putting, especially for reluctant readers. The most important function of the Reading Book is to help learners develop a love of reading!


Group guided reading


The purpose of guided reading lessons is to give learners individual attention and to help them develop the strategies they need to become fluent readers. To achieve this, learners need to be


Stage Description


Stage 1: (Pre-readers) Can listen to and respond to stories. Knows some letters and is interested in reading. Can’t decode or make meaning of words alone yet.


Stage 2: (Emergent readers)


Uses picture cues to tell stories. Can recognise some words, and joins in when reading familiar books with the teacher. Knows some letter sounds and is starting to try and sound out (decode) words.


Stage 3: (Early readers)


Uses picture cues. Can recognise many words and sound out many simple words, but reads word for word (not fluently). Can read books with structures and repetitive patterns.


Stage 4: (Developing readers)


Uses knowledge of phonics to decode new words. Has basic sight vocabulary, links words and phrases and can read longer books. Can correct some of own errors.


Stage 5: (Early fluent readers)


Uses different strategies to read; phonics, knowledge of structures, and has a good sight vocabulary. Uses punctuation clues and can read silently.


Stages 6–7: (Fluent and pair/independent readers)


Reads a (wide) variety of familiar and unfamiliar texts fluently and silently, using a variety of reading strategies to work out meaning.


Reading comprehension


You will probably find the shared reading method best for reading comprehension activities in the Learner’s Book, but pair and independent reading can also be used depending on the level of your learners. Occasionally we have provided marks next to


the reading comprehension questions even if it is not for formal assessment. We have done this to help learners prepare for assessment tasks, tests and examinations. Teach the learners to read these marks, because they give an indication of how they should answer a question. For example, if there are three marks, the learners will need to write more than just one word.


14 The comprehension questions are varied and


graded according to cognitive levels. We start with simple questions that require learners to find specific items of information and then move up towards questions that require them to infer and analyse information. We have introduced different types of questioning as well, for example True/False questions, multiple-choice questions and gap-filling questions.


Reading aloud


Learners will be assessed on their abilities for reading aloud both prepared and unprepared texts. They will learn to read different types of texts too – stories that need to be read with lots of


grouped according to the stage they have reached in the process of learning to read. As learners progress at different rates, these ability groups will need to be revised from time to time. The reading levels of learners may vary greatly. Some learners may be reading quite fluently already and others may still be struggling to decode simple words. There are seven stages in learning to read. By


Grade 6, most of your learners should be at stages 6 and 7.


Tips for helping different ability levels


Discuss the pictures with the learners first to help them with the vocabulary. Read the text with each learner, pointing to each word as you read. Ask the learners to identify the beginning sounds of words. Help the learners to use picture clues to work out meanings of words.


Let the learners try and read by themselves. Encourage them to look at pictures and to identify the beginning sounds of each word. Once they have identified the beginning sound, they can use prior knowledge and clues from pictures to try and guess what the word is. Knowledge of phonics and sight words is an important skill to learn at this stage.


Help the learners to identify sight words in the text rather than trying to sound out every word they see. Make sure the learners understand what they are reading. Start asking them questions as they read to make sure they are not just sounding out the words.


Help the learners to develop fluency by reading and trying to understand whole phrases and sentences, rather than just words. Let them reread the texts a few times. Ask questions to check comprehension.


Make sure the learners have suitable books to read. Encourage them to use dictionaries to look up words which they do not understand. Ask the learners higher order questions to establish whether they have really understood what they have read.


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