Read about Re-think Reading!
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.
Visit our shop for further information.
Organisation of session plans
Each plan includes the following elements:
- The title and publisher’s details
- A brief synopsis of the book
- A list of other books by the same author and a list of other related texts
- National Curriculum objectives that are a focus in the sessions and how these are contextualised in the plans
- Sequenced session plans with a structure of Book Introduction, Strategy Check, Independent Reading, Respond to Text
- Pre-reading and post-reading tasks where relevant for the teaching sessions
- Other independent activities (optional)
- Resources for the teaching sessions
Purchase Re-think Reading!
Plans can be purchased individually or as a whole package. For further details and to purchase visit our shop.
Visit our The Book of Hopes page for 3 free Re-think Reading! plans using Katherine Rundell’s fabulous anthology from the National Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury Publishing.
Re-think Reading! book lists
Re-think Reading! – View the book list (title and focus) – updated March 2023
Supporting curriculum progression in reading
The Primary English team supports schools and English subject leaders with planning for reading progression across the primary years, and has produced a number of resources to help.
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). Download our most up-to-date version from the link above.
We’ve also mapped our Re-think Reading! books against features of text complexity to help guide schools in sequencing their choices to ensure curriculum progression:
One possible model of reading progression was introduced to subject leaders back our autumn 2019 briefings. Many schools have now very successfully adapted this to clarify their curriculum intent for reading.
Sample three 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 (Year 6)
This is the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story which has archaic language and sentence constructions. It is freely available online at www.storyberries.com to use in the classroom.