Reading
The Year 5 and Year 6 English curriculum for reading focuses on 2 main aspects - word reading (being able to read the words themselves) and comprehension (the ability to understand what they're reading).
- The best way to support your child's reading skills is to read lots at home and to take note of how easy or hard they find reading certain books, to make sure they're reading books at the right level.
- Simply encouraging children to read as widely and often as they can is the most important thing. Find whatever it is that they're interested in and let them read as many books on it as they like!
- Reading classic books is a brilliant way to challenge fluent readers who are already keen bookworms. Take a look at the themes and conventions in the book.
- For struggling readers, audiobooks can be extremely helpful. You could even read along with the book - listening to the words just might help your child to concentrate and engage fully.
Reading - Word Reading
- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology), as listed in English appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet
Reading - Comprehension
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by continuing to read and discuss an increasingly wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by recommending books that they have read to their peers, giving reasons for their choices
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by identifying and discussing themes and conventions in and across a wide range of writing
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read bymaking comparisons within and across books
- maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by learning a wider range of poetry by heart
- preparing poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience
- understand what they read by checking that the book makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and exploring the meaning of words in context
- understand what they read by asking questions to improve their understanding
- understand what they read by drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
- understand what they read by predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
- understand what they read by summarising the main ideas drawn from more than 1 paragraph, identifying key details that support the main idea
- understand what they read by identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning
- discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader
- distinguish between statements of fact and opinion
- retrieve, record and present information from non-fiction
- participate in discussions about books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously
- explain and discuss their understanding of what they have read, including through formal presentations and debates, maintaining a focus on the topic and using notes where necessary
- provide reasoned justifications for their views