Mr Perree's favourite quote for Reading...

'Reading books can help you to make sense of the world, provide refuge from it, an maybe - just one day - inspire you to build a better one.' 

Christopher Edge, Children's author. 
(Most recent children's book published: 'The Many Worlds of Albie Bright')

How can you help your child develop key learning skills?

By Year 5, your child may be a confident reader and be reading texts of greater length. However, you can still help them to develop their reading skills. Ensure they read aloud to you sometimes, talk to them about the books they are reading; ask questions about books they are reading and encourage them to read a range of types of books. Maybe they could recommend a book to you!

• Most important of all; make reading with you as enjoyable as possible.
• Remember you are a reading role model, so let your child see you enjoying reading and remember to still relish opportunities to read to your to your child – do not underestimate a child’s love of being read to at bedtime, whatever their age!
• Ensure your child is reading a range of texts: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, magazines and even the newspaper.
• Ensure your child is reading widely and frequently, outside as well as in school, for pleasure and information.
• As well as reading aloud, allow your child to read silently, and then discuss what they have read.
• When reading books with or to your child, ensure that they continue to pay attention to new vocabulary – both a word’s meaning(s) and its correct pronunciation.
• Discuss the effectiveness of a word an author has used.
• Discuss the meaning of words and why the author may have used a specific word choice. Consider alternative words that could have been used, and the shades of meaning between the words.
• Summarise reading in a concisely, in a way that includes the most important information/details, also including personal opinions.
• Prove or disprove your ideas/predictions about the text by finding the evidence to support or challenge.

Questions you could ask your child:

• When do you think the story takes place? Where do you think the story takes place? Why do you think this? (Look for evidence.)
• Is there a problem in this story? If so, how does the problem get solved?
• What type/ genre of fiction do you think this? (For example horror, science-fiction, drama)
• What if you could change the ending of this book, what would it be?
• Can you find a new word from the book you have read? What does it mean?
• Why does the author use ________ word?
• Is this story similar to another you have read? Can you describe the similarities and differences?
• Do you think this book would make a good movie? Why or why not?
• How is the text organised to support the reader?
• What type of non-fiction do you think this is? (For example report, Instructions, recount or explanation.)
• Can you summarise your text so you understand the settings, characters and events?
• After picking a specific word, either give your child the word itself, or the meaning, and have them ‘scan’ over the text looking for the specific word, or a word that matches the meaning of the word given.
• Learn new vocabulary as you go. Could you replace the word with one you already knew, without changing the meaning of the sentence?