Carlton Hill Primary School

What is my child’s experience of reading in Year 2?

From Year 2 onwards, we use a ‘whole class guided reading’ approach up to three times per week. During these reading sessions, the whole class enjoy a book together whilst learning and practising the reading strategies that develop reading fluency.  We use whole class guided reading for the following reasons: to introduce all pupils to inspiring authors and exciting books; to grow the shared vocabulary of the class by noticing, celebrating, and re-using new words together; to develop comprehension skills by giving children the opportunity to share their thoughts with each other.

Phonics continues as we work towards completing the remaining Bug Club phonics units.

How do we teach reading in Year 2?

• Children are frequently read to by the class teacher (class books include ‘The Tear Thief’ by Carol Ann Duffy and ‘Mama Panya’s Pancakes’ by Mary Chamberlin).
• There are structured phonics lessons using Bug Club resources.
• Children take part in a teacher led whole class guided reading sessions
• Children access Bug Club phonics packs (fully decodable) and Bug Club Guided Reading sets (also decodable). Teachers may supplement these with colour banded reading sets from green and above.

• Some children may still need to consolidate phonics units 1 to 11. These children read fully decodable books 1:1 with an adult.
• Some children will take part in additional 1-1 reading activities with a school adult, using a mixture of phonic, patterned text and key words books.
• All children visit the school library once a week and can take a library book home.
• We display A5 phase 3 and 5 (as appropriate) picture and sound cards.
• We display A5 phase 2 letters only as useful (for example, some children may need to see b and d).
• We use sound mats to support independent spelling.

What can I do to support my child with reading in Year 2?

• While children are still working within bug club units 1 to 27, they continue to take home Bug Club phonics books and other fully decodable books that match their phonic knowledge.
• Every day, please listen to your child read their decodable book/s.
• In addition, once children are working securely at bug club unit 27, they may take home books from our colour banded boxes (turquoise and above, units 28-30).
• All children also take home books from class library and school library to share at home.
• All children have a reading diary – please comment in your child’s diary and add in any further books that they are enjoying.
• Access the online Bug Club books and resources at home – your child has their own account.
• Ask your child lots of questions about the book- ideas for these are in the front of their reading diary.
• Listen to story audiobooks (you can access some on BugClub).
• Visit the library regularly.