Read Theory Ranks Poster

Like many others, our school is using the free website Read Theory to enhance pupils' reading comprehension.  For more information about the website, see this blog from Ben King.  Read Theory uses Knowledge Points to motivate children; they move through ranks the more KPs they earn.  My pupils were asking about the orders of the ranks and how many points they need for each one.  I got in touch with Read Theory and they kindly sent me the list of ranks, how many points are required and the images for each one for me to make into a poster.  Feel free to download as an image or PDF below.

Click to download from the Google Drive folder.

Whole-Class Reading - A New Method

Why a new method? 

After three years of teaching reading without using the guided reading carousel, we decided we needed to change the structure of whole-class reading lessons to get more out of the class texts.  This change was inspired by three things: the rigour of the 2016 reading KS2 test and the heavy focus on vocabulary for understanding, Reading Reconsidered by Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway, and this blog post by Nick Hart.  

I met with Jess, our Y5 leader who is in charge of reading, to discuss how to move forward with whole-class reading in our school.  Jess had completed some observations across the school so had an idea what was happening in different year groups. I had recently read Nick Hart's blog post and Reading Reconsidered so these drove our discussion.  We talked through some options and put our plan into action.  We've been teaching using this new method since January in Y4 and Y5.  The other KS2 classes took it on after Easter.  

How does the new method work?
The aim of this new method is to expand pupils' vocabulary and deepen their understanding of the texts they are reading.  We do this through explicit teaching of vocabulary before reading the text and re-reading sections looking closely at the elements which require further understanding, keeping in mind that children must learn to retrieve information (R), interpret meaning (I) and comment on the author's choice of vocabulary or style (C).  Questions check pupils' understanding of previous extracts as well as the current text in order to enhance their memory. 

Vocabulary

There are three main elements to this. 

Explore - pupils spend time decoding the words, finding definitions in dictionaries, writing sentences using the new words. 

Teach - teachers clarify the meaning of words which will be encountered in the text using images, drama, actions and sentences of varying contexts. We explore links between words children already know and try to include the new vocabulary with prefixes, suffixes, synonyms and antonyms.

Vocabulary Teach Slide

Practice - teachers use various methods to revise the words previously learned: matching words definitions, providing definitions, images, missing letters, sentences from books with the word missing.

Vocabulary Practice Slide

Often, different words are used for explore and teach.  Some words are displayed in class to be referred to across the curriculum.  A huge array of activities are used to teach, explore and practise vocabulary; it really is so important to pupils' understanding of the texts they encounter in their own reading.  

Text Selection

The choice of texts is absolutely key in this.  Previously, we had chosen some texts because they linked perfectly with our themes and topics.  We had to be really honest with ourselves about some of the texts we use and we decided some simply weren't challenging enough and others were easily understood.  For these texts, the lessons we were teaching were superficial and not really teaching the pupils much.  

The Y3/4 and Y5/6 word lists form the basis of how we choose texts and the Amazon "Look Inside" feature is really useful for checking multiple texts quickly.  We aim for a text to be challenging and accessible for all so we are not looking for something pupils can easily read and understand already.  This is something we will continue to improve and check as we consider the books used throughout the year in each year group.  We may have to replace and rethink further text and topics.  

Lesson structures

Similar to our old method, this is based around 2 one-hour-long lessons each week.  These are structured as follows:

Lesson 1

Vocabulary - Teachers explicitly teach the vocabulary which pupils will encounter in this week's text. 

Reading - Teachers read aloud the text with pupils following along in their copy.  The text is often a whole chapter (or two) of the chosen book. Mostly, this is done without stopping so children experience the text as a whole.  Often, they spot the words mentioned in the vocabulary teaching earlier in the lesson. 

Summarising - Pupils write a summary of what they have heard.  This will be a personalised task.  Some children have prompts to help, some summarise orally or reread the text with the teacher, some use bullet points, some use full sentences, some include quotations, some challenge themselves to summarise without looking in the book, some are given summary sentences and they must fill in the gaps.

Lesson 2

Close Reading and Discussion (Notes) - The pupils take turns reading aloud and the teacher enables analysis to take place through questioning.  For this part, the section to be read aloud is an extract from the chapter(s) read in lesson one; generally, the extract which is most difficult to understand or has the most to be gained from discussion.  Pupils make notes on the text to help them understand further and answer questions later.  At first, teachers must model note-taking slowly and carefully, explaining how and why we take notes.  

Reading Aloud - Pupils read the extract aloud independently or in pairs.  Some children can read with the teacher or, if you have one, a TA.  This is where we encourage children to use expression and perform the extract, especially if it is a poem.  They really enjoy this part and the room is buzzing with excited voices as they read to their partner or group. 

Questions - Children use the notes they've taken on the extract to answer questions about the text.  These questions tackle all of the written curriculum objectives across a text but may focus on one objective for an extract.  Again, some children can start working on this with the teacher to support their understanding before working independently.  

Bolt-ons

Occasionally, we still use RIC activities when they are appropriate; for example, to explore a front cover of a new text or to gain some knowledge which will help with understanding the text.  Quizzes are used regularly for retrieval practice, to remind children of what they have previously learned about words and the text.  Also, we have sessions which are based on non-fiction texts and poems which complement pupils' understanding of the text; these are mostly structured like our old whole-class reading lessons.   We are continuing to have 30 minutes of quiet reading twice a week and are monitoring the books that pupils read.  In order to finish a book in 6-8 weeks, we read alternating chapters for pleasure between these lessons.  

Examples

You can view a sample plan for Y4, based on the book Romans on the Rampage by Jeremy Strong, by clicking here.  The slideshow below goes through one week's worth of lessons based on Chapter 6 of the book.  It has some practice, vocabulary and question slides. 

What has been the impact so far? 

The biggest impact has been on children's vocabulary.  Pupils have remember a vast majority of words taught, are quick to recognise them in other contexts and use them orally and in their writing.  This was one of the main reasons for changing methods so we are really pleased with this.  We were worried about how children would respond to the close reading part of this method and writing notes on an extract.  This was something we didn't experience until we were at secondary schools.  However, after some slow modelling of this over the first few weeks, children are now confident in making notes to enhance their understanding.  Our next step is to look further at the structure of the second lesson and see if there are some changes to be made to further improve our teaching of reading.

If you are interested in tweaking your teaching of reading to include any of these strategies, I'd highly recommend you start with Nick Hart's blog post and Reading Reconsidered.  They are must-reads for anyone interested in the teaching of reading. 

Whole-Class Reading and RIC in KS1

In sharing ideas, resources and lesson plans about teaching reading in whole-class lessons, the question I am asked most often is about KS1 and how it can work there.  This post will hopefully answer that question and give you some information and resources to demonstrate how it works.  Also included at the end are the Year 1 and Year 2 Reading Objectives organised under RIC headings and a link to the folder which contains all Key Stage 1 resources for you to download.  Two colleagues, Laura and Sophie, have helped me put together this post so my thanks must go to them for their time, permission and expertise. 

In our school, children are taught to decode through daily whole class phonics across KS1.  This is important because it allows children from all phonics groups to access sounds  and words which they wouldn't necessarily be taught in a streamed sessions.   As it is taught as a class,  the children are placed in groups (on paper) for the knowledge of the teacher.  The children can then be questioned appropriately and moved along at their own pace.   They are assessed regularly (every half term) to gauge which sounds they have learnt and which they have missed allowing the teacher to pick up any gaps.  

In addition to daily phonic sessions, the children take part in a small-group reading session with an adult.  In this session the children are grouped according to their phonic ability, this allows the focus book to be at the correct level for each child.  This is similar to the group with the teacher in traditional carousel guided reading sessions.  Over the week the children are introduced to the story, adults pre-teach the vocabulary they need and groups discuss similar events in their life with predictions based on the title.  Follow up sessions include reading the book at least 2 times with a final session based on comprehension skills using the RIC objectives - depending on the level of the child this can be verbal, written multiple choice or traditional written questions. 

Year One - RIC

Two or three times a week, Year One children sit down together before home time to complete a Read with RIC session.  During this session they decode some real words, some alien words (you can thank the Phonics Screening for that) and read a book together.  They use the RIC logos to answer questions about these texts which require them to retrieve, interpret and predict.  In the autumn term, this session is completed verbally with a main focus on retrieve.  As the term progresses, the focus changes to interpreting and predicting with RIC. In the Summer term, the children move to producing written responses to these RIC questions.

Year One - Whole Class Reading

Whole class reading is carried out through texts we use in our Literacy lessons, using a rich and broad text to teach English reading and writing objectives.  The children become familiar with the text through drama and speaking and listening activities so that all children can then access the text and even read specific sections despite it being a challenging text for the children to read independently.  Activities always include an aspect of comprehension understanding at both word and sentence level with a writing outcome.  For example, We're going on a bear hunt.  We use this text to teach contractions, prepositions (word level work) jumbled sentences, sequencing (sentence level work) and the children write their own version after going on a bear hunt in their school environment.  

The slideshows below show a Year 1 Read with RIC session from the Autumn Term and then one from the Summer Term.  You can see the progression, not only in the sounds referred to in the decode section but in the expectations in the RIC questions.

Autumn:

Summer:

Year Two

At the end of Year Two, the expectation from the government is that children should write responses to questions about texts.  Therefore, phonics sessions and verbal reading groups will not suffice to prepare them for this.  Children are introduced to RIC activities similar to those used in KS2.  Some of these use visual stimuli such as videos and images however the focus is mostly on text-based stimuli, as per the assessments children will take towards the end of the year.

In whole-class sessions, children complete RIC activities in a RIC book which are then marked and discussed in the session.  Some of these RICs have more than one question per objective so children practise answering such questions more frequently and, as the tests approach, general reading comprehension questions are mixed up so children get used to recognising question types without the logos.  RIC sessions also mean teachers can address the interim framework statement about linking the book they are reading to others they've read.  Year 2 teachers base RICs on videos and cartoons as well as texts which are familiar to children such as traditional tales.

The slideshow below shows some RIC activities which Year 2 have used.  Children write answers to these in a RIC book which, nearer to SATs, is used for comprehension test practice too.

Assessment
As with KS2 classes, I've made the following objective sheets for KS1.  These can be downloaded  in PDF format from the link at the end of this post.  Please see this post for how these objective sheets have been used in KS2 and let me know in the comments below how you use them in your KS1 class.  As well as listening to children read and asking them questions verbally, tests form an important part of how we assess children's understanding of what they've read.

Year 1 Objectives

Year 2 Objectives

Year 2 Interim Framework Objectives

You can view and download everything mentioned in this post (including all the slideshows, assessment sheets, RIC examples and more) by clicking here (go to RIC Activities for the slides and Objective Sheets for the assessment pages).
To download items, click the down arrow in the top right-hand corner.  I will be adding to this folder over the coming weeks.

Going A.P.E. (Replacing P.E.E.)

For the last few years, I've been searching for a replacement for P.E.E. to help children answer longer response questions in reading.   I think it's a little silly to have an acronym for children which has two letters the same; it makes it harder to remember the letters.  Last year, I played around with using What? How? Why? as a format but, again, children forgot what each section meant they had to do.  Not satisfied, I continued searching for a solution.  

Recently, I found a post-it note on which I had scribbled down 'Answer it, Prove it, Explain it'.  It turns out, on Googling, that this isn't a new concept so I thought it was definitely worth a try.  Having made some posters hopefully making it clear to children, this is what I'll be trying this year.  The idea is that all children in KS2 should be taught to answer questions with reference to the text (Answer it and Prove it) as per the National Curriculum.  As they get older and more mature, including an explanation of links with other parts of the text and prior knowledge becomes important.  

Below you can find a poster explaining A.P.E. and some posters with sentence starters.  I'll be printing off the main poster for my cupboard door and printing some small versions of the sentence starters to go on tables during lessons.  Feel free to download and use the posters which are available in JPEG and PDF format in this folder (or click the RIC Resources link in the side bar).

I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

UPDATE:

Through Twitter, I have heard that many people have started "Going APE" in their reading lessons, throughout KS2 and KS3.  Many have used APE for interpret (deduction/inference) questions including alongside Read with RIC lesson starters.  

Alison used APE in maths to help children answer true/false or yes/no questions.  This inspired me to create an APE poster which could be used in maths and a blank one which could be used for any subject or adapted.  

Image from @AlisonHogben on Twitter

PLEASE NOTE: This post was originally published with the image of a monkey on the posters. This was due to me struggling to find a cartoon APE with the appropriate copyright terms.  

A School Year Of Books (Y4)

In preparation for leading an INSET day in a local school about how we teach reading (whole class rather than guided reading), I did something I never do: I went into school during half term!  I popped in to collect the all books we use in year four during our reading lessons throughout the whole school year to show the type of texts we use.  

I couldn't believe what an enormous quantity, quality and variety of texts the children in our classes are being exposed to.  I also couldn't believe how heavy they were to carry!  These are the physical copies we use however we intersperse these with other free texts and one-off print-outs.  

Some of the texts are theme/topic-related books, others are books we read "for pleasure" to our classes and there are other random ones which we link in for specific lessons or objectives.  I've set out below which books fit into which category. 

Class Readers - these are mainly read for fun but we sometimes do one or two reading lessons based on certain passages or chapters. 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (including illustrated version which is gorgeous)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Charlotte's Web

Matilda

Scribbleboy

Topic/Theme-Related - we use these a lot for our reading lessons while we are learning about the Romans and Egyptians.

The Scarab's Secret

Egyptian News - Boy King Murdered

The Egyptian Cinderella

War Game

Vesuvius Poovius

Roman News - Caesar Stabbed

Romans on the Rampage

The Romans: Gods, Emperors and Dormice

Fishbourne Roman Palace Family Guidebook

Other

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Matilda Musical Programme

QCA Y4 Antarctic Adventures Test Paper 2006

Book Bingo

The inspiration for this post is threefold.  I've been meaning to create a resource like this since this photo on Pinterest reminded me of a list I was given when I was in Year 6.  The list simply had some brilliant classic novels which I would never have picked up if left to my own devices.  From reading some of the texts on the list,  I discovered and fell in love with stories by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  Some in-school reading moderation this week prompted me to take action and people's reactions to my original Book Bingo tweet reminded me to share the resources so here goes! 

These cards are designed to encourage children in KS2 to read for a range of purposes, to enjoy reading and have some fun as well as suggesting a range of authors and books for them to discover.  I envisage each box being stamped or given a sticker once it is completed and then children getting some form of award for completing four in a row or a full house.  On each card there is a WILDCARD box for children to get creative with the card's theme.  Teachers could give these to pupils in their class and parents could use them as a basis to help their child choose a new text.  

All ideas on the cards have come almost entirely from my own experience (with a bit of help from Twitter) so you are likely to disagree with some of my choices of authors or classics.  Therefore, I have included a link to download these and editable versions of them at the bottom of this post so that you can create your own.  If you do edit them and you are willing to share your Book Bingo cards, please do email them to me so they can be featured on here. 

You can download high quality versions of these Book Bingo cards as well as download an editable version of each one in the Reading Resources Folder. 

Free Whole-Class Reading Texts

After blogging our move from carousel Guided Reading lessons to whole-class sessions, I get lots of messages asking which texts we use.  I compiled a list of over 350 books which teachers around the UK use in their primary classrooms but there are also many free ways of finding texts to help children practise reading skills.  Most of these free texts require an internet-enabled device or print out for each pupil or pair.

Please be aware of copyright laws and licenses when photocopying these or posting them on a shared server.

Song Lyrics and Poems

If it's on a website, you can always provide children with the link rather than printing copies - just remember to check on a school computer to ensure any adverts are appropriate. We have occasionally used lyric videos on YouTube to help with this - most of these have some errors which are interesting to talk about. 
There are often brilliant examples of imagery, metaphor and style in song lyrics and poems.  When we use song lyrics, we generally introduce it as a poem and don't mention that it is a song.  It is then a pleasant surprise for the children to realise that songs are poems.  We have explored some grammar fails which writers have used in songs to make the words fit the tune and have explored the double meanings.  Some examples which we've used are:

• Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson
• The Show by Lenka
• The Climb by Miley Cyrus
• Red by Taylor Swift
• The River Is by Valerie Bloom
• The Scribbleboy Rap (from Scribbleboy) by Philip Ridley

Free Publications

Again, these can be downloaded and printed out or uploaded to a school server for use on a screen.
Many organisations publish free e-books or leaflets which can be downloaded as PDFs or read online.  Some examples we have used are George The Sun-Safe Superstar, The Third Shakespeare's Globe and DigiDuck's Big Decision.  There are lots of free e-books of varying quality available to read online or download at FreeKidsBooks.org.  We have also used Tom Palmer's live Football and Rugby World Cup stories which are set out like serial dramas running parallel to the real-life events and outcomes of the games.  Rumour has it he may be doing something similar for the Euro 2016 finals too.  You can view and download all of Tom Palmer's free publications here, including some sports-related short stories. 

Historic Newspapers

Go to the Historic Newspapers website (Education section), choose a pack and email Tom with your request.  He will send you the PDF which you can then use for teaching.  He can also send you a hard copy if you send him your address.  

These newspapers can be uploaded to your school's server (we use Google Drive) so the children can access a copy on their device (we use Chromebooks) or you can print copies of the page(s) you want children to look at.  Because these are high-quality versions of original prints, everything is authentic, including some brilliant advertisements and interesting unrelated articles which can be used to get children think about persuasive devices, the style of newspaper writing and retrieve information.  

Information Websites

Remember to check these whole sites over before letting kids loose on them. Beware of updates to the websites which could ruin your lesson - check the links are live and appropriate each year before reusing plans.  

Sites like NHS Change 4 Life, this BBC Interactive WW1 Trench and BBC Mummy Maker are designed in a really simple, attractive way so they are as useful as a non-fiction book but without the cost or need for storage space.  Children also love using these sites and finding extra information hidden among the images.

Fairly Reasonable Paid-For Sites

• Twinkl do lots of information books, cartoons and stories as a PDF download.
• First News send their weekly child-friendly newspapers in PDF format along with lots of teacher resources.
• Fiction Express releases a chapter every Friday at 3pm and readers can vote for what happens next.  Texts are written by children's authors and run in line with school terms. 
• Curriculum Visions publish non-fiction print books in class sets but also have all their books and more available in digital format online.

List of Primary Age-Appropriate Books

In response to my blog posts about teaching reading, I received many emails and tweets asking if I have a list of book suggestions to use in each year group.  I didn't but thought it would be a really useful resource to have.  Through Twitter, I've collected this massive list of texts (over 350) which could be used in EYFS, KS1 or KS2.  Thanks must go to everyone who filled in the form or shared it with their followers on Twitter and Facebook.  

You can read this list below or can open the PDF document into a new tab by clicking the pop-out button.  From there, you can also print or download the document to share with others.  

If, after reading the list, you feel there are key texts missing from a certain year group, you can submit any additions by filling in this form.  I will endeavour to update it from time-to-time.

Personally, I can see this list being important for planning reading lessons and finding high-quality whole-class readers for across the school.  Also, it is a good starting point for recommending appropriate books to children and parents.  Parents could use this to loosely match new books to their child's approximate reading age and ability.  

RIC Reading Lesson Starters

RIC starters are short tasks at the beginning of a whole-class reading session which help children practise the most important reading skills.  RIC stands for Retrieve, Interpret and Choice.  These activities require children to read, watch, observe or listen to a stimulus, often a piece of media, and then answer some questions.  Below, I will introduce the stimuli, three questions and how to write them before explaining how the logistics of the activities work in my classroom.  I will show a RIC based on a video and come up with some potential questions which could go with it however you can view over forty examples of RIC activities on this blog post. 

The Stimulus

This can be absolutely anything but here are some examples of what we have used:

• movie clip
• trailer
• poem
• song
• paragraph from book
• blurb
• photograph
• cartoon
• unusual object
• front cover of a book/dvd/cd
• TV clip
• jingle
• advertisement - poster and TV
• newspaper and magazine article
• image from book/newspaper/magazine
• short interview script.

The Questions

The questions are labelled R, I and C, standing for Retrieve, Interpret and Choice.  

Retrieve - This question must be something that all children can access and answer.  It should be something very clear because this question helps children to realise that a lot of reading questions are obvious - they just have to retrieve it.  It might be a number, a colour, something the children have to count, a fact or something they must spot or listen out for.  

Examples: How many birds are in the video?  What colour is Juliet's dress?  How many ballet shoes are made each year? When does this film get released?  

Interpret - This question should require children to use clues from actions or events.  The answer should not be obvious in the media but should require some deduction and/or inference.  Questions about feelings or reasons behind actions are quite common.  With a sensible guess, children should be able to have a good attempt at this question.  The RIC logo for interpret has him holding a key.  This is because children have to unlock the answers from the clues given.

Examples: Why did he go down that road? How is the rabbit feeling? How did they get out? 

Choice - This is the hardest question to write - please be careful with this one.  It is important to say that this question should always be about the creator's choice, not the choice of a character in the movie.  Questions about a character's choice would be Interpret questions because children use clues from actions and events.  Think about the creative elements which have been used to have an impact on the observer.  The question should encourage children to think about why the creator made that choice so they can transfer this skill to thinking about the author's choice in books. 

Examples: Why did the director use this music?  How has the composer made you feel scared? Why did the producers put the information in text instead of spoken word? 

The Delivery

In our lessons, this is how the RIC starter is delivered.  

• Children stick the RIC into their Reading books - this means the questions and potentially the stimulus appear alongside the questions.  This is to help them remember the questions while they are answers because sometimes there is something else on the board.  It also helps parents, staff and OfSTED (boo!) see what the questions and stimulus were for that activity.
• Children look at, watch, listen to or read the stimulus. 
• Children answer the questions - all children are expected to answer the Retrieve and attempt or guess the Interpret question.  Children move onto the Choice question if they have time; normally they do.  
• Children switch to a gel pen.  Read more about this here. 
• Use lolly-sticks or a similar method to hear children's responses to the Retrieve and Interpret questions.  Children mark and correct their own answers and we go over a quick explanation if some are confused. 
• Children put up their hands to offer their response to the Choice question.  Lots are often keen to do this and we go over different answers in a lot of detail, discussing as a class why they are correct or not.  Most of the response time is spent on this.  Children mark their own and add to their answers from the responses given.  We praise children for using their gel pens to write successful answers and they respond to this.  Sometimes we combine answers to write a perfect response and children all write this down. 

This takes between ten and twenty minutes to complete in lessons however sometimes, when there is a lot to get from a stimulus, we will have stand-alone RIC sessions which are longer.  

Example

The video below is an interesting one in terms of how it is shot.

Potential Questions:

R: How many ballet shoes are used each year by the Royal Ballet?  How much does the Royal Ballet spend on shoes each year? What colour are the ballet shoes? How do they stay on the dancers' feet? What tools does the first worker use? 

I: What is the camera being? Why does the screen go dark halfway through? Why does the Royal Ballet spend so much on shoes each year? 

C: Why did the Royal Ballet make this video? (Focus on the word "support" at the end).  What is unusual about how the director chose to shoot this video? (Perspective of the shoe).  Why did the director chose to shoot this video from the perspective of a shoe?

Children would have something similar to this stuck in their books:

To find out more about RIC and our move from carousel guided reading to whole-class lessons or to download the resources and logos for free, click here. 

Whole-Class Reading FAQs

Recently, my school has moved away from carousel "guided reading" lessons and we have been teaching reading skills in whole-class lessons. It has been an interesting process and we are still adapting and tweaking to improve; it is by no means a perfect solution. I've blogged about it throughout the way and have shared resources but people often have questions about certain elements. Here, I will try and answer some of the most common questions.  Some answers will link to previous blog posts so all links will open in a new tab so you can keep reading here as well. 

What is whole-class reading?

Very simply, it is when reading skills are taught in lessons similar to maths, science, art and music, with the teacher teaching the whole class and ensuring all children are challenged through differentiation of language, instructions, activities etc. as appropriate.  

Why move to whole-class reading?

Rhoda covered this in her post called Our Solution To The Problems With Guided Reading.  The two biggest reasons people consider moving is because it takes up much less teacher planning and preparation time and children produce a lot more work than in carousel lessons. 

How do whole-class reading lessons work?

I've answered that in this blog post. You can see a sample plan and download a blank version and all the resources for the lessons.

What is RIC?

RIC is a character which I made to help children remember the most important reading skills: retrieval, interpretation and commenting on authors' choices.  He is a Screen Bean and is used in the logos I made to brand the main reading objectives of the new curriculum.  You can download all the RIC resources here.

What are the main reading objectives for the new curriculum?

For KS2, I have adapted to the old APP AFs for the new curriculum. They are: retrieve, interpret, (author's) choice, viewpoint, perform, review. You can read more about how they came about in this post.

Where do you get the learning objectives from?

We take them directly from the new National Curriculum, using the RIC assessment sheets to help us.  You can see more about the assessment sheets and download them here. 

What is a RIC starter? 

It is a short activity used at the beginning of reading lessons to help children use the important reading skills (retrieve, interpret, choice) to answer questions about some form of media; it could be a short paragraph, a poem, a song, a film clip or trailer, a photograph or cartoon or one of the short films from The Literacy Shed.  The idea is that all children can answer the retrieve and interpret questions and that children add to their answer as they hear others' responses.  The "Choice" question can be about the author's choice or a creative choice made by a director, photographer, lyricist or artist.  There are a lot of examples of RIC starters to view and download here and a whole blog post about creating RIC starters here. 

How often and how long?

Mostly, we have one-hour lessons twice a week. Sometimes we have had three sessions in a week and occasionally we have long RIC sessions (half an hour rather than the normal ten minutes) if there's a really good one from which we can get a lot of high-quality discussion. 

Are the lessons extra to your English/writing lessons or as part of those?

This really requires a whole other blog post about how our English lessons are organised.  Our reading lessons are in addition to any writing or SPAG/grammar lessons. 

What about the really poor readers?

You need to ensure every child is challenged at their level.  That means, for children who struggle to read, you may need to adapt the activity so they can still meet the lesson objective.  It could mean using a smaller extract or changing some of the words.  They might have a matching activity or filling in the gaps to simple retrieval sentences rather than writing a paragraph in response (as your highest ability might).  Their activities tend to focus more on word reading and understanding rather than the interpretation of texts.  Think about what you would do in maths for those who struggle and transfer that to reading; it's not that dissimilar.  To help you, there's an example of a lesson with some very poor readers here.  Also, it's important to mention that these children still get phonics input each week or day (as appropriate to them) on top of the reading lessons in class.

How are the higher ability stretched?

We have found that whole-class lessons demand more complex written responses to texts from children. We have seen analytical paragraphs from 8-year-olds, including quotes and explanations of texts, that we ourselves wouldn't have written until we were at secondary school. 

How do you assess Reading in whole-class lessons?

I feel there are three types of assessment which we do in relation to reading lessons. Firstly, during the lesson we circulate and give advice, address misconceptions and ensure children are suitably challenged.  As with other lessons, we look at books and mark according to children's success and next steps.  Finally, we get our reading assessment data using the RIC assessment sheets which you can download and read about in this post here.

How do you choose texts?

There are three main ways in which we choose texts. Either we focus on word level, our current theme or the children's interests.  Books like Charlotte's Web and Matilda have been chosen because they contain many words from the year 3/4 word list and language of a similar complexity as well as being just above the general reading ability. We have chosen texts about ancient Egypt or Rome when studying those civilisations and likewise have used river poems or mountain-based news articles during geography themes.  We have also been known to plan single lessons on subjects like ballet, horses, Lionel Messi and dragons at the request of children - they love learning reading skills through their favourite things! With all texts, we use the curriculum word list as a basis for the difficulty we look for.

How do you resource books/texts?

We have used a variety of texts in year four over the last two years of whole-class reading. We've done single lessons or a short series of lessons based on poems, song lyrics, newspaper articles, online articles and blog posts, none of which require any money.  Also, being a school, we have made use of the 5% of books that we are allowed to copy so have copied sections of books for each child - most of the time is this a paragraph or double page.  Each year, we have bought a half class set of books to focus on for a few weeks.  We have 16+ copies of Charlotte's Web, Matilda and Romans on the Rampage.  These we have bought with travelling book fair money or through the English (Reading) budget.  When we are focusing on one book for a period of time, we let the children know in advance what it will be and some of them choose to bring their own copy in or to get it out their local library; this increases the amount of copies we have in school. 

Who reads the text?

Sometimes it is the children independently, or in pairs.  At times children read paragraphs aloud or read a sentence at a time and occasionally the adults read the text aloud or play an audio version of the text.  It all depends on what the objective is and what is most appropriate for what we want children to achieve. 

What do KS1 do?

I will try and get a KS1 year leader to write a bit about what they do when we start back in September but I'll do my best. Currently, our KS1 children have daily phonics lessons; we use RWI and children are streamed.  Year One have added in a few whole-class phonics sessions to ensure all children get exposure to all the relevant content for the (stupid) phonics screening.  KS1 children also do some RIC activities as a class every week. 

How do whole-class lessons fit into your timetable?
We have two hour-long reading lessons each week and we fit in two independent reading sessions.  During these, teachers and TAs listen to children read and we can pick up on any misconceptions and help children choose new books.  Below is a sample weekly timetable so you can see how this fits in around other subjects.  English-based activities are in pink.  Maths-based are in blue. For Theme lessons, I've indicated which subject is being covered.

Click to enlarge.

Can I come and see a lesson?

The simple answer to this is yes you can.  I'm near Brighton, if you can make it to me then I'm happy for you to come and watch a lesson, nosey in some books and have a chat. Many people already have.  Contact me on Twitter or email me if that's something you'd be interested in. 

If you have a question that hasn't been answered here, please leave it in the comments below and I will add it in! 

Assessing Reading in the 2014 Primary Curriculum (KS2)

After many blog posts based around teaching reading in the 2014 National Curriculum, lots of people have enquired about assessment.  As a school, we've had a long journey about assessment in general and are by no means *there* (wherever that is!).  Something we, in year four, have found particularly useful are these reading objective sheets for key stage two.  I envisage them being used in many different ways, some of which I have outlined below.

Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4):

Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6)

We have used these sheets in our planning to ensure that we are covering all of the objectives throughout the year.  All the objectives for key stage 2 are split up into the RIC logos and so can be easily linked to the whole-class plans in the Google Drive folder.  Also, these sheets can also be used to save time writing objectives, as I know some schools still have to each lesson.  This year, my class have been writing the RIC word which we are focusing on each lesson.  For example: Choice or Viewpoint.  However, next year I'd like to stick one of these in each child's reading book and they write the RIC objective and the number underneath.  For example: in year 4, if we were retrieving from fiction and non-fiction texts, children would write 'Retrieve 4' at the top of their work.  When it comes to making a judgement, it will be quick to see their work for each objective in their book.

As we head towards the end of the year, these objective sheets are proving useful for assessment too. If you are doing carousel guided-reading, these can be edited to create assessment documents for teacher group sessions.  However, if you've made the move to whole-class guided reading, you will have a lot of written evidence over the year to cover each of the objectives.   The objectives sheets could then be used to check the extent to which groups of children have achieved the objectives.  I have included an example below from a recent reading moderation with an explanation below.

Highlighted number = some evidence of achieving the objective.

Highlighted objective = objective achieved independently across a range of contexts. 

For moderation purposes, I used different coloured mini post-its to show which objective under the RIC headings was on that page and put notes of extra things to consider.  This made it quick and easy for my colleagues to moderate my judgement.  We only did this for one child's work as it is a lot of effort! From doing this for only one child, it became clear which objectives we still need to cover before the end of the year so was a very useful exercise. 

Other ideas for using the objective sheets:

• Stick it in the front of the child's book - highlight when they've achieved an objective.  You can then use it at the end of the year to make a best-fit judgement according to your assessment system. 
• Complete for groups in the class to judge the extent to which those children are covering the objectives, a bit like how APP was meant to be used! 
• Complete for each child (consider how useful this time is??)
• Children have a copy in their book.  They keep track of which they think they've achieved throughout the year as you teach.  

To download these objective sheets, including editable versions, and all the other RIC resources for free, click here.  If you have any other ideas for using these objective sheets or for assessing reading in the new curriculum, get in touch in the comments below or on Twitter.