Catherine Root is Literacy and Reading Recovery Lead at Stationers' Crown Woods academy, a large academy based in Greenwich, southeast London. Catherine participated in the KS3 Reading Fluency Project in summer 2021 and implemented the strategies with students in years 7 and 8 who were struggling with reading accuracy and comprehension. 

I was looking for the Holy Grail - the quest that every school Leadership team has: to find something that would close the literacy gap. Having been an English teacher for 23 years and a senior leader for 13 of these, I had seen ‘literacy’ float around school agendas in a pretence of its significance but in truth anything being actioned having very little real impact. ‘Word of the Week’ may have been displayed in every classroom, students might have access to a well-stocked library, key word lists might well be distributed and displayed but the stark reality was that these things, while ticking boxes, had very little influence on improving students’ literacy levels, even less so for those who had already fallen behind. Worse still perhaps was ‘literacy intervention’ which although undoubtedly offering reading time and pastoral support, also fell short of a high energy, high impact measurable strategy to really close the gap.

Returning from maternity leave, I started a new part-time role as Literacy Lead at a 1700 strong academy in Greenwich.  The main part of this work was to review literacy provision across the school and to launch some reading recovery programmes. As I met the pupils, my heart ached for the students in front of me, whose level of reading was so poor that not accessing their Geography lesson was the least of my worries for them. How do they navigate the world on a daily basis? Read a bus timetable? Send an email? Read instructions? How will they apply for job? Be able to revise for their driving theory test? Do something that an employer requests of them?  In most cases, these children have learnt to cleverly mask their weakness in reading - even more dangerous in the classroom where busy teachers think they understand but do not realise how little they have really grasped.

I wanted to fix it; to put it right once and for all; to find that intervention that would really work! 

I looked at various programmes, all of which had merit but all were also tagged as ‘moderate’ in impact. Some were phonics focused but my issue was students who could, on the whole, decode successfully but had somehow stopped developing and reading so that their comprehension and vocabulary was weak. Many of the programmes that seemed written for them were perhaps a little dry in content and structure and although I found a few things I thought might be useful, I still couldn’t find the short, intensive, quick-burst intervention programme that I was looking for until a chance conversation with a Primary school teacher friend. She had been on the one-day Herts For Learning Reading Fluency Project training and said she had experimented with some of the ideas, finding that they had impact.

Booking myself on to the overview training to get a flavour, I had no idea what to expect, hoping I suppose to see something brilliant, expecting perhaps to go away disappointed.  What I got was definitely the former and it led me to sign up for the full project.

The Fluency Project offers a completely fresh approach to reading intervention.  Incorporating a range of powerful strategies, including group echo reading, it is a truly refreshing experience.  Initially I was hesitant about how the group read would go down with ‘teens’. I could see it working with KS2 students but how would those on the edge of teenagerdom cope? Would they be too self-conscious or disengaged for it to work? In reality, this was not an issue. The HfL team had recommended to just ‘go in’ with energy, pace and an expectation that everyone would join in and this really worked. It did take a bit of time to train the students to track the text but they picked it up and they really loved the power of having a pencil and ‘text marking’ as we read.  

For KS3 colleagues there are challenges of navigating a KS3 timetable. Who delivers it? When do they do it? Which lessons should students miss in order to attend? I was adamant that I was not going to take boys out of PE as I thought this would do little for their motivation! Although we used both tutor times and lessons, it definitely worked best for us in lesson time slots as it felt less rushed. However, it was still successful in tutor times if that is all the time you have! You have to be stringent in the expectation that this is twice a week for 8 weeks but if you can get your headteacher to back it, then that is all that is needed. In reality, I got no resistance from teachers; all saw that this was a priority. Consistency was really vital and it does have to be a non-negotiable: students must never be pulled out of reading group because of something else!

And so, we came to the end of our first round; had it worked? I’d heard of the successful figures that had been cited in other schools but was it the ‘treasure’ I had been hoping for? 

Absolutely! The students loved it and many were genuinely sad that the group had come to an end. Their increase in confidence was palpable and their willingness to read aloud more obvious. Some students  re-engaged with independent reading, one girl saying ‘I didn’t read because I thought I couldn’t but now I have learnt that I can I have started to read the books that my mum has been buying me.’ The intervention itself was fun and easy to deliver. You definitely need to prepare the echo reading in advance and the choice of text is really key but there was something genuinely enjoyable about having to use my own inner voice to perform and read with them.  The progress data showed them making gains beyond which I ever thought possible. Furthermore, English teachers have commented on the difference in the engagement and comprehension skills in class of students in the groups.

I am not claiming to be the finished Indiana Jones but I do feel that the Fluency Project has moved me further on in my quest. I am not under any illusion that the gap for these students is permanently fixed. However, we are certainly now on the way. The challenge is to now take what students and I have learned into teaching in all classrooms across the school so that the progress they have made is not lost but built on and allowed to grow further.

The quest continues…

With thanks to Catherine Root for contributing this blog. We hope that KS3 colleagues find it useful and insightful.

---

For further details about the project HFL Reading Fluency Project

Catherine Root is Literacy and Reading Recovery Lead at Stationers' Crown Woods academy, a large academy based in Greenwich, southeast London. Catherine participated in the KS3 Reading Fluency Project in summer 2021 and implemented the strategies with students in years 7 and 8 who were struggling with reading accuracy and comprehension. 

I was looking for the Holy Grail - the quest that every school Leadership team has: to find something that would close the literacy gap. Having been an English teacher for 23 years and a senior leader for 13 of these, I had seen ‘literacy’ float around school agendas in a pretence of its significance but in truth anything being actioned having very little real impact. ‘Word of the Week’ may have been displayed in every classroom, students might have access to a well-stocked library, key word lists might well be distributed and displayed but the stark reality was that these things, while ticking boxes, had very little influence on improving students’ literacy levels, even less so for those who had already fallen behind. Worse still perhaps was ‘literacy intervention’ which although undoubtedly offering reading time and pastoral support, also fell short of a high energy, high impact measurable strategy to really close the gap.

Returning from maternity leave, I started a new part-time role as Literacy Lead at a 1700 strong academy in Greenwich.  The main part of this work was to review literacy provision across the school and to launch some reading recovery programmes. As I met the pupils, my heart ached for the students in front of me, whose level of reading was so poor that not accessing their Geography lesson was the least of my worries for them. How do they navigate the world on a daily basis? Read a bus timetable? Send an email? Read instructions? How will they apply for job? Be able to revise for their driving theory test? Do something that an employer requests of them?  In most cases, these children have learnt to cleverly mask their weakness in reading - even more dangerous in the classroom where busy teachers think they understand but do not realise how little they have really grasped.

I wanted to fix it; to put it right once and for all; to find that intervention that would really work! 

I looked at various programmes, all of which had merit but all were also tagged as ‘moderate’ in impact. Some were phonics focused but my issue was students who could, on the whole, decode successfully but had somehow stopped developing and reading so that their comprehension and vocabulary was weak. Many of the programmes that seemed written for them were perhaps a little dry in content and structure and although I found a few things I thought might be useful, I still couldn’t find the short, intensive, quick-burst intervention programme that I was looking for until a chance conversation with a Primary school teacher friend. She had been on the one-day Herts For Learning Reading Fluency Project training and said she had experimented with some of the ideas, finding that they had impact.

Booking myself on to the overview training to get a flavour, I had no idea what to expect, hoping I suppose to see something brilliant, expecting perhaps to go away disappointed.  What I got was definitely the former and it led me to sign up for the full project.

The Fluency Project offers a completely fresh approach to reading intervention.  Incorporating a range of powerful strategies, including group echo reading, it is a truly refreshing experience.  Initially I was hesitant about how the group read would go down with ‘teens’. I could see it working with KS2 students but how would those on the edge of teenagerdom cope? Would they be too self-conscious or disengaged for it to work? In reality, this was not an issue. The HfL team had recommended to just ‘go in’ with energy, pace and an expectation that everyone would join in and this really worked. It did take a bit of time to train the students to track the text but they picked it up and they really loved the power of having a pencil and ‘text marking’ as we read.  

For KS3 colleagues there are challenges of navigating a KS3 timetable. Who delivers it? When do they do it? Which lessons should students miss in order to attend? I was adamant that I was not going to take boys out of PE as I thought this would do little for their motivation! Although we used both tutor times and lessons, it definitely worked best for us in lesson time slots as it felt less rushed. However, it was still successful in tutor times if that is all the time you have! You have to be stringent in the expectation that this is twice a week for 8 weeks but if you can get your headteacher to back it, then that is all that is needed. In reality, I got no resistance from teachers; all saw that this was a priority. Consistency was really vital and it does have to be a non-negotiable: students must never be pulled out of reading group because of something else!

And so, we came to the end of our first round; had it worked? I’d heard of the successful figures that had been cited in other schools but was it the ‘treasure’ I had been hoping for? 

Absolutely! The students loved it and many were genuinely sad that the group had come to an end. Their increase in confidence was palpable and their willingness to read aloud more obvious. Some students  re-engaged with independent reading, one girl saying ‘I didn’t read because I thought I couldn’t but now I have learnt that I can I have started to read the books that my mum has been buying me.’ The intervention itself was fun and easy to deliver. You definitely need to prepare the echo reading in advance and the choice of text is really key but there was something genuinely enjoyable about having to use my own inner voice to perform and read with them.  The progress data showed them making gains beyond which I ever thought possible. Furthermore, English teachers have commented on the difference in the engagement and comprehension skills in class of students in the groups.

I am not claiming to be the finished Indiana Jones but I do feel that the Fluency Project has moved me further on in my quest. I am not under any illusion that the gap for these students is permanently fixed. However, we are certainly now on the way. The challenge is to now take what students and I have learned into teaching in all classrooms across the school so that the progress they have made is not lost but built on and allowed to grow further.

The quest continues…

With thanks to Catherine Root for contributing this blog. We hope that KS3 colleagues find it useful and insightful.

---

For further details about the project HFL Reading Fluency Project

Kelly Burke is second in department for English at the Thomas Alleyne Academy, Stevenage. Kelly participated in the HFL KS3 Reading Fluency Project in Autumn 2020 and, due to its continued success, has created a performance reading programme for Year 7 and Year 9 students who struggled with reading comprehension and self-esteem. 

‘Reading prosody’ and ‘performance reading’ are two phrases that struck a chord for me whilst attending the HFL Reading Fluency training. As adults and especially English teachers, we take for granted that reading sounds rhythmical and creates images for us; when we read, we are creating voices, adjusting tone, pitch and pace, and visualising settings and characters as if we are watching each scene roll out. I have now discovered how to teach my students to do all of this through reading fluency sessions and thus have witnessed 15 students from Year 7 improve their reading comprehension by an average of 2 years in the space of 8 weeks. It’s hard to believe without witnessing it, isn’t it?

When my Head of Department arranged for us to visit and observe a Reading Fluency session at a primary school where we knew the project had already been successful, I must admit, I was sceptical. Is this another fad in teaching that will fizzle out quickly? How would this work in a secondary school, with older students who have lost that passion to use their imagination? It was lovely to observe a KS2 Reading Fluency session, yet my questions remained unanswered.

Fortunately, at around the same time, HFL opened their training for KS3. I found the training overwhelming in the early stages and had to remind myself that I was doing this training during a pandemic. This meant that resources and training sessions were all run online, which as a community, educators have probably found very resourceful as it saves time and reduces cover requirements, however, I felt like I was missing the one to one interaction. I was quickly reassured when I was contacted by my allocated advisor from the HfL team, who gave me plenty of reassurance, which continued throughout the project. I needed this as I initially felt out of my depth and most certainly challenged, but gained more confidence in myself and my teaching practice as the weeks went on. I soon realised that the HfL team were very efficient, thorough and each step of the training programme is organised carefully and communicated clearly. As teachers, we are of course very busy, so I found it really helpful that the training was structured so well.

One of my favourite parts of the training was surprisingly the part where a HFL advisor observed one of my sessions with my group of students and gave me feedback. Of course, it gave me a great boost to get such positive feedback, but it also made me incredibly proud of my little team of students and it was just really pleasant to have an educated, general conversation with a colleague about reading fluency and interesting texts. At this point of the project, I felt quite empowered- you can imagine the journey I went on from less experienced, overwhelmed and nervous, to having secure knowledge, discussing the project confidently and delivering presentations to our school governors about reading fluency. The project was blowing up and we had only just begun!

The toughest part of the project was probably working with children who have low attendance. Unfortunately, if a student is not in school, they miss out and with the fast pace of the project (and general fast pace of school life), it is difficult for individuals to catch up. Fortunately, this was not an issue with my first group who were year 7. However, we have found that rolling out the project with older year groups can pose more issues with attendance- particularly in the morning. Further to this, attitudes towards reading are trickier to influence as teenagers get older, although I did discover, not completely impossible.

One of the best parts of the project, yet also one of the most challenging parts, is choosing the texts. It was great to discuss this with the HFL team and other teachers partaking in the training. Sometimes feedback from students about text choice was the opposite to what teachers had predicted, but you don’t learn this until after use of the text. It is just one of those situations where you think ‘next time, it will be even better.’ And it was… I had great success with ‘Suffragette: The Battle for Equality’ by David Roberts as it was not only a favourite with students but also a non-fiction text, exploring important matters of diversity and equality. I then decided to introduce Frankenstein as the final text - my second group were year 9 students and so it was important that they were exposed to an extremely challenging text. We were not wrong. Off we went with the same strategies we had been using week in, week out and it paid off, as they approached their most advanced text with much more confidence than they ever would have at the start of the project.

We were not sure how this would work with older students, but with a very careful selection process, detailed discussions about pupil suitability with English teachers and the head of year, and as a result of using diagnostic reading tests (combined with my new found confidence in delivering the project) it was a success!

I am excited to have created a Performance Reading Overview with resources for our school which will be used with small groups for intervention throughout the year. This will then continue to be developed into our library lessons, where we are reading plays (an idea I got from a webinar with Dr Tim Rasinski, organised by HFL). The plan is to roll this out within the English department in autumn 2021 and hopefully introduce the strategies to the whole school before the end of the year. I envision geography teachers sharing new and up to date texts for us to use in the intervention; or science teachers saying ‘read it again, but performance read it’ after hearing a child read a sentence; or history teachers reminding students to ‘turn the TV on in their head’ as they prepare their class for a teacher-led performance read. After seeing the data repeatedly come back showing progress, students arriving with smiles on their faces and reading with more confidence, it would be a waste if we did not ensure consistency from lesson to lesson in supporting reading fluency.

As much as my job relies on data, especially data to show progress, I personally have always felt that I am in this job to see the students progress in confidence and enjoyment above what figures may show. One boy was not a typical reader - he only attended 75% of the sessions and he wasn’t on ball with the project to start with - but left me with ‘oh I have definitely improved: I know where to pause, put emphasis on words and understand more.’ And for me, that is what makes this project an incredibly worthwhile commitment.

With thanks to Kelly Burke for contributing this blog. We hope that KS3 colleagues find it useful and insightful.

For further information visit HFL Reading Fluency Project

 

 

Phonics first 

What does Reading Fluency instruction look like in KS1? This is often a question that we are asked in our work supporting schools with their struggling readers in key stage one. If children are in danger of not passing their phonics screening check, we are finding that most schools’ phonics programmes will support them to carefully assess which GPCs a child needs to know next to support them to make progress. This blog from our archives provides some useful, practical strategies to support teachers to grapple with some of the trickier GPCs. For some children, it takes longer to acquire the knowledge needed to pass the Phonics Screening Check and they will need additional phonics teaching, and plenty of additional practice in the form of assessment and application into reading and writing too, to close those gaps and hopefully pass the re-take in year 2.  

Following the Phonics Screening Check 

What about children who pass the phonics screening check but who don’t read fluently by the end of year 2? Children who can decode individual sounds perhaps, who can blend them together into single words, but who struggle with phrasing appropriately when attempting to read longer sentences. These children often revert to reading each word in turn, so the meaning of the sentence becomes lost to them. In this video, produced by the DfE in January, we have some helpful reading behaviours and indicators to look for when considering whether or not a child would benefit from fluency instruction. It beautifully echoes messages in this earlier blog (Reading fluency? How do I teach that?) published in December 2022, based on learning gleaned at the HFL Fluency Expo in October. What is reading fluency then? In that blog, we provided a helpful definition of reading fluency and discuss those reading behaviours that we’re likely to see in a disfluent reader (if you haven’t yet had a chance to read, it might be worth doing so before proceeding). The stories of Alice and Jai outlined in the aforementioned blog and video will be all too familiar to us. Children become adept at slipping under the radar, at masking their lack of confidence in reading and often they are not a top priority for schools until they can no longer hide, perhaps in the run-up to their KS2 SATs paper in year 6. Recent experience working with schools tells us that there are likely to be a significant number of these ‘hidden disfluent readers’ in LKS2, who, as a result of a disrupted education prompted by the pandemic, have slipped under that radar. Identifying these pupils through high-quality diagnostic assessment (perhaps using the multi-dimensional fluency scale developed by Professor Tim Rasinski) is essential for making evidence-informed curriculum adjustments and responsive teaching.  

Reading fluency instruction to the rescue!  

The good news is that we now know enormous amounts about how to support children like Alice and Jai. Thanks to influential and tenacious educators like Professor Tim Rasinksi and Alex Quigley, we know that reading fluency is the bridge between phonics and comprehension. We know that simply being able to read the words on the page isn’t enough. The STA end of Key Stage One Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) tells us that pupils need to be able to read most words accurately without overt sounding and blending, and sufficiently fluently to allow them to focus on their understanding rather than on decoding individual words. Children need to be given authentic and enjoyable reasons to read those words, contextualised into sentences, again and again. Repeated reading brings automaticity, one of the key components of reading fluency. For children like Alice, this will be essential. All too often in our work with schools on the HFL Reading Fluency Project at KS1, we meet children who passed the Phonics Screening Check and are still crunching laboriously through the sentences in their reading books. Their cognitive energy is being spent decoding and there’s no space left for phrasing or attention to punctuation, let alone comprehension. We notice that they have particular difficulty with long sentences where word after word needs to be read, and by the time they get to the end, the child has no recollection of how the sentence even began. No doubt this feels all too familiar to many teachers of year 2 children! Just look at the length of this sentence which appeared in the 2022 KS1 Reading SATs paper.  

On an island called Jersey, people make giant models of animals, boats and cars out of flowers and take these models on a parade through the island’s towns. 

28 words! It’s easy to imagine a disfluent reader in year 2 stumbling through this, stamina waning, comprehension abandoned in order to get to the end and take a breath. The good news is that carefully planned teaching approaches can effectively close that gap in a really short space of time. 72% of children in year 2 and 3 on the HFL Education Reading Fluency Project make more than 12 months progress in just 8 weeks with their reading comprehension. This document, produced in collaboration with HFL Education and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), provides a useful overview of some of the strategies which can be employed whole class, in small groups and 1:1 to support children to build those reading fluency muscles. This KS1 text selection guidance blog offers some suggested texts which have worked brilliantly on the project. You might want to join our 1-day event for KS1, where some of our fluency approaches are shared in more detail.  

Ofsted and reading fluency 

In Ofsted’s Research Review on English, specific reference is made to reading fluency for early readers. There is a recognition that ‘Pupils who can decode accurately but cannot do so quickly will not progress towards reading confidently beyond sounding out words in texts.’ The paper goes on to state, ‘To develop fluency, children need repeated practice.’ We would agree unreservedly with this solution but would take it a step further. Children need authentic and enjoyable motivation to repeatedly practise reading high quality texts. They also need to be explicitly taught how to phrase longer sentences, and how to read with prosody.  

DfE, The Reading Framework and reading fluency 

If you haven’t yet had a chance to take in The Reading Framework, then we would recommend a read. The section of particular interest to this blog is located on page 58 where a useful explanation of the relationship between reading rate – or speed – and fluency is considered, ‘Fluency gives the reader the choice to read at a speed that allows for comprehension and can be adapted to the purpose of the reading.’ This relationship can be a tricky one. If a child is needing to sound out and blend every word, then of course we would expect the child’s reading rate to be low and comprehension to be compromised. We would hope that following some fluency instruction, an increase in rate here would indicate that automaticity was improving and therefore comprehension too. In this case, rate increase could be used as an appropriate measure of success. But some of the children on the HFL Reading Fluency Project slow down. They adapt their reading of a more complex text to allow comprehension to prosper. They insert pauses for phrasing and add appropriate intonation and expression. Like the DfE here, we would rather ‘consider the idea of progressive rather than absolute fluency.’ Children will demonstrate varying levels of fluency, depending on their age, stage, and the difficulty of the text.  

Reading for pleasure and joyful ambition! 

We know that being a reader involves attitudes and behaviours as much as securing cognitive processes (National Literacy Trust, 2017); the will and thrill of reading influences the skill of reading and vice-versa (Hattie & Donoghue, 2016). It’s a reciprocal relationship. Enhancing children’s reading fluency is likely to impact on their desire and motivation to read, within and beyond the classroom, as they learn to enjoy bringing a text to life. The strategy of ‘reading aloud’ which we associate with strengthening fluency is also a key feature of a Reading for Pleasure pedagogy (Cremin,T. et al, 2009 and 2014). 

There is also considerable evidence that reading aloud to children enables them to process challenging content, text features and vocabulary – even in subjects not normally associated with reading aloud, such as science and technology (Heisley and Kukan, 2010). Reading aloud from challenging texts, perhaps those with archaic or unfamiliar features, or complex narrative structures, for example, is a proven scaffold which supports all learners in engaging with ambitious literature (Shanahan, 2020). As a member of the Opening Doors* team, reading aloud is one of a number of access strategies we advocate in implementing an ambitious English curriculum, where equity and excellence go hand-in-hand.  

Co-authoring this blog, as a guest, has provided a joyful reminder of the interconnectedness that pervades the art of teaching reading and being a reader. No wonder so many graphic representations of reading show the different aspects combine and work together, from Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) to the EEF’s Reading House! Whatever the composite image may be, we know that fluency is an essential piece of a beautifully complex jigsaw and as the DfE video tells us, we owe it to children like Alice to “stick with her until she can read fluently.”    

 

 

Please consider joining us for the next round of the HFL Reading Fluency Project to find out more about these transformational strategies:

HFL Reading Fluency Project or email reading.fluency@hfleducation.org

Kathy Roe is the Deputy Lead Adviser for the Primary English Team at HFL Education. 

*If you’re interested in finding out more about Opening Doors, please visit the website, or look out for our new book published in April 2023 Opening Doors to Ambitious Primary English: Pitching high and including all (Bob Cox with Leah Crawford, Angela Jenkins and Julie Sargent) 

Angela Jenkins is co-Chair of the National Association of Advisers in English a national network of professionals, learning together through sharing knowledge and expertise. We host regular opportunities for members (and guests) to engage with researchers and educationalists. Find out more here. We would love to welcome new members!

And just like that, it’s that time of year when World Book Day is fast approaching! Your plans may be a little different this year but there are still mathematical opportunities just waiting to burst out of bookshelves everywhere.

In our previous World Book Day blogs we focused on books with a strong maths theme such as ‘How Big is a Million?’ and ‘Equal Shmequal’. For this year’s blog, we have chosen books that pupils may be more familiar with, which are not specifically ‘maths’ themed but have lots of mathematical opportunities within them.

To get in touch with the HFL Education Primary Maths Team about our blogs, resources and services, email us at primarymaths@hfleducation.org.

 

Here are just some of the maths opportunities we found hiding on our bookshelves within some popular children’s books…

Pick 1: ‘The Snail and Whale’ by Julia Donaldson - recommended by Rachael Brown

A fishy tale about an unlikely friendship between a rather small snail and an incredibly big whale!

Maths challenge:

Did you know blue whales can be up to 30m long?

How many handprints can you fit along 1 metre?  When I tried, I could fit 11 of my handprints along a strip 1 metre long.

I know 3 x 11 = 33 so I know 3 tens x 11 = 33 tens

30 x 11 = 330

A blue whale could be up to the same length as 330 of my handprints! 

Humpback whales like the one in the story can be between 13 and 16 metres long. How many handprints would that be?

Pick 2: ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar - recommended by Gill Shearsby-Fox

Stanley gets wrongly accused of stealing a famous baseball player’s trainers and gets sent to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre. However, there is no lake, just desert and his punishment is digging holes. 

Maths challenge:

The holes that Stanley has to dig have to be exactly the same size as his shovel – his shovel is 5 feet (150cm) long.

If the hole he digs is the same depth, width and length as his shovel:

• what shape is his hole?
• what is the area of the base of his hole?
• what is the volume of the hole he digs?

Stanley is in tent D’s digging crew. There are seven in the tent and they all have to dig a hole every day. What is the length / width / depth / volume of all the holes they dig in a day / a week / a month / a year?

It is very hot at Camp Green Lake and Stanley and his crew only get two canteens of water a day. If each canteen holds 1.5 litres of water and they dig for five hours a day, how much water should they drink an hour? 

Pick 3: ‘Freddie and the Fairy’ by Julia Donaldson - recommended by Charlie Harber

A delightful tale in which Freddie is rewarded with wishes after rescuing Bessie-Bell the fairy. Unfortunately, Freddie mumbles and Bessie-Bell has problems hearing correctly. What could go wrong?

Maths challenge:

In the story, Freddie receives some ‘unexpected’ gifts from Bessie-Bell the fairy.

Can you estimate the size (height or length, whichever is greater) of all of the different things that Bessie-Bell gives Freddie?

• how could we show that in a graph or table?
• which type of graph would be most appropriate?
• what could the scale be? Which unit of measurement?
• how else could we order them? (e.g. weight, most ‘wanted’ pet – class survey)

Can you think of other ‘gifts’ that Freddie could have asked for?

Where would they belong on your graph/table?

Pick 4: ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ by Sam McBratney - recommended by Nicola Adams

Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare spend a little time before they go to bed, trying to show how much they love each other. Turns out, love is not an easy thing to measure.

Maths challenge:

STRETCH!

• how wide can you stretch your arms?
• how could you measure your arm span (distance between middle fingertips on each hand with outstretched arms)? You could use a measuring tape or think of a more creative way!

COMPARE!

• have you ever noticed the relationship between your arm span and your height? 
• what about between your foot length and the length of your lower arm?

REACH!

• how high can you reach?
• how does this compare to other people in your family?
• what is the difference between your reaches?

HOP TO IT!

• how high can you hop?
• how far can you hop?
• how many bunny hops could you do in a minute?

Pick 5: ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ by Onjali Q. Raúf - recommended by Siobhan King

The empty chair at the back of the class is now occupied by Ahmet.  As the nine year-old refugee is able to tell the story of his journey from war, his friends make plans to help him.

Maths challenge:

Ahmet helps his friends learn more about him by sharing his escape from war. He draws important parts of his journey to help him tell the story.

You will not be travelling as far as Ahmet, but you can still share a journey you have taken by mapping it and drawing important parts.

Draw a map of a journey in your home or when you are out walking.

Think about the directions you take and how far you travel.

Can you give instructions to someone else to take the same journey?

Over half of the world’s refugees are children.

Can you find out about their journeys?

Pick 6: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ by E.B. White - recommended by Laura Dell

A pig called Wilbur, who is the runt of his litter, is raised by a girl named Fern.

When Wilbur is sold to Fern’s uncle, he makes a new friend in Charlotte, a spider.

Maths challenge:

Have you ever looked closely at a spider’s web to see how beautifully they are structured and the patterns that they create? I have drawn 2 of my own webs based on Charlotte’s.

• one of my webs has 4 lines that cross (or intersect) in the centre and one has 3
• one of my webs has 3 shapes similar to an octagon which increase in size and the other has 3 hexagons
• I can also see lots of shapes which are similar to triangles!

What other spider webs can you design?

Are there any relationships between the amount of shapes that you can see and the number of intersecting lines?

Look closely

My web, with 4 lines that cross, has a total of 24 smaller lines.

My web, with 3 lines that cross, has 18 smaller lines.

I know this because I have counted them all but I wonder if there is a better way to do this.

Pick 7: ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl - recommended by Gill Shearsby-Fox

A story about the most horrid couple ever! They love to play tricks on each other and catch birds for bird pie. But can the birds, with help from the Muggle-wump monkeys, get their own back?

Maths challenege:

Shrink! Mr Twit makes Mrs Twit think she is shrinking by adding disks of wood to her walking stick. If he adds 3mm to them every day, how much longer would the walking stick be after a week, a fortnight, a month and a year? How tall would it be if it started off 600mm long?

Up and away! Mr Twit then tries to stretch Mrs Twit using balloons. 60 balloons are enough to make Mrs Twit fly away. How many of Mr Twit’s balloons do you think would be needed to make you fly away? Or one of your parents? Or a younger brother or sister? An animal - big, like an elephant or small, like a mouse?

Branching out! To catch birds for their bird pies, the Twits put glue on a branch of their tree. One day, they catch four boys instead of birds. If four boys’ bottoms filled the branch, how long do you think the branch was?

Pick 8: ‘Return to the Hundred Acre Wood’ by David Benedictus - recommended by Doug Harmer

Christopher Robin was at school. But during the summer holiday, he returned to the forest to visit his friends Piglet, Tigger, Pooh Bear, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit and Roo and they had lots of adventures.

 

 

Maths challenge:

• if Christopher Robin started at his house, he would have to walk 6m + 2m + 3m + 11m + 16m to Eeyore’s House. This is 38m.
• how far would he have to walk to visit each of his friends from his house?
• who lives the furthest distance apart?
• where would you like to walk?

Pick 9: ‘What the Ladybird Heard’  by Julia Donaldson - recommended by Nicola Adams

The quiet, little ladybird that lives on a noisy farm ends up saving the day when the prize cow is nearly stolen!

Maths challenge:

Ladybirds are a type of beetle. They have six legs and two sets of wings. Some ladybirds have no spots and others have up to 20 spots.

How many spots do you think the ladybird in ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ has? How do you know?

Can you draw or make your own ladybird?

How many spots will it have?

How many spots are on half of your ladybird?

How many spots are there altogether?

How many legs are there on each page of the story?

Which page in the book has the most legs on it?

Pick 10: ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ by Rhonda and David Armitage- recommended by Laura Dell

Each morning, a delicious lunch is prepared and sent to Mr Grinling, the lighthouse keeper.  However, the basket of lunch doesn’t always make it to the hungry lighthouse keeper…

Maths challenge:

• this lunch box is designed using food from one of the lunches in the story that Mrs Grinling sends to Mr Grinling
• what fractions can you see represented in the diagram?
• design your own lunch box using the fractions. You could use halves and quarters like in this diagram
• what other interesting fractions can you use?
• what if your lunch box wasn’t square shaped? What would this look like if your lunch box was a rectangle or maybe a circle?

Good luck in the search for maths hiding on your bookshelf! We think there is maths to be found in every book! We’d love to know what you find. Let us know @hertsmaths.

 

I bet you are thinking “but I do talk about racism” and I am sure - especially in the last 18 months, that you have. However, it is becoming apparent that whilst ensuring diversity and inclusion remain a priority for many schools and settings, ensuring that an anti-racist provision is being offered is not being addressed as effectively.  

I identify as a white cis –gendered woman and by writing this I have had to recognise my privileges, unlearn certain behaviours and address my biases which I may claim were unconscious, until they weren’t. This is something that all white adults working with children should be doing and let me tell you it is not easy, but do you know what else is not easy? -  being excluded, abused and overlooked because of the colour of your skin.  

“They are too young to recognise race.” This is a common but inaccurate comment frequently made about children in the Early Years. 

Did you know…? 

• by 3 months of age, children are drawn to faces that share the same race as their main caregiver 
• at the age of 2 years, children use race to reason about people’s behaviours 
• by 30 months, most children use race to choose playmates 
• expressions of racial prejudice often peak around 4 and 5 years of age 

“Young children notice and think about race. Adults often worry that talking about race will encourage bias in children, but the opposite is true. Silence about race reinforces racism by letting children draw their own conclusions based on what they see. Teachers and families can play a powerful role in helping children of all ages develop positive attitudes about race and diversity and skills to promote a more just future – but only if we talk about it!”  

The Children’s Community School, 2018

 

 

“We talk about racism when an incident occurs.” This is like saying we don’t put a speed limit in place until someone gets hit by a car. Talking about racism should be seen as a preventative rather than a consequence. The challenge can be how to initiate these conversations and luckily for us, at last, there are resources available to support this. The tiney guide to becoming an inclusive, anti-racist early educator is free to download and provides guidance on celebrating diversity, promoting inclusion, and challenging racism and all forms of prejudice. 

There has been an increase in children’s texts available that explore race, culture and ethnicity both factually and through non-fiction. If you have obtained any new resources, how accessible have you made them? Are you ‘saving’ them because they are shiny and new? How is that going to help start conversations if they are only pulled out periodically to expose children to this concept? Imagine having a different colour skin to your peers and the only time that you see any resources representing your community is during the ‘celebration’ topic or when someone else in the class has excluded you from a game for the way you look.  

‘Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time.’ Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, 2021. Therefore, resources should be available and accessible for children all the time. This will encourage children to be curious and ask questions and adults will be able to engage with children more appropriately. 

 

 

“We cannot just introduce diverse books and media. We have to model these behaviours and dismantle and contest racism and ingrained biases in our own words and actions.”  

Pragya Agarwal, Wish We Knew What to Say: Talking with children about race, 2020

“We treat everyone the same.” If you gave everyone the same cake, would you expect them all to eat it? Including the person that is allergic to eggs, that you know the cake was made with. Or would you offer an alternative that did not contain eggs? With the EYFS reforms there is even more an of emphasis that all adults should have a secure knowledge of the children they are working with. Whilst allergies might be difficult to identify, colour and ethnicity is much more obvious. Being ‘colourblind’ is not an option and should not be promoted. Celebrating differences whether that is skin colour, interests, hair style or skill set brings attention that to the fact that every child is unique.   

 

 

To ensure you are fully meeting the needs of every child you must be reflective of not only your practice but of your full being.  Ask yourself… 

• are your biases/stereotypical ideas impacting on how you interact with children?  
• is this having an impact on how you support children or the assumptions you make about their attainment?  
• do your cohort truly see themselves within the learning environment and not just through tokenistic displays and ‘festival/celebration’ topics?  

These are difficult questions to ask yourself, but they are important and require a level of honesty you might not have faced before. It is OK to feel uncomfortable and upset. This is part of the process, consider it an internal therapy if you like. What is not OK is not doing ‘the work’ and by now you should know that ‘the work’ is what will enable you as a practitioner to recognise injustice and be able to talk to children about racism.  

If you are looking to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in your EYFS provision, you might be interested in the new HfL Equality and Diversity audit. For further details please contact earlyears@hfleducation.org

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References: 

Tiney - Our guide to becoming an inclusive, anti-racist early educator 

The Children’s Community School, 2018 

Pragya Agarwal, Wish We Knew What to Say: Talking with children about race, 2020  Publisher: Little, Brown Book Gr

 

It’s a well-worn adage that not all superheroes wear capes but as we come to the end of another unrelenting year for school governors it’s clear you are the unsung heroes who work voluntarily and tirelessly for your schools and are as stretched as any other profession as you grapple with all the challenges schools are faced with.

Let’s consider the range of roles governors are obliged to take on; Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Chair, committee member, link role, panel member, governor, trustee - on top of this we have training, reading, directives, reports, plans, minutes, emails to factor into our lives where we may be working, caring, parents, grandparents, retired or otherwise. This in itself, in my opinion, qualifies all governors and trustees as heroes but we should then consider what ‘superpowers’ are required to carry out the role. I make no apology for the ‘superpower’ label for those skills given the range required and the audience to which they play out to – we need to be present, articulate and confident when dealing with CEO’s, Headteachers, Senior leaders, teachers, non-teaching staff, Ofsted, HIPs, pupils, parents and the wider community – in what other volunteer role would so many audiences need to be embraced, nurtured and understood? So, to those superpowers:

Listening, empathy, understanding, supportive, critical friend, challenging, being inquisitive, persistence, willingness to compromise, risk awareness, sense of purpose, visionary, deal maker, conflict resolver, peacemaker, trusting, clear communicator, public speaker, confident leader…..

Now we may not as a board have all those skills individually but collectively, we need each and every one of the above to be a skill of at least one board member or more, how we then harness these ‘superpowers’ for the greater good of our school, ensuring that all the right energies are applied in all the right places and with the right people begins to explain the almighty challenge faced by governors and their boards.

It is the accumulation of all the requirements above that lead me to the serious point of who is looking out for the wellbeing of board members. It’s not possible that all the above can be accomplished in a voluntary role without cracks appearing. The Chair may be able to offload to the Headteacher but more often it will be the other way round and who do other board members turn to when things just frankly overwhelm them? I think it’s vital that we find ways to express our feelings and frustrations in such a way as to support each other whilst not identifying individuals if they wish to remain anonymous. Setting aside 15 minutes at an FGB meeting to allow governors to discuss concerns they may have, how they could be resolved, and maybe advance suggestions could be channelled via the clerk to create a virtual notice board of anonymised points to discuss. In this way individuals can be reassured they are not alone, I am sure most frustrations felt by governors are common to all governors and will hopefully instil a sense of joint purpose and support and reflect a healthy and open approach to life as a governor.

By way of conclusion can I suggest we take a moment to recognise what we individually, and collectively as a board, bring to the table – the abundance of quietly delivered good governance that supports our schools on a day to day basis but equally recognise we need to look out for ourselves, and our governor colleagues, and not be afraid to speak out if we aren’t coping. At Herts for learning we have the Helpdesk, Chairs Service, Clerks Service and advisors to be that helping hand and catch you when you may be wavering about what’s best to do – contact details are at the end of this blog.  

One superpower we don’t have is to reverse the effect of climate change or the impact of the cost of living crisis, but we can make steps to ‘do our bit’ regarding the strategic challenges of reducing our school’s carbon footprint and understanding the consequences both for schools and pupils of the cost of living crisis.

Climate

We surveyed Chairs at our June strategic briefing and just under 50% had started discussions on the climate challenge, including 7% having concrete action plans in place but with 50% saying they had not had any board discussion to date. Clearly with so many more ‘immediate’ pressures facing schools this may have moved down the agenda but given that we know many schools in Hertfordshire are taking positive steps towards reducing their carbon footprint maybe the time is right to get this on your next agenda. We did some number crunching and if all boards in Herts stored their minutes electronically on Governor Hub, with Chairs electronically signing them rather than printing a set to be stored onsite, that would save approximately 36,000 printed pages of paper and 4500 signatures – one small step maybe but evidence of leading by example! All Herts schools have been sent a wonderful document called Hertfordshire Schools Going Green with schools sharing examples of the work they have done on going green – use this as a catalyst for starting the conversation at your next board meeting!  

Cost of living

With Utility bills soaring by £10,000’s for many schools plus food and general supply costs on the rise school budgets are going to be under more scrutiny than usual with limited resources having to be stretched thinner than ever. Equally there is the impact on school staff with the cost of travel to work plus pressures on the home budget all coming at once. For pupils’ school may be the only place of warmth they have and school dinners the only hot meal they will eat, together with family budgets being stretched when it comes to uniform, clubs and school trips. Parents and carers will be making difficult choices of where they cut back with all the additional wellbeing and mental (and physical) health consequences. As governors we need to be asking about the support that is being offered, how are we reaching the hardest hit families, how can we reduce the impact on pupils learning in-school and at home?

It’s never truer than now that your school needs you, please know that you are admired and appreciated by many for the service you give, but as with many others involved in the governance of our public institutions it can at times seem an uphill task. The reward is, as with so much of public service, knowing that you ARE making a difference to the lives and outcomes of those that lack a voice and rely on you to be their advocate and to champion their cause. Take pride in your school’s successes and stand together to face and deal with challenges and critically remain united when things aren’t going to plan.

Finally good luck to all schools with their SATs and exam results, when they come qualified comparisons can be made against 2019 but maybe better to view as a benchmark going forward. Nevertheless, it’s time for some data crunching!!

To contact us please use the following:

Governance Helpdesk – 01438 544487 

Governance Training – 01438 544478

Or email as before - governance@hfleducation.org

I have noticed that teachers are talking about subitising like it’s going out of fashion and I’m sure this wasn’t even in my vocabulary early in my career. I find children’s learning fascinating and this was an excuse to dig a little deeper.

As Doug Clements said, “Subitizing: What is it? Why teach it?”

He had me hooked in his opening sentence: “Three pictures hang in front of a six month-old child. The first shows two dots, the others show one dot and three dots. The infant hears three drumbeats. Her eyes move to the picture with three dots”.

It turns out scientists have been exploring this for hundreds of years and of course, they disagree.

Some purport that subitising is a necessary pre-cursor to counting – such as Fitzhugh in 1978, who found that while she could find some children able to subitise sets (very young children and very small sets of 1 or 2) without being able to count them, none of them could count any sets that they could not subitise.  This led her and many followers to conclude that subitising must come first.

But there are many eminent minds who believe that children use counting in order to develop the skill of subitising and in this camp, you will find our good friends Gelman and Gallistel who have been instrumental to our understanding of counting for many years. Many teachers will tell you that it was only when they read their five principles of counting that they began to understand how number should be taught.

Do you know what? I love a good discussion but I think I am happy to know that subitising and counting are inextricably linked and I want to understand them both to give my children the best chance!

So let’s pick it apart to understand it better:

Breaking it up a little bit, we know that there is ‘perceptual subitising’ and ‘conceptual subitising’ that lay behind the skill.

 

 

So this is just “recognising” values and this is what the six month old baby was doing when she moved her eyes to the three dot pattern but we know this only works with small sets, usually up to 4 or 6, unless they are in a very familiar pattern (like dots on a die or a tens frame).

 

 

Conceptual subitising, on the other hand, requires arithmetic strategies – recognising smaller values within larger ones – like subsets – and then knowing what to do with those to find the larger total.

So you don’t want one without the other; you need to be able to recognise small values to see them within a larger set and children who cannot subitise conceptually are at a distinct disadvantage in arithmetical processes.

I wanted to think about this and its implications for teaching, because in the end I’m not a scientist; I’m a teacher. Did my provision in the classroom teach conceptual subitising?

Some of you may already be aware of a collaborative project between my colleague and me from the maths team, with members of the early years team, to produce “Essential Foundations for Counting” in which we unpick subitising and what progression looks like for this and 3 other skills:

 

 

The criteria that map the progression for each skill takes place across four stages that we decided to call NOTICE, COPY, EXTEND and CREATE because it feels like all learning begins when children start to notice things. We then have the opportunity to deepen their confidence and grow their independence to be creative with what they have learned.

If perceptual subitising is ‘recognising’ then I’m going to want to start with interesting conversations.

Let’s look at 3 in different ways, for a bit of challenge, and to make sure the conservation of number is also growing. Look at these alongside some familiar patterns that they can visualise more easily than three saucepans and then “find” 3.

 

Of course, the re-modelling of the language is the real teaching here and I’m going to follow it up with…

 

 

 

Knowing that this is just the first step in their progression, I will continue to explore, ask questions and re-model their language to point out matching arrangements when they “copy”. Then ask more provocative questions to encourage the children to “extend” their thinking so that they will begin to recognise smaller amounts within a larger arrangement of marks or objects. I can see that many children will begin to respond to the prompts and will start to show evidence of conceptual subitising in their learning. With enough opportunities for exploration and enough variation in the learning experiences, I feel confident that most of our children in Reception will learn to use their group recognition skills to partition and combine numbers, reaching the “create” stage of the progression and using their conceptual subitising skills to work arithmetically.

We realised just how important this is in our teaching when we devoted a whole booklet to subitising but what practitioners are saying is that they are really only just beginning to see how important this learning is but have found a great freedom in giving it the value it deserves and immersing the children in rich and broad learning opportunities just to talk about values up to 4!

If we allow sufficient time and depth to model and remodel the language of this hugely significant learning, maybe conceptual subitising will look more reachable in Reception.

Those of you familiar with the learning in ESSENTIALmaths for Year 1 will already know that we begin the year with this very learning in the second learning sequence.

The key concepts for this sequence include the exploration of patterns in numbers through subitising. Initially starting with familiar dot patterns, like those found on dice and playing cards, pupils will begin to see how numbers can be regrouped in different ways but still conserve their value. Using the tens frame provides a structure for this and helps pupils to begin to notice complements to 10.

This year we have published the “missing bridge” - Reception ESSENTIALmaths.

 

 

Once again, at the beginning of the Reception ESSENTIALmaths, we explore the perceptual and conceptual subitising. In this first sequence, having recognised values in familiar patterns, children will begin to compare quantities by recognising equivalent and different totals that are not always in familiar patterns. There is a focus on their mathematical language again of course. 

The vocabulary of more, less and equal is used to describe quantities they can see and compare.

 

 

 

 

Clements and Samara explore children’s developmental paths in learning mathematics through learning trajectories where they ask:

• What objectives should we establish?
• Where do we start?
• How do we know where to go next?
• How do we get there?

They track the developmental progression from age 1 to 5 (and beyond) and match it to “instructional tasks” and when you read this you can see that the understanding of the five principles of counting is firmly embedded.

Rochel Gelman and Randy Gallistel introduced the idea of “five separate and distinct principles that children need to understand in order to be proficient counters” in 1978 and I mentioned these at the top of the blog. For any mathematical learning to be meaningful for our children, numbers need to be meaningful and learning to count is hard!

You can crudely categorise the five principles as:

“How to Count”

1. The 1:1 Counting Principle: You say one number and only one number name for each object you count.

2. The Stable-Order Principle: There is a sequence of number names that is universal and will not change.

3. The Cardinality Principle: The last number of the count, when counting objects, labels the total of the set.

“What to Count”

4. The Abstraction Principle: We still count the same way whatever we are counting (the objects could be varied, moving, hidden etc.)  

5. The Order-Irrelevance Principle: It doesn’t matter where you start to count from or the order you count the items in, the total of the set will always be the same.

You can see that it’s pretty complex stuff so deep and rich learning experiences are absolutely essential for real understanding. Using number in as many different contexts as possible, counting moving objects, objects that vary, objects that cannot be seen but only heard are just some of the ways we need to explore early mathematical development and the focus is to gain a true understanding of numbers as values in a system that will help you all of your life once you understand it. You can use the system to understand values you have never seen before when it all makes sense.

This is why being a teacher in EYFS is so fascinating, so challenging but so rewarding too. If we can unpick these early developmental stages and understand the conceptual progression that every child needs, we can make the learning so powerful and that will be thrilling. We have tried to share all that we know in the Reception ESSENTIALmaths materials to keep the learning well informed by key mathematical concepts.

Most of our teachers are investing a huge amount of time in this first sequence of the year because of all its hidden complexities and they are able to use the steps to ensure the learning is not rushed. It is so important for children to fully explore numbers up to five – count them, put smaller numbers within five together and take them apart and compare them – before they explore sets to 10 in the same way.

Fully understanding that a whole can be made up of several parts within a set and indeed that smaller parts can be used to make bigger sets (wholes) is also crucial. We learn to create sets, make pictorial representations of sets and visualise them in our minds before we can be truly playful with number. This is why we don’t address numbers greater than 10 until the 13th out of 16 learning sequences.

I think we can pretty safely conclude that this is important stuff and no wonder teachers are talking about subitising. Hey who knew? When you’re seeing dots, there’s nothing wrong. You’re subitising and you’re going to be a brilliant mathematician!

 

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Further reading/research:

You may be interested in a lecture that explores subitising and early learning in number by Doug Clements on YouTube.

There is much more to support you including ideas and resources on his website.

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Bibliography

D. Clements (published 1999) “Subitizing: What Is It? Why Teach It?”

Fitzhugh, J. I. (1978). The role of subitizing and counting in the development of the young children’s conception of small numbers  Dissertation Abstracts International, 40,   4521B-4522B 

D. Clements & J. Sarama (published online July 21, 2010)Learning Trajectories in Early Mathematics – Sequences of Acquisition and Teaching

Gelman, R., & Gallistel, C.R. (1978). The child's understanding of number. Cambridge: Harvard University

 

 

Repeat after me: the HfL KS2 reading fluency project works… works… works

Further findings from the KS2 reading fluency project

To date, the KS2 reading fluency project has supported over 300 year 6 pupils from 46 schools to improve their trajectory towards the expected standard in reading.

The spring 2018 data mirrors the data yielded from the first round:

Pupils made an average of 23 months progress in reading comprehension age following the 8-week project period (pupils on the autumn round made 22 months progress – click here to read the autumn summary report {data gained using the York Assessment of Reading Comprehension assessment tool}).

86% of pupils made 6 months+ progress (81% of pupils on the autumn round made 6 months+ progress).

Having a wealth of experience of working with a diverse range of pupils from a wide range of schools, we are now in an even better position to share more findings from this innovative project.

Finding 1: Trigger Change

One of the indicators of pupil eligibility for the project that we ask teachers to consider is whether the child sounds like they understand what they are reading. In simple terms, the project is based on the premise that faking fluency leads to real understanding. In other words, the more the child sounds like they are ‘getting’ what they read, the more likely that they actually are. Do they pause at the correct points (even if there is no punctuation to indicate that they should?); do they adopt a menacing tone for darker points in the narrative and jollier tones for lighter moments; do they alter volume and pace accordingly? If instead, they read in a staccato manner, with each word read as if in isolation, and use a bland monotone voice, running through overt punctuation, then their understanding will no doubt be stunted and the strategies used within the project will most likely work for them.

If indeed they do read in the manner of the latter, chances are they have been embedding this reading style for some time. What is required is an overt shunt towards a more fluent reading style. In the project, we have used the term ‘Performance Read’ totrigger this shunt.

At the end of each echo reading session, pupils are invited to ‘Performance Read’ a section of the text, mimicking the exact same delivery offered by the expert reader (the teacher). Very quickly, the children learn to associate the term ‘performance read’ with this new, meaning-laden form of reading. After several weeks, the children are so familiar with the term that it can be used outside of the fluency session to trigger the child’s reading from monotone to magnificent. Whenever a child slips back in bad habits –and they often do in the early weeks of the project – this trigger term swiftly gets them back on track.

Finding 2: Keep it clean

As is befitting the experimental nature of a project, we invite teachers to play with some aspects of the project delivery. Other aspects, however, we insist upon strict adherence. One aspect of the project that we ask teachers to adhere closely to is that the ‘echo reading’ session (which precedes the discussion session) involves no discussion of the text. Instead, we ask teachers to allow the echo to do the work. Our early trials suggested to us that a swift echo reading session could be more powerful – and more motivational for the children – than an extended discussion session. Therefore, we ask teachers to save any discussion for a separate session. In this sense, the echo read becomes an access strategy that allows the meaning of the text to open up to the readers. We found that interrupting this session with interspersed questioning/discussion impacted negatively upon the child’s coherent understanding of the whole text.

Finding 3: text choice is key

As part of the project, we offer each participating school a coaching session where their linked adviser visits and observes, or jointly delivers, an echo reading session. One of the most common feedback comments that we offer following this session is: go harder! Throughout the duration of the project, we urge teachers to present their pupils with challenging texts. By challenging, we mean texts that are comparable to the hardest texts used within the KS2 SATs tests. The philosophy here is: train hard, win easy. Our intention is that, come SATs reading test day, the children will be so comfortable with tackling challenging texts that the ones presented to them on the day will feel like a walk in the park. Obviously, this requires some careful consideration and a brave leap of faith for teachers who are used to presenting their pupils with texts that are well aligned to their current reading ability. We ask the teachers to keep a portfolio of these texts for each child so that the child can reflect with pride upon the challenging texts that they have mastered.

With a further cohort of 16 schools joining us for the summer term, we are sure to have many more findings to share.

KS2 reading fluency project: implications for classroom practice

This  one-day CPD event allows teachers to access the strategies that have been used successfully within the HfL KS2 reading fluency project and consider how they can be used to support children within their own settings. Throughout the day, colleagues will have an opportunity to dissect, discuss and practise the techniques, ensuring that they leave with an in-depth understanding of how they can be best used to ensure rapid progress in reading comprehension for their own pupils. Resources to support you with effective delivery back in the classroom will also be shared.

If you would be interested in hosting this event, please contact reading.fluency@hfleducation.org

KS2 reading fluency project: expressions of interest for participation

To express an interest in being part of the project, please contact reading.fluency@hfleducation.org

With thanks to the following schools for participating in the spring 2018 round:

Rowans Primary School

St Bernadettes RC Primary School

Pope Paul Catholic Primary School

St Augustine's Catholic Primary School

Dewhurst St Marys

Coates Way JMI

Mandeville Primary

Lodge Farm Primary

Kingsway Junior School

Yewtree Primary School

The Leys Primary & Nursery School

Martins Wood Primary

Thorn Grove Primary School

Oughton Primary

Chaulden Junior School

Howe Dell Primary School

Micklem Primary School

Woolenwick Junior

Wilbury Junior School

Cowley Hill Primary

How Wood Primary School

Holtsmere End Junior School

St Paul's Catholic Primary School

Stonehill School

Maple Grove Primary

Hillmead Primary School

 

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Please contact the HFL Primary English team members for more details on the Reading Fluency Project on email: reading.fluency@hfleducation.org

Find out more about the HFL Reading Fluency Project

 

The Herts for Learning KS2 Reading Fluency Project prescribes that teachers work with a group of struggling readers – those working below, and often well-below, age-related expectations – for a period of 8 weeks. Throughout the 8-weeks, the teacher meets with the small group twice a week. Session 1 focuses on fluency training; session 2 allows for discussion of the text. Each week the group turn their attention to a new text.

One aim of the project CPD is to support project teachers in selecting quality texts to use across the 8-week intervention period.

Below are some of the factors for text selection that we cover on the training, along with some recommendations for tried and tested texts that have worked well on the Y5/6 project:

• The texts have to be hard! They should be in line with the challenge expected by the end of the key stage. In the Y5/6 cohorts, this means getting to grips with the demands of the texts in the KS2 SATs and choosing texts that work towards reflecting this challenge.
• The texts have to be good! This sounds obvious but it is an important point. We ask our young readers to work really hard in these sessions. They should be rewarded with a text that packs a punch: whether that be in the form of a quirky take that provokes a belly laugh at the end, or a text so tantalisingly terrifying that the reader cannot help but shiver. With this in mind, complete short stories are our text of choice.
• The texts have to be diverse. We don’t want the children to get better at reading just one type of text. Instead, we support them to hone their reading muscles on a range of texts that look, feel and sound remarkably different to one another. Variety is the key here!

Text recommendations:

How Cats Really Work by Alan Snow

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this comically illustrated picture book doesn’t contain some challenging reading material. Choose a double-page spread that is dense with text: the ‘Control of Humans’ section works really well. Be sure to convey the sense of irony when providing your modelled expert read.

Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy

This collection of question and answer texts provide a wealth of material for a fluency session. The texts appear a little less formal on the surface, but each contains some fairly long and challenging sentence constructions which may cause a struggling reader to come unstuck. Try ‘what do people taste like to sharks and tigers?’ and see how the children get on. This probably represents more of an entry-level text for the purpose of the fluency project. We would urge project participants to rank up the challenge at a pace.

The Wonder Garden by Kristjana S Williams

The number of text types on a double page of this text gives scope for variety within one text. I have seen the ‘The Great Barrier Reef’ page used for a fluency session, and the children responded well to the required changes in prosody throughout the piece.

Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

This is a challenging read! Many of the sections within this text work well for a fluency session, but we have seen the ’Sprites: Family Cordimundidae’ section in use many times, and it never fails to delight. The children will be keen to seek this book out from within your book corner following a fluency session focus.

The Spider and the Fly, illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi

Following on from the poem itself, the letter at the back of the book – penned by the spider – is perfect for a Y5/6 fluency session.

The Mirror

Home From the Sea

The above are taken from Short! by Kevin Crossley-Holland

All of these are perfect in length and ‘punchiness’ for a fluency session. There are other good options within this text, but don’t use too many as the format of the texts within the compilation can become a bit too familiar to the children.

The Immortal Fly is Tired by Dave Eggers

Challenging short story – we guide project participants towards using this as one of their final texts on the Y5/6 project. It sets an ambitious expectation and ends the project on a high! Not only is it a great read that is sure to provoke a reaction (I challenge you not to laugh at the end!) but you may notice that it is littered with grammatical features that match the Y5/6 Programme of Study.

Find the text here.

Fowlers Yard by Pie Corbett (available via Teachwire)

Fast-paced and atmospheric – the children are taken straight into the action with this highly engaging text.

A Sea Above the Sky by Thomas Wright (from a short story compilation, Mystery Stories by Helen Cresswell)

This intriguing short piece will no doubt give rise to a discussion about ‘urban myths’. Other stories within this text, although too long for a fluency session, would be perfect for an end-of-day read-aloud. ‘The Scythe’ by Ray Bradbury is a superb short story.

A Stellar Job by Elizabeth Quigley age 13

This 500-word competition winner is always a hit with the children and project participants. Not only is it a great short story, but it reminds the children that they can be authors too!

Find the text here.

Ex Poser (taken from a short story compilation, 13 Unpredictable Tales) by Paul Jennings

This has a little more dialogue in it than we would normally advocate for a fluency session text, but this short story is so sharp and rewarding that it is well worth including.

The Nameless Holiday from Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Just as we would expect from Shaun Tan, this short story provoke more questions than answers. This is just the kind of quirky tale that should leave the children pondering the meaning of the text long after they have finished reading it.

 

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For more tips on text selection and to receive further text recommendations, join us on one of our fluency training sessions. Forthcoming dates and venues are published on our HFL Education Hub.

Please contact the HFL Primary English team members for more details on email: reading.fluency@hfleducation.org

Find out more about the HFL Reading Fluency Project