Help with Reading

Primary School

☺ Reading is hard to begin with, but once you can read, it will change your life!

☺ Learning to Read: It may take you longer but you will learn your letter sounds, how those sounds make words, how those words come in word families, how some are irregular (but most are not) how words make sentences and how sentences make up paragraphs and stories.

☺ But there is a lot you can do at home to help yourself:

☺ Words – look at words and think about word families (light, bright, sight, night etc) Look at Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes for great examples.

☺ Word Games – It helps to remember words if they are broken up and you discover where they come from (aqua-lung, aque-duct, aqua-rium. The root is aqua, Latin for water) Also have fun with nonsense words (Look at The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carrol). Play Word Games in the car (you can buy a book of these)

☺ Practice reading with your parents. Especially at weekends and holidays when you aren’t tired. They can read along with you or they can read one paragraph and you read the next.

☺ If you are tired at the end of a long school day, don’t feel you have to read a book, listen to books on CD. The important thing is that you hear good written language.

☺ Some of my favourite authors for your level are:

☺ Roald Dahl

☺ Michael Morpurgo

☺ David Almond

☺ Eva Ibotson

☺ CS Lewis

☺ JRR Tolkien

☺ Jamilla Gavin

Secondary School

☺ Reading at Secondary School should fall in to two categories: reading for information / work and reading for pleasure. Some of you will find it hard to read for pleasure when you are so tired from school, but it is incredibly important for how you sound on paper. As a teacher, I can tell immediately if your writing is written the way you talk or you write how you have seen it in books. There is a huge difference!

☺ Reading for School:

☺ Work out what you need to read.

☺ Look at ways of reading:

☺ Skimming: look at whole chapter, before you start reading, and at all the headings and sub-headings to provide a framework before you read.

☺ Scanning: look at key words, names, dates, locations, definitions and, if you are able, highlight them.

☺ Visualise the content. Take notes/highlight key words/make diagrams or cartoon pictures/ songs/ act out to engage your brain!

☺ This helps with memory, concentration and comprehension.

☺ Reading for Pleasure

☺ Reading should be a pleasure, put time aside for it. Phones and laptops should be banned from the bedroom!

☺ One doesn’t always want to read ‘good’ books, but if you are reading a trashy book, then follow it with one that is written really well (you know the difference!)

☺ Fantasy and real life stories are really popular themes. Have a look at the library, your parent’s bookshelves, ask your friends and go to charity shops for cheap books.

☺ Some of my favourite, well-written authors and their books, for your age group might be:

☺ Roald Dahl- Tales of the Unexpected

☺ JRR Tolkien- Lord of the Rings

☺ Philip Pullman- Northern Lights

☺ Malorie Blackman- Noughts and Crosses

☺ Jamilla Gavin- Coram Boy

☺ Mark Haddon- Curious Incident of the Dog in the nighttime

☺ Meg Rosoff-How I Live Now

☺ Brian Jacques-Redwall

☺ Robin Jarvis- Raven’s Knot

☺ John Marsden- Tomorrow When the War Began (a hard-to-put-down series of seven books!)