Reading Comprehension

The purpose of reading comprehension is to understand the words that have been read. 

Being able to understand what we read is a very important skill. In order to be good readers, we need to use strategies to help us build an understanding of a text.

We teach our children at Stephenson six key strategies to use in order to become good readers, who are competent and can read for understanding. 

In Early Years, to develop understanding of a text, in addition to the discrete phonics sessions, children engage in regular story telling sessions using high quality texts and discuss them, discuss texts used across the curriculum, engage in shared and guided reading and have access to reading areas in school. Our curriculum is language rich and is immersive, which supports children in developing comprehension skills also. 

In Key Stage 1 and 2 children focus on one particular skill on a 3 week cycle. This means that throughout the year each strategy is revisited, allowing consolidation, extension of learning and ensures it has been used across a range of genres. This supports our children in constructing meaning for any text they read. During the cycle, children will engage in a range of purposeful and planned reading activities in order to see the strategy being modelled, use it to construct meaning in groups, pairs and independently apply this in their own reading. 

The regular purposeful and planned reading activities include:  

• Shared reading (in Literacy and across all areas of the curriculum);

• Guided reading;

• Paired reading; 

• Class novel reading time; 

• Reading assemblies. 

Click on the strategies below to find out more information about how good readers use them to support developing an understanding of a text.