Reading and Disciplinary Literacy

At All Saints Academy, we are passionate about reading and pupil’s ability to understand the written word around them. This is because:

• Reading increases pupils vocabulary by 26%¹
• Pupils who read make more progress in their GCSEs²
• It significantly improves young peoples’ cognitive development, even overcoming disadvantage due to socio-economic background³
• It helps pupils secure professional jobs⁴
• It helps young people feel less lonely, be less likely to suffer from depression, and have greater self-esteem⁵

However, we also recognise that not all young people are confident readers, with:

• 1 in five pupils not able to read well by the end of Primary school⁶
• 18% of 15-year-olds in English do not have a minimum level of literacy proficiency⁷
• Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds reading at a level on average 3 years behind their non-disadvantaged peers⁸

Given the significant benefits that being a secure, confident reader can bring to a young person’s academic, emotional, and spiritual development, it is right that reading be prioritised such that pupils leave secondary school at an age-appropriate level of reading comprehension.

Our Approaches

We have a raft of strategies that are used throughout the time our young people spend at All Saints to boost their reading skills. These include:

Building Upon Key Stage Two

We work closely with our feeder schools to establish continuity of approaches used for both phonics instruction and Reading for Pleasure programs. This work falls within The Chesil Literacy Project that works across all 22 schools within Weymouth and Portland.

More information can be found on The Chesil Literacy Project website.

Regular Assessment

Pupils’ reading ability is assessed at the end of each term. By assessing regularly, we are able to deploy strategies to support and stretch our young people appropriately for their reading ability.

We use the GL Assessment New Group Reading Tests (Information for parents – GL Assessment (gl-assessment.co.uk).  These are series of multiple-choice questions which test how well pupils understand a given sentence or passage.

Parents are informed of their child’s reading age at the end of each term, as well as the support measures required for their reading ability.

Targeted Intervention and Support

After each reading assessment, pupils are placed into bands depending on the difference between their reading age and chronological age. The able below outlines this categorisation:

The support or extension activities put in place for pupils in each category are as follows:

DEAR (Drop Everything and Read)

The DEAR programme aims to develop pupils’ love of reading. All pupils spend two 30-minutes tutor sessions per week reading a novel. The novels have been selected to ensure they are age appropriate in terms of both Reading Age and themes.

The books being read from September this year are:

These books were launched in September, with teachers modelling the reading of the text. All pupils have their own book for DEAR sessions. Strategies, such as using a bookmark to aid reading, are widely adopted by pupils.

Explicit Disciplinary Literacy Instruction

Whilst the previous strands of the Reading strategy aim to aid the general reading skills of pupils, this final strand focuses on developing pupils’ abilities to read and comprehend academic texts and communicate effectively in each discipline.

When approaching an academic text, teachers consider:

• The background knowledge required to understand the text;
• The specific vocabulary needed to link themes and topics together; and
• The specific language structure of the subject.

Additionally, the figure below, from Alex Quigley’s Mind the Reading Gap, illustrates the roles of background knowledge and specific-specific reading strategies, when linked with general reading strategies, on developing pupils’ disciplinary reading skills.

Therefore, teachers have considered the key tier three terminology that pupils must understand to be successful in their subjects, and teachers use methods of explicit disciplinary literacy instruction to teach and reinforce these keywords. These strategies include:

• The Frayer Model
• Visual Organisers for synonyms or antonyms
• Glossaries and Knowledge Organisers
• Online spelling test homework

Subject-specific reading strategies are aided by the inclusion of high-quality educational textbooks in many lessons, increasing pupil exposure to academic writing in a structured and effective manner.

Reporting to Parents

The progress of pupils’ reading ability is primarily assessed using the GL Assessment Standardised Reading Tests (completed three times a year). Pupils also complete an Accelerated Reader Star Test each September to gauge their ZPD range.

After each GL Assessment Reading Test, data is analysed at a cohort level, and pupil level. This is used to identify target groups for engagement and inform appropriate action (for example promoting boy-focus reading material or promoting the free loans system with disadvantaged pupils). Progress data for Reading Plus is analysed to review the progress of pupils entered on the Reading Plus Intervention programme. This analysis reviews pupil completion, and speed and comprehension progress data. This information is internally reviewed and shared with parents.

The progress of pupils in intervention programmes is monitored using the six-weekly course-appropriate tests. When the pupils meet the stated criteria for progression, parents are contacted to discuss their child’s progress and next steps.