How we teach Reading in KS2

A reading session is timetabled daily for each year group in Key Stage 2. We have adopted the use of VIPERS which is an acronym for:

V: Vocabulary

I: Infer

P: Predict

E: Explain

R: Retrieve

S: Sequence or Summarise

This is our planning, teaching and learning approach.  During these sessions we ensure that children are taught using different texts and genres.  The texts used are often short extracts. ‘Echo reading’ is a key approach during these sessions as this allows children to practice and develop the prosody of reading.  Children will also be given the opportunity to read individually and feedback, work in groups, take turns in pairs or read aloud to their peers. A number of these different strategies may be seen during one session.  Children will be given the opportunity to apply their reading skills during these sessions.   

The focus of these sessions is to develop skills to enable children to become complete readers which include decoding, skimming, scanning, comprehension, fluency and prosody. As children move through KS2, they are required to become more analytical as readers. They need to be aware of authorial intent and the implication of historical and cultural context on a piece of writing. These difficult skills need to be modelled and taught by the teacher. A whole class guided reading session will allow all children to access the curriculum and be subject to the high expectations present throughout Bignold Primary School. The Long Term Plan has ensured all areas of the content domain are covered throughout the year with many opportunities for revision to ensure they become embedded in the children’s long term memory.  Children will also have the opportunity to revisit their learning, with teachers carefully selected text which will allow them to use their knowledge to deepen their understanding of subjects being covered. 

 Each day there is a selection of teaching activities which develop their understanding of reading (VIPERS). As a school we have mapped out learning objectives to ensure that there is a breadth of learning across all year groups.  We have created Long Term Plans for each year group from Year 2 to Year 6.