Supporting your Child with Reading

If these images spark fond memories, then you are not alone; by the time children reach 8 years old, on average, only 19% of children will have a book read to them at home.  There are many reasons for this, primarily they may be confident readers by this age and as they get older they seek independence.  However, the importance of reading, especially for pleasure, remains essential.

For further reading habits of our children you may find this report by the National Literacy Trust interesting.
https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-reading-in-2023

You may struggle to engage your older child with reading but that doesn’t mean you don’t know why it’s important. Why children should read:

  • It helps them acquire knowledge
  • It increases their literacy and vocabulary
  • It improves their attention span
  • It helps them be more empathetic
  • It helps improve their mental health

What we do in school-whole school interventions.

Here at John Ruskin School we do a lot to ensure that our students leave school not only with reading ages that are expected of them but also ensuring they can move forward as confident and discerning readers.

When your child enters school they are screened for their reading age as well as fluency of reading. In addition, we use the Accelerated Reader programme where your child is tested (Star Reading Test) and a reading range of books is recommended for them (referred to as their ‘zone of proximity’). While this ‘range’ is set to be appropriate for their needs, there is a wide range of fiction books within each range that they can choose from which makes the programme student-led.

Rewards for reading – the Accelerated Reading programme monitors progress and as a result, each half term prizes are awarded for categories such as most words read, most quizzes taken, most progress made.

Timetabled lessons at KS3 are dedicated to reading for pleasure. During this time there is also a ‘class reader’ which means the teacher will read a book with students – we often discuss how the book might link to their own reading text or students make book recommendations to one another.

There are other reading interventions at JRS too:

KS3 Phonics Group

For our Phonics intervention group we run a dual session three times a week. This consists of half a period for reading, and half for Phonics. We have been using the Phonics International Scheme that introduces two to three new sounds a week through a series of activities, consisting of introducing the sound, practising the sound, embedding and applying this knowledge. Flash cards and finger symbols are used to practise the number of phonetic sounds that they can hear and the students become familiar with the terminology around Phonics such as trigraph where a sound consists of three letters. Students practise new sounds as a group, using them in words to segment and blend to recognise the different sounds. The Phonics International Scheme has workbooks that contain activities that students are then able to complete, consisting of written and reading tasks pulling on the new sound as well as previous learning. Students also complete different Phonics games.

KS3 VIPERS Group

Vocabulary Inference Prediction Explain Retrieve Summarise

The VIPERS reading interventions offer a chance for students to practise word and sentence reading. It helps students with reading comprehension. The VIPERS sessions are split into two segments:

1 – Focusing on word/ sentence reading, brushing up on phonetic sounds to be able to decode words.

2 A – Comprehension of a text being able to: infer what a text could mean by ‘reading between the lines’, predict what could either follow the text or predict what may happen in later parts of a fictional text; explain either the meaning of words or explain why a character may be feeling how they are feeling in fictional texts; retrieval-which means being able to identify words in a text from their meaning for example: find a describing word that describes the height of a building (big, tall etc) and summarise what each paragraph is telling us.

2 B – Applying VIPERS in the context of writing. Each text has a bank of questions linking to each VIPER – it is firstly completed through teacher-led discussions opening the floor to the students in order to boost confidence and to improve in class participation. Students then independently answer the questions in formulated sentences and / or paragraphs.

KS3 Word Shark

Wordshark is a games-based product for learning spellings and for reading skills. It is a web enabled app meaning parental engagement out of school hours can be encouraged.

Students in Years 7,8, and 9, who have not achieved their chronological reading age (determined by Accelerated Reader Star Tests) are given a Wordshark account. They then attend a single Wordshark lesson each week, which is supported by a TA.

In these lessons, students work independently or with support, at their own level and pace. When they first log in, they are automatically given a Shark Challenge – an adaptive assessment and placement test. They are then suitably placed but staff are able to change their placement to any unit level at any time. Students are given differing sets of games to play, with an optional reward game every third game. They are moved through the course sequentially – generally they need 85% or higher accuracy in a spelling game to move to the next list.

In addition to the 10,000 words already available in Wordshark, we create our own course content. Teachers/TAs can create additional reading lists and set these as work for individual students or groups of students.

The system contains secondary subject lists that familiarise students with basic vocabulary in different subjects, including: Maths, English, Physics, Biology Chemistry, Geography, Music, DT and Citizenship. When students achieve their chronological reading ages, they are moved off the Wordshark intervention but may retain access to their Wordshark account.

KS4 – READ THE RIGHT WAY

Students at KS4 who do not follow all options and students who, by the end of Year 9, have not made enough progress in their reading, have one lesson dedicated to improving reading skills through looking at a range of fiction and non-fiction texts in booklets called Read the Right Way. This intervention either happens in private study or a five week rotation so students don’t miss too many lessons. The information retrieval and analysis in these sessions helps to develop reading stamina across the curriculum – the oral discussion; the exposure to unfamiliar vocabulary; the selection of words or phrases to support their answers and the focus on specific reading strategies to locate information (for example, skimming / scanning; looking for keywords etc.) support students’ confidence and reading stamina whatever the subject area.

Form time reading

At least two of our form time sessions are dedicated to prescribed reading activities. Each fortnight a new topic is presented which means that ALL students are given an opportunity to explore a range of texts together. These texts have included: fiction; texts chosen by our head students; articles on internet safety; citizenship; climate change-the list goes on. The aim of form time reading is to promote discussion around a shared text. As our forms are vertical, different age groups get to read and share their opinions on a text.

Within the classroom

Improving reading in our students and promoting a positive reading culture has been a priority here at John Ruskin School and, through our INSET sessions all teachers can adopt a range of reading strategies within their own subject areas. Here are a few of them:

  • Choral reading
  • Reading wheels for subject areas
  • Model reading for fluency – call and response so students experience saying unfamiliar words out loud
  • Pre-teaching vocabulary found within a text
  • Releasing a text slowly – making predictions
  • Exploring text structure and the sequence of information
  • Distillation activities after reading a text – for example, reformatting the information

Our Library

While our local libraries may seem few and far between and for some you may feel that your local abandoned phone box is your only access to free books please don’t forget we have a well-stocked library dedicated to our students. The library is regularly refreshed, mostly through the John Ruskin School Fundraising Committee but also through kind donations from parents and students and opens up access to hundreds of books.

Bookbuzz – each year, our new intake of Year 7 students get to choose a book from a selection and get it for free.

Scholastic Book Fair – this has returned this year and will now be an annual event.

Choosing and owning their own book is a great way of engaging students in reading for pleasure.

Celebrations – National Poetry Day, World Book Day, Shakespeare’s birthday have all been celebrated at JRS!

What can you do?

We know that a triangle is the strongest shape so between you, your child and teachers at JRS, if we all do the same things then there is more chance of success.

You may not have the book bag from junior school anymore but all KS3 students should have an Accelerated Reading book with them at all times so you can talk to them about this. They will have their ‘zone of proximity’ written in their planner so you can check that they are reading the correct level book, ask them about it and get them to read a page to you.

Being a role model – if other people in the house read then your child is more likely to read too.

Remember, just because they are a pre-teenager OR teenager, you are still the expert so let them hear you read. If you think they are the expert then you can always swap roles. Reading the same book as your child can be a great way to start a conversation!

Reinforce what we do at school: we use choral reading so your child can hear what words sound like – and it’s fun. Join in with the fun.

The reading wheel – when they are reading, either fiction or non-fiction, you can use these questions to help them engage in the text.

Choose the right book - this can cause anxiety in all of us but there will be a book out there that sparks your child’s imagination: perhaps it is a series of books, or books based on a TV series or film they are already familiar with.

Reading partners - if you have a younger child at home then you could ask your older one to read to them.

Dyslexia friendly books - these are formatted to make it easier for a child with dyslexia to read. Generally they have certain features:

  • Unique, dyslexia-friendly font specially created to make reading easier
  • Accessible layouts and spacing stop the page from becoming overcrowded
  • Heavier paper with a gentle tint helps reduce visual stresses
  • Award-winning authors ensure well-written texts with plenty to engage and discuss
  • Bestselling names that readers will recognise and their friends already love
  • Award-winning illustrators help bring the stories to life and aid comprehension
  • Expertly edited to ensure unnecessary words don’t hinder comprehension while the text will still challenge the reader
  • Lots of illustration to break up the text and keep the story moving
  • Short, sharp, unpatronising content matched to the age of the reader not their reading level

There are plenty of websites where you can find these books and we aim to mark them in the library.

https://booksforbugs.co.uk/product-category/barrington-stoke-books/dyslexia-friendly-for-ages-10/

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/booklists/d/dyslexia/

https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/dyslexia-friendly-books

Make sure books are a treat and not a threat.

Audio books could be a good introduction to the whole reading experience.

And finally, a bit of gentle bribery can go a long way. Get your child to pick up a ‘BOOK BINGO’ card from the library and encourage them to fill in the bingo card. They will receive a small prize from school but you could offer your own for added incentive.