Reading and Comprehension

At Cannon Lane we are committed to developing children's love of reading and there is a strong focus on supporting this within school and also at home. Our goal is to develop fluent readers who have strong comprehension skills. As 85% of the wider curriculum is reading-based, we know how important reading is to the success of every child, regardless of background.

In Year 2-6, reading is taught both through the teaching in the wider curriculum and also through discreet guided reading sessions. Children are provided a personalised reading book appropriate to their reading level. During guided reading sessions, the children are engaged in learning around our four Big Read characters: Rex Retriever (retrieving key information from text) Expi Explorer (exploring different vocabulary), Ansa Analyser (analysing key features of the text), and Dood Detective (using inference and deduction skills).

During Guided Reading, children work in small groups. One group of children work with the teacher on one of these skills while the other children engage in activities with their personalised text around the four reading skills (retrieval, exploring, analysing and infererence/deduction). 

Each week starts with a 'Big Read' session where children are engaged in a class text related to the theme of writing for the week where they can explore different features of the text. Further to these discreet lessons, reading is embedded into every aspect of our curriculum. 

Workshops are held each year to help parents to support children's reading at home. Please see the parent workshop presentations below for how you can best support your child at home.

The attached documents provide an overview of how reading is taught at Cannon Lane School.  In addition to this, you can find questions that parents can ask children when reading together at home.