English

Reading

Intent

When children leave Kempsey Primary School we want them to have a love for reading and be able to independently access the skills required to understand and answer questions on a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. At KPS, we guide pupils in constructing ‘mental models’ of texts to build and deepen understanding. We do this with the aim of having fluent readers throughout the school, that are confident in accessing a variety of texts.

Implementation

Reading sessions take place 4 times a week at KPS. Each session has a different focus.

Session 1- Teacher reading aloud

• Teacher to read an extract of a text (of any type) to children. Read the full extract without stopping for discussion or explanation. (15 mins)

• Teacher to read text extract again, this time often pausing to:

  • Explain new words

  • Explain new language patterns and ideas

• E.G:

• Think aloud which character the pronoun ‘he’ refers to in a sentence

• Think aloud about the content of the text, e.g. an unexpected plot twist

• Introduce new vocab by explaining keywords

• Sharing new vocabulary

• Connecting text to pupils' own experiences.

Session 2- Pupil reading

• Children read individually, or in pairs.

• Partnered reading can be effective with pupils taking in turns to read aloud a sentence, paragraph or page.

• It’s important to ensure that pupils are clear about what their role is when ‘listening’. Are they listening to offer feedback, or concentrating on the meaning of a text?

• Time should be spent here on developing fluency through effective modelling and feedback. It also requires teachers to have chosen a book suitable for that learner.

Session 3- Teacher modelling

• Demonstrating what skilled readers do to create mental models of texts.

• Teachers read the same extract of text and stop occasionally to think aloud, commenting as they read.

• You might:

  • Model how ideas in the text and ideas from pupils’ background knowledge are combined to make meaning

  • Show how to decode unfamiliar words, and explain/find out their meaning

  • Comment and consider the impact of specific words or phrases

  • Model how skilled readers fill in gaps as they read.

Session 4- Questioning

• Effective questioning to deepen understanding, promoting pupils to think about the text they have read.

• Questions must be text-specific.

• Questions to incorporate the 6 reading domains:

  • Vocabulary

  • Inference

  • Predictions

  • Explanations

  • Retrieval

  • Sequencing/Summarising

  • (VIPERS question stems)

Writing

Implementation

At Kempsey Primary School we have adopted ‘The Write Stuff’ by Jane Considine to bring clarity and consistency to the mechanics of writing and to enable our children to write effectively and coherently. As a school, all children from Year 1 to Year 6 learn to write through the Write Stuff approach. This was developed by teacher and leading English consultant, Jane Considine. It is a fun, creative and rigorous approach to developing children’s writing. This approach allows children to apply basic skills, vocabulary and grammar knowledge to write effective sentences, which are full of impact and keep the reader interested.

In The Write Stuff approach to writing, the children explore high-level, rich vocabulary and are taught grammar in context through different writing lenses on the Writing Rainbow. There are three lenses used to support children with their writing:

Fantastics – ideas for writing
Grammaristics – tools for writing
Boomtastics – writing techniques

The Write Stuff is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons.

As part of the teaching sequence, teachers plan experience days; sentence stacking lessons and independent writing sequences. Experience days immerse children in experiences linked to their writing and drench them in vocabulary related to the lenses in ‘The Writing Rainbow’. From the experience days, children take part in sentence stacking lessons. Sentence stacking lessons focus on writing three sentences with a focus on the lenses of the rainbow.

‘The Write Stuff’ follows a method called ‘Sentence Stacking’ which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.

An individual lesson is based on one plot point from the text, broken into three learning chunks:

• 1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
• 2. Model section – the teacher models a sentence that outlines apparent writing features and techniques.
• 3. Enable section – the children write their sentences, following the teacher’s model.

This part of the unit is heavily scaffolded with lots of teacher input and modelling of vocabulary use, sentence construction and use of grammar with reference to the 3 writing lenses.

During the initiate section children ‘chot’ (chat and jot) down their ideas from stimulating resources, such as pictures, music and drama. The children are encouraged to use ‘kind calling out’ where they call out examples of vocabulary, adverbs, onomatopoeia etc.

During the Model section, the teacher prepares children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar and techniques of writing taken from the writing rainbow.
In the Enable section pupils write their own sentences, taking the opportunity to deepen the moment. ‘Deepen the Moment’ is where children are challenged to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.
Following the sentence stacking, children are given the opportunity to show what they have learnt by planning and writing their own independent pieces of writing. After they have written their independent piece, their work is marked by the class teacher who identifies different aspects of their written piece to be edited. There are 3 elements to the editing;

E1 Edit: The Revise

Edit Type 1: These are often ‘little’ adjustments or changes and tend to fall into one of these categories; Spellings Missing words or Punctuation

E2 Edit: The Rewrite

Edit Type 2: Children are asked to re-write a sentence if it doesn’t make sense, could be restructured or generally improved.

E3 Edit: The Reimagine

Edit Type 3: This is when a writer wants to add more sentences to develop an idea further. For this, the children are shown how to use ‘editing flaps’.
Editing flaps are extra pieces of paper that stick onto their writing and show the additional sentences added to their work.

The Write Stuff provides a balance of narrative, non-fiction and poetry writing throughout each term.

Impact

Having followed the Write Stuff approach to developing their writing skills children should be able to

• write for a range of purposes including diary entries, persuasive letters, stories, poems and recounts to name but a few.
• use their vast knowledge of vocabulary to excite, inform or entertain the reader.
• understand a range of punctuation and the effect it can have on the reader in both writing and reading.
• understand and be able to use a range of grammatical devices.
• understand the various sentence types that can be used to support different genres.
• spell accurately using their phonetic knowledge and apply spelling rules.
• to speak clearly, fluently and coherently, to be able to listen attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy and contribute to group discussions

Oracy

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a vital tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. 

At Kempsey Primary School, we believe spoken language to be essential in the development and achievement of our children across the curriculum. We strive to develop spoken language skills through the taught curriculum, the hidden curriculum, playtimes and lunchtimes, extra-curricular activities and the whole ethos of the school. Children are taught how to be effective communicators through oracy projects that feature skills such as storytelling, debating and presenting. Good oracy skills support wider literacy skills; improvement in oracy is also linked to improvements in reading, writing, and overall attainment. 

Respectful and productive relationships between all who form part of the school community are crucial aspects of our oracy ethos. We place a high priority on supporting the development of good speaking and listening skills amongst our pupils. Correct spoken language and development of vocabulary is fundamental to learning. Speaking and listening play a large part in a child’s progress in all curriculum areas and teachers plan to develop these skills in a wide variety of ways. We aim to develop and encourage fluent speakers, with rich vocabulary, who are confident to operate in a wide range of situations.