Strengthening the
teaching and assessment
of reading
Aims
• To deepen our understanding of what makes
good reading comprehension
• To consider strategies to strengthen the
teaching and learning and assessment of
reading
• To share resources to support the
understanding of progression in reading
How secure are your
teachers in assessing
reading?
What do you feel are some
of the key issues regarding
the use of APP for reading?
Comprehension is an
interactive and reciprocal process
Oral Language Skills
Vocabulary knowledge
Grammatical skills
Pragmatic abilities
Idioms/figurative language
Cognitive Resources
General knowledge
Knowledge of texts
Inference and deduction
Monitoring understanding
Rich, relevant and varied reading curriculum
Alesha had won the final of the dance
contest and the audience’s cheers brought
her to the stage for an encore. “Every step
she takes is so perfect and graceful, ” Cheri
said grudgingly, as she watched Alesha
dance.
Reading the speech, what might
you infer?
Which words are worth the teaching?
Tier One
the most basic words – e.g. clock, baby, happy
Tier Two
high frequency words for confident word users –
e.g. insist, mischievous, gentle
Tier Three –
often with very specific contexts,
includes low frequency words – e.g.
metamorphosis, symmetrical, phoneme,
Identifying Tier Two words
…With a cry of rage, Prince Aral leapt up and
thrust his sword deep into the dragon’s heart.
Its dying shrieks echoed through the cavern
and awoke the long-sleeping ruler.
Staggering to his feet, the king held his arms
aloft realising that the curse had been
broken. He took a faltering step but stumbled
forward only to be caught immediately by the
prince.
Suggested Criteria for a Tier Two word:
Conceptual understanding
Do the children already have ways to express the
concepts represented? Do they have associations
with words they already know?
Instructional potential
Can the words be worked with in a variety of ways so
that children can build rich representations of them
and make connections to other words and concepts?
Importance and utility
Words that are characteristic of confident language
users and appear across areas of learning.
Identifying Tier Two words
…With a cry of rage, Prince Aral leapt up and
thrust his sword deep into the dragon’s heart.
Its dying shrieks echoed through the cavern
and awoke the long-sleeping ruler.
Staggering to his feet, the king held his arms
aloft realising that the curse had been
broken. He took a faltering step but stumbled
forward only to be caught immediately by the
prince.
Figurative language
Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed
lovers raced across the grassy field toward
each other like two freight trains, one having
left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. travelling at 55
mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a
speed of 35 mph.
A full moon, as heavy as an udder in need of
milking, grazed the tops of the trees.
Inference
Broadly two kinds of inference:
• Coherence inferences
• Elaborative inferences
Inferences
…With a cry of rage, Prince Aral lunged
towards the dragon and pierced the shining
scales. Its dying shrieks echoed through the
cavern and awoke the long-sleeping ruler.
Staggering to his feet, the king held his arms
aloft realising that the curse had been
broken. He took a faltering step but stumbled
forward only to be caught immediately by the
prince.
Cow in the field
As the afternoon light started to fade, the
cow stopped eating grass, stood instead
with its head over the gate and gazed
expectantly down the lane.
•What do we deduce from this?
•What can we infer?
Effective teaching of reading comprehension:
• Learning about words
• Interacting with the text
• Explicitly teaching strategies for reading
comprehension: prediction
questioning
clarifying
imagining
summarisation
Book Talk
Booktalk : Chattergroups…
• Talking one’s way into a deeper understanding is crucial for
developing the ability to think critically and appreciate literature.
It’s in the discussion that the ability to think critically can be
developed
• These skills must be modelled, ‘thinking aloud’, teasing at an
issue
• Children can and should expect to change their minds in the
light of what others say
• Encourage children to raise questions as well as make points
and suggestions
• This is not simply about answering questions or guessing what
the teacher has in their head!
• Booktalk must be developed as part of what the class do and in
itself will contribute to the social health of the class
Thin Ice
She was the colour and size of a haystack
with a brain the size of a needle. Why
else would she have ventured out on to
the ice when the river was thawing?
Now she just stood, looking up at the
houses on the bridge, and barking in a
slow, tuneless rhythm, like an old man
coughing.
Delivery
• How can you use this film to teach comprehension?
Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Progression in narrative
Pupil targets for Strand 7 and 8
Gathering Evidence in Reading (H/O)
Understanding Reading Comprehension (DCSF
Ref: 1310-2005)
Guided Reading KS2 – Institute of Education
Starting Stories BFI Education www.bfi.org.uk
Standards Files
Talk for Writing
The Reading Curriculum
• Shared reading
• Guided reading
• Regular independent reading – individual,
group and paired
• Home/school reading
• Hearing books read aloud on a regular basis
• Selecting their own choice of texts
• Reading whole texts
• Reading cross the curriculum
Teaching and learning in the reading phases
Read as a reader
Familiarisation with text
Reading analysis
and exploration
Capturing ideas
Read as a writer
Analysis
Reading analysis
into writing
Guided Reading
• How effectively does guided reading develop
opportunities for pupils to talk and respond to
each other, exploring ideas and shaping
meaning and so deepening comprehension?
• How effectively is guided reading used to
focus on next steps for groups of pupils?
Developing Assessment
• Understanding progression
• Using lesson study to develop practice in the
teaching of reading
• Developing teacher knowledge of texts
• Context of the criteria in the assessment
guidelines
The Children’s Plan
Teaching and learning are most effective
when teachers are enthusiastic and
knowledgeable and have the confidence to
stand back and encourage pupils to become
independent learners