Thread by @Suchmo83

A long(ish) thread on the teaching of reading comprehension in key stage 2. Just some thoughts and opinions:

1/n

Children are often asked to read a brief bit of text before spending the majority of the lesson doing an activity or answering a selection of questions. I don't think this is an effective (or engaging) way to teach reading comprehension. It's little more than assessment.

2/n

For those who aren't already sick of me saying it, the heart of teaching reading comprehension is shared exploration of worthwhile texts, modelling thinking and engaging in rich discussion. No selection of ready-made worksheets comes close to this.

3/n

This is not to say children should never answer questions or clarify their thoughts in writing. They absolutely should. But the vast majority of teaching time should be spent reading and discussing worthwhile texts.

4/n

Compared to a lot of lessons, teaching reading comprehension can feel reactive and exploratory. Lean into this. With practice, you will plan ahead better and hone your instincts on how far to explore unexpected tangents.

5/n

Spend planning time annotating a text, thinking about questions you'll ask and deciding how you will model your thinking. Trust that you *will* get better at planning these discussions if you stop relying on short extracts and questions on ready-made worksheets.

6/n

Ask yourself...

(a) What's interesting about this word, sentence, paragraph, etc?
(b) What might the class not understand here?
(c) How can I encourage students to have and share thoughts on this?
(d) What connections can my class make within this text and to others?

7/n

Often all the planning that is needed is an annotated version of the text that you will share with your class. I know it's a trite thing to say, but planning is the thinking you do, not the resources you create or find somewhere.

8/n

Exploring *the same text* is the sine qua non of whole-class comprehension teaching. Wherever possible, find a way to include every member of the class in this.

9/n

It's valuable to build children's reading stamina and independence. In upper KS2, ask children to read longer and longer chunks of text in silence before returning to discuss aspects of it. Some will finish quicker. They can be encouraged to re-read or summarise.

10/n

However, where an extract is particularly challenging, consider reading it aloud to children and letting them just consider the meaning without the decoding. (As a general rule though, children should probably do the decoding for themselves.)

11/n

While lengthy spells of reading and deep discussions might be more appropriate for older children in primary schools, all reading should have the derivation of meaning from text as a goal, even when working primarily on other areas such as fluency.

12/n

The word "might" is gold dust in classroom discussions. It can make questions much more welcoming.

There is a world of difference between "What does the author mean here?" and "What *might* the author mean here?"

13/n

Of course, sometimes stuff is simply correct or incorrect, but where possible express doubt and fallibility in your own views. Saying, "Maybe this means..." is a powerful way to take the pressure off children and invite discussion.

14/n

It can take a lot of time and effort to convince a class that you aren't always seeking a 'correct' answer. When you achieve this, however, conversations about reading can become pretty special.

15/n

Avoiding heavy praise for correct answers also helps to create the space for rich discussion. The children should see your eyes light up when they take a gamble and venture an opinion or an idea, not when they give you the correct answer to a closed question.

16/n

Through discussion, you will naturally ask children to visualise, predict, summarise, paraphrase, infer, etc. These are *not* generic skills, so don't worry about developing them as such. Focus on children's understanding (and enjoyment) of the text in front of them.

17/n

That said, it can be useful to model the monitoring of your comprehension.

E.g.

"That was a tricky sentence to understand. Let's read it again."

"Let's summarise what's happened in the story so far."

Etc

18/n

In short, read lots, model your thinking, ask thought-provoking questions, nurture an atmosphere of exploration and focus on helping children to understand the text in front of them.

That's it. Thanks for reading.

19/19

I've had some questions about how this kind of teaching allows for the clear 'evidence' trail that some school leaders insist upon. The short answer is that it doesn't. It is teaching that prioritises reading comprehension development over any such unnecessary considerations.

If you found the thread interesting, you might like my book. (All royalties will be going to a Give-Well registered charity):

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Alternatively, you might like this episode of @Kieran_M_Ed's TDaPE podcast: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sea…