Reading is such an essential part of a child's modern education. Not only does reading unlock new worlds of wonder and imagination, it allows us to learn new things independently.  First children learn to read, then they read to learn. Once they can read using phonics to decode words accurately, we then want them to read words on sight with automaticity then as their understanding of the text develops, with prosody. 

Reading is arguably the single most important thing you can do with your child, and there is no age limit! Reading to bumps in the womb to teenagers is still a great bonding experience, and just lovely!.

Below are some useful resources that will help you with reading at home, inclduing information about the Newton Reading canon. 

Fluency

Fluent decoding allows us to understand what we read. Because the reader has gained accuracy and automaticity in word reading, the brain’s resources are available to focus on lifting the meaning from the page: connecting the words and sentences, and making connections across the text. As pupils gain fluency, their motivation increases: they start to enjoy reading more and are willing to do more of it.

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. Beginner readers, however, whatever their age, do not have a choice about speed because they are still engaged in decoding the words on the page. Pupils do not pass through a magic barrier and suddenly become fluent. There is no point in pupils reading speedily if the words they read are wrong – for example, if they read ‘place’ for ‘palace’. Equally, accuracy on its own is not useful, unless they can read at a sufficient rate to support comprehension. Both accuracy and speed are essential.

Many factors contribute to fluency. Maryanne Wolf reached the ‘unsettling conclusion’ that: reading fluency involves every process and subskill involved in reading. … [It] is influenced by the development of rapid rates of processing in all the components of reading.91 It might be helpful to consider the idea of progressive rather than absolute fluency. The teacher helps pupils to gain reading fluency at each stage in the same way that a piano teacher helps a pupil to gain musical fluency at each grade. The piano teacher supports the child to practise playing a piece of music fluently at that grade. Once the child can play the piece automatically, the teacher draws attention to the expression marks and the phrasing. Together they decide how the piece will be performed. At each grade, the complexity of the music increases, but the actual process of becoming fluent remains the same.

Once pupils can decode most unfamiliar words speedily and read many familiar words at a glance in texts written to match the GPCs they know, they have taken their first steps towards fluency. However, for many pupils, becoming a fluent reader takes a considerable and continuing investment of time. There are no short cuts. Fluency develops progressively as pupils are introduced to and re-read books that include new vocabulary and language structures that they might not otherwise have read for themselves, as well as challenging ideas. Their familiarity with a text is critical to building fluency.

At Newton, we will be using and referencing the fluency rubric (below) to support your child to improve their fluency. As described above and in the diagrams below, there are many aspects to fluency and children are constantly working on it as they progress to increasingly complex texts. Comments in diaries from school will make reference to the four aspects in the rubric and we would appreciate your input from home regarding these aspects too: Expression and Volume, Phrasing, Smoothness and Pace.