Re-think Reading! is a comprehensive resource to support the teaching of reading from Year 2 to Year 6 (with optional plans for Year 1). It contains detailed session plans, organised into a sequence of learning based on high quality texts: picture books, short stories, novels, poems and non-fiction.
Why choose Re-think Reading!?
- Can be used flexibly for whole class teaching, guided group teaching or a combination of teaching contexts.
- Teachers can construct bespoke curriculum pathways to suit school contexts, including all combinations of mixed ages.
- Written around whole texts to broaden children’s experience of literature and provide an authentic reading experience.
- Independent reading activities integrated into the sequences of learning, enabling children to explore more deeply, practise, and develop responsibility for enquiry into text.
- Builds reading skills, strategies and knowledge cumulatively and iteratively through practice in context with increasingly complex texts: ‘Pupils’ knowledge can be increased by wide reading across genres and subjects, by focusing on the knowledge they need to understand specific texts’ (The reading framework, DfE, 2023, p.117)
- Wide variety of approaches to support young readers to engage with each specific text. Plans are not formulaic. There are common elements (book introduction, strategy check, independent reading, respond to text, pre- and post-reading tasks) but the structure of each plan is determined by the reading demands of the text.
- Fosters rich discussion between children and with teachers as the primary vehicle for exploration of the text: ‘Pupils will become better at each of the assessed aspects of reading when they read, think deeply about, and respond to texts through discussion and in writing.’ (The reading framework, DfE, 2023, p.118)
- Additional training and adviser support available.
Our Re-think Reading! book list now presents titles ordered to roughly indicate increasing challenge over each phase (Year 1, Year 2, Year 3-4, Year 5-6).
Sample FREE Re-think Reading! plans
Year 2 reading plan: Finn MacCool
This is the traditional story of Finn MacCool, told using great vocabulary and with images that really support the understanding of the story.
Year 3 to 4 reading plan: The Penguin in Lost Property
A collection by these two poets Jan Dean and Roger Stevens featuring poems about all sorts of animals. Humour runs through the collection from the obvious to the more subtle, allowing children to enjoy poems that are easily accessible as well as those that are more challenging.
Year 5 to 6 reading plan: The Snow Queen
This is the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story which has archaic language and sentence constructions. It is freely available online to use in the classroom.