At Ark Soane Academy, we prioritise reading in every classroom. By promoting reading across the full curriculum, we equip students to read fluently and comprehend texts in every subject. It is crucial that we nurture fluent readers who can independently comprehend a wide range of texts; this will set them up for success in future learning. When reading a text in the classroom we encourage self-reflection, discussion and curious navigation of different opinions and interpretations; we see students’ empathy, tolerance and self-awareness grow as a result.
Our reading across the curriculum strategy is founded upon the following five principles:
- Reading is the pathway to learning – Reading is the key to unlocking the curriculum for students. Students are trained to read as historians, scientists, geographers and mathematicians, so that they can progressively build stamina for reading challenging, academic texts in the future.
- Background knowledge matters – The reading students undertake in school is typically more complex than other forms and requires substantial background knowledge. Through pre-reading tasks, teachers equip students with background knowledge to aid their reading and comprehension.
- Fluency aids comprehension – Reading with expression and accuracy contribute towards reading comprehension. Providing students with opportunities to read aloud in the classroom allows teachers to support students to develop fluency.
- 'Accountable Independent Reading' is a tool for life – Teachers support students to read texts for meaning by providing them with questions and tasks that support their comprehension, encourage ‘active’ reading habits and equip them to independently tackle challenging texts later in life.
- Able readers read more independently – Children’s reading ability determines how much they read. As teachers, we are committed to delivering high quality reading provision; if we can improve the teaching of reading, then we are likely to increase how much our students read for pleasure and engage in our subjects.
Our work on reading in the classroom is fully supported through:
phonics and literacy intervention programme for novice readers
twice-weekly sessions of silent independent reading
90 minutes of whole class reading each week
our warm, inclusive and well-used library