Reading in Oak Class

How do we learn to read in Oak?

The current most effective approach to guided reading is whole-class involvement. Four time a week, the the children will have a reading comprehension session where they will engage in group discussions, partner-talk and independent written responses following our VIPERS skills (see doc below for info). We use our core reader each week, reviewing a new chapter. We also use themed texts, exposing the children to a variety of text types and genres which link to our curriculum focuses. These reading skills are applied to our writing lessons as we link our vocabulary and contextual knowledge. 

Our core texts: 

Each term, we have carefully chosen core texts which supports the learning of our curriculum drivers. We use these in our VIPERS session to deepen our understanding and enhance our writing context. 

Independent reading at home: 

It is crucial to your child’s development that they read at home at every day. This can be independent but opportunities for your child to read to someone aloud is important, especially when we are still learning new words all the time and need some help pronouncing these! 

In Oak class, each child has a 'Books I've Read' book mark to track their reads for the year. Once your child has finished a book, they will complete a book review in class. These are checked to ensure that children are reading consistently and completing books within a reasonable amount of time, as well as understanding the text they have read. 

We have access to a wide range of texts in school and it is great to see children reading their own books from home as well. At the end of last year, Whitstone introduced our Reading Challenge Trees. It'll be fantastic for the children to kick-start the year selecting the high-quality texts from our trees. Each child has a 'Challenge Passport' which they tick off their progress throughout the year.