Carlton Hill Primary School

What is my child’s experience of reading in Year 3?

In Year 3, we continue to the ‘whole class guided reading’ approach children are familiar with from Year 2. 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.

Children use reading journals to record activities inspired by the book they are exploring. Unless they are receiving extra adult support, children in Key Stage 2 do not have reading diaries. These are replaced with a school reading log, which tracks the books each child reads.

Unique to Year 3... is that all children take part in the ‘Every Child Seen’ initiative and share books that celebrate of the diversity of our school community. Our aim is to make sure every child sees themselves and their families represented in the books we read. If you know a good book that represents your family, please let us know.

All children:

• are frequently read to by the class teacher;
• experience high quality books during whole class guided reading;
• children regularly read aloud to a reading partner or an adult during whole class reading;
• keep a reading journal;
• visit the school library regularly;
• can take a book from the class library and the school library;

Phonics interventions:

• The teacher, supported by other school adults, will lead a phonics intervention for children who need to consolidate their learning from previous years.
• Children who are consolidating Bug Club units 1 to 11 take part in a phonics intervention and continue to have 1:1 reading with an adult using books appropriate to their Bug Club level.
• Children still not secure up to unit 27 continue to use Bug Club phonics packs and Bug Club Guided Reading sets. These can then be supplemented using colour banded reading sets from turquoise and above. These children should continue to access to the Bug Club e-books at home and school.
• Children taking part in interventions continue to keep a reading diary.

What can I do to support my child with reading in Year 3?

Please continue to read aloud to your child and do ‘turn-taking’ at bedtime. Give your child space and time to read alone. Make sure your child has access to plenty of texts – fiction and non-fiction - on many different topics. Ask us for support with this – we have lots of books at school! Have fun learning the meaning of unfamiliar words that you spot, and try them out in new sentences.

Useful questions to ask:

Would the book make a cool movie? Video game? TV show? What is one thing you could ask the author if you could talk to him or her? Think about your voice when you read that; how might the witch speak? Were there any words you didn’t quite understand?