Comprehension
How we teach reading comprehension
Comprehension is the ability to read a text and understand its meaning. At Birchen Coppice Academy, we teach reading comprehension 2 – 3 times per week. Teachers use the teaching comprehension model below to plan lessons. This model not only informs the teaching of reading in English lessons but in all areas across the curriculum.
The comprehension model is a continuous cycle of five key stages: activating prior knowledge, predict, clarify, ask questions and summarise. The National Curriculum reading domains: vocabulary, author choice, compare, contrast and comment, retrieval, inference, summary and prediction, are not taught explicitly but are combined and interlinked into a five stage teaching approach.
- Activating prior knowledge
We activate prior knowledge so that we have a starting point to the information the child has to a subject, topic or theme. It identifies vocabulary barriers, misconceptions the child may have and engages the reader more quickly with the subject of the text. In also enables the reader to make more plausible inferences and predictions to what they read.
- Predict
When predicting, the reader is anticipating what will come next in the text, based on appropriate prior knowledge, the structure and content of the text, and what they have previously read. This is important because it encourages pupils to think ahead before reading and it gives the reader a purpose - as a reader, we read to reject or confirm a prediction or hypothesis. Predictions are always inference; these may change as the reader gathers more information but should be plausible and logical.
Clarify
The clarify stage of the lesson is where the children identify words and phrases that are unfamiliar. Through discussion, pupils work out what particular words, phrases and concepts mean in the context of the story. A good reader will always look to clarify their understanding of a text and not skip over words or phrases they do not understand.
- Ask questions
Like clarifying, questioning is a way that readers deal with and sort things in a text which confuse them or which are unclear. The questioning section is about addressing the bigger topics, themes and ideas, either explicitly or implicitly.
- Summarise
The summary stage gets the group to agree on the key information that they have gained from reading. A summary should identify the main or most important information in the section they have read and sum up the passage in a few sentences. Summarising a text in a pupils own words requires information to be understood and transformed.
How we assess pupils
In KS2, we use the Rubric Fluency Model to assess fluency and PIRA to test comprehension. These are completed in alternative half terms. Alongside this, we use the Reading Quadrant to identify those pupils at risk of falling behind. For children that need support in comprehension, they take part in the Reciprocal Reading intervention programme. Children that need additional decoding and word recognition support take part in a phonics group or receive 1:1 Read Write Inc tutoring.
In EYFS and KS1 children are assessed every five weeks using the Read Write inc online assessment tool. This assesses pupil’s sound recognition, words they can segment and blend (green words) and words they can read with automaticity and speed. Children are grouped according to their level of reading and taught at a challenge level.