Research School Network: Education during a pandemic: how do we teach reading now? Alice Reedy on grappling with change and feeling that everything has been made redundant by Covid-19

As a primary school teacher and English lead, I have spent the last 4 years of teaching following a carousel-style guided reading structure, where children are ability grouped and follow a weekly routine of reading an appropriately levelled text with the teacher followed by a series of independent activities linking to what they have read.

Returning to work in the current circumstances, this status quo was immediately challenged. In fact it was made redundant. Due to COVID-19 related guidance on the movement and seating of children in the classroom, a return to whole class teaching of reading in KS1 and 2 has become necessary. 

At first, I felt apprehensive to say the least. I thought back to the EEF guidance on improving literacy across KS1 and 2, particularly considering Scarborough’s reading rope (Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2, page 10).

How could studying a whole class text ensure that all children were able to develop their word recognition skills sufficiently? Would we not inevitably end up with a text either too difficult or too easy for many of the children to decode? Even with the language comprehension strands of the rope, I felt that finding a suitable text for the whole class to access and understand enough to develop the associated skills would be near impossible.

I returned to the EEF recommendations for further guidance on how best to support the children’s development of reading in this new whole class structure. I then developed a new weekly planning format and examples for the teaching staff at school which contained a big focus on the strategies of guided oral reading instruction and repeated reading. This helped me to consider the benefits of having ample opportunities for the teachers to model ​‘thinking aloud’ as they read, something which hugely builds children’s awareness of how to understand a text while reading. I also considered how whole class discussion of the texts would likely benefit all of the children, as in their English lessons, by exposing those who may have a lower reading ability to the ideas and vocabulary of more confident children.

Having begun to teach whole class guided reading over the last 3 weeks, I can already identify the high levels of engagement, the increased opportunities for children to read aloud to each other (no longer waiting for their turn in a group of 6)and the amount of new vocabulary discussed and integrated into children’s learning. I have pitched the texts relatively high and still feel that they are being accessed by the vast majority of the class. Many of my initial fears have been completely dispelled.

Despite the benefits of this new structure, it quickly became clear across all year groups that after so many months away from school, there also needed to be additional time dedicated more specifically to developing and recapping children’s phonological awareness and decoding skills. The EEF recommends the continuation of phonic work throughout the key stages, something that I think is especially important in my school context, with high levels of children with SEND and EAL needs. This was not something I felt that the whole class guided reading structure sufficiently allowed for. These skills will therefore continue to be targeted through discrete phonics sessions across EYFS and KS1, and phonic recaps at the start of every spelling session in KS2. We are also ensuring that every child has the chance to read a levelled book with an adult once a week.

Scarborough’s reading rope has provided an important model for developing our literacy strategies in this return to school period, particularly with reading. It has allowed me to visualise the different strands of skilled reading and try to ensure that there are opportunities for each strand to be developed across the week. My greatest learn so far is that whole class guided reading could be a more effective structure to support children in developing their comprehension, vocabulary and literacy knowledge. I think it might be here to stay!

In a blog post about reading, I can’t sign off without asserting the importance of one more element- reading for pleasure. Our recovery timetable includes daily opportunities for children to read independently for pleasure, as well as whole class story time. The latter feels more vital and meaningful than ever, knowing that many of our children have been read to little, if at all, during the last six months. Specific teaching of reading is important, but equally if not more so is building a love of reading, a shared experience and a warm familiarity with literature.

Alice Reedy is the English Lead and Research Champion at Kaizen Primary School. You can read Alice’s research into children’s perspectives on reading for pleasure in Impact, the Journal of the Chartered College of Teachers.