Reading
The improvement of students’ literacy, with a clear focus on reading, vocabulary development and oracy is central to curriculum development at Westfield. Reading is prioritised across the school to allow all students to access the full curriculum offer, and this is central to preparing students for success at the end of key stage 4 and beyond as they go onto additional education, employment and training.
We want staff to understand the following:
- The need for students to see and hear new texts - the importance of reading aloud and tracking texts whilst being read to establish sight-sound links.
- To unpick new and complex texts by explicitly taught tier 2 and 3 vocabularies.
- To work things out via varied comprehension and questioning strategies.
These initial stages will feed into a drive to improve students’ written work as they practise it by directly applying their new knowledge and use it in more frequent opportunities to work independently for extended periods of time on extended writing (and presentational talk).
Extensive and varied testing and evaluation takes place in order to ascertain:
- Students’ reading ages and (where appropriate) the specific areas for improvement – whether this is linked to phonic security, decoding, fluency or comprehension.
- Students’ exposure to appropriate and challenging texts across the curriculum.
- The teaching of reading and support for students as part of our universal offer in classrooms.
- The quality of vocabulary instruction across the curriculum.
Whole school reading
Disciplinary literacy
We are aware that reading skills will differ across the curriculum, and that subject or faculty leaders are the expert when it comes to reading in their subject area.
Students will be given varied opportunities to read and be read to in all areas of the curriculum, from texts that are adapted routinely. Comprehension tasks ensure accessibility and challenge for all students, with support provided to those who find reading challenging.
Vocabulary – identification
Faculty and subject leaders have identified the tier terms that students will be taught throughout Years 7-11. They have carefully organised to ensure that core knowledge is taught and retrieved.
This vocabulary form a key part of our knowledge organisers to support students in lessons and promote study habits and revision outside school.
Development for staff
Continuing professional development (CPD) sessions look at strategies to promote reading across lessons in a variety of different ways, including the importance of:
- teachers modelling successful reading by reading aloud to students
- students reading aloud to each other
- students reading independently
These sessions review barriers to successful reading for students, how to correct reading, support students and make reading less daunting for those less confident in engaging with it in lessons.
Vocabulary acquisition and the importance of teaching tier 3 vocabulary are also a focus.
Quality assurance (QA)
Further data shared with staff will help them to become more adept at supporting students. Our reading data shows that students need to be read to more frequently to support understanding and model successful reading. Using visuals and dual coding consistently is another area for development.
Teachers chunk information, teach new tier 3 vocabulary and use do now activities to activate prior knowledge and use questioning techniques to aid understanding.
QA processes have been put in place to monitor the regularity of reading in lessons, and its success, especially for those students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
Encouraging a love of reading
We use a range of approaches to encourage a love of reading in Westfield students:
- Personal development time (PDT) reading: in addition to reading from carefully selected novels and articles linked to current affairs, their form tutors also model successful, fluent reading by reading to them. The texts promote discussion on a variety of different themes linked to our personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum.
- Library lessons: students in Years 7 and 8 have one lesson in the school library each fortnight with their English teacher and/or the school’s librarian. They have access to books to borrow, advice on varied texts, and audio books. Students also have the opportunity to read to, and discuss with, an adult or their peers to promote fluent reading, strengthen and deepen comprehension and increase their exposure to a wider range of texts.
- Reading for pleasure: we offer opportunities that encourage reading such as the Scholastic book fair, performance poet visits and workshops, a Sheffield Book Awards trip, Reading Ambassadors , and a Grimm & Co trip.
- Next steps: as part of our drive to celebrate reading across the school, we actively seek new an innovative ways to foster a love of reading in our students. For example, quality assurance findings have led us to refine and improve reading in PDT, investing in 'The Day' (an online news resource for young people) to improve their access to current affairs resources.
Reading support
Peer reading
Younger students who are less confident readers have the opportunity to read to specially selected older students during form time (PDT).
Reading interventions
Selected students take part in individual and group reading activities and those which focus on their vocabulary knowledge, as well as comprehension, inference and visualisation skills.
Lexonik
This intervention programme students achieve reading automaticity, a crucial element of reading fluency. A focus on decoding polysyllabic words, enables quick and accurate reading, allowing students to concentrate on understanding the material.
Lexia
Lexia is a personalised computer-based programme. Each student completes an initial test to determine their level. As students progress through the levels, the tasks become more difficult. Staff monitor progress, stepping in if a student is struggling with a particular topic area.
Spelling support
Spelling support sessions are focus on phonics, and rules and letter patterns that give rise to common mistakes. The sessions allow students to recap the previous lesson before focusing on new information and testing spelling rules and patterns.
Thinking reading
Thinking reading is an intensive one-to-one intervention during which students access three 30-minute, personalised lessons with one of our trained reading tutors to enable them to catch up to age-related expectations in reading. Lessons can cover decoding, phonemes, spelling and writing skills as appropriate to the student’s needs.
Queries?
For further information about our approach to reading, please contact us.
