During this half term, Team DB's text driver was Private Peaceful by their acclaimed author: Michale Morpurgo. The class studied in detail the vocabulary used within the text, learning how this can be used in different contexts as well as applying into their own independent writing. To help the class build their knowledge further around the topic of World War 1, they used various non-fiction texts as well poetry from that era, again exploring the use of vocabulary which would help us with writing a non-chronological report. In addition, the class continued to develop their fluency, using the correct intonation and expression through rereading the given texts. To support understanding, they practised retrieval and inference skills through using the point and evidence techniques, establishing where to locate information within a text using both the scanning and skimming techniques that were developed in the Autumn term.

This half term in Reading, Team LF's text driver has been The Iron Man. The children have explored extracts from the book alongside a variety of related texts to develop their understanding of key themes and a range of writing genres. Throughout the term, they have engaged with fiction, non-fiction and poetry, while expanding their vocabulary and recognising how some words can have different meanings depending on the context. Their favourite text was a non-fiction text all about how Robots are used in the modern world.
The class have also focused on improving fluency through text marking techniques, such as underlining words for emphasis and using slashes (/) to show pauses. This supports children in reading more smoothly and with greater consistency. After developing fluency and vocabulary, the team have examined the text more closely by responding to questions that encourage deeper thinking. These have included inference and explanation questions, requiring pupils to justify their answers using evidence from the text. We have then built on this by both answering and creating our own comprehension questions.

In Reading this half term Team CB have been working on the text the Firework Maker’s Daughter as their text driver. The class have studied extracts of the book as well as various linked texts to deepen their understanding of key themes and different genres of writing. The children have studied fiction, non-fiction and poetry over the half term and developed a growing understanding of new words or vocabulary which has an alternative meaning in another context. They have spent time building fluency through the support of text marking. This is where children underline any words that are emphasised and add / to our text to show pauses. This allows the children to read the text fluently and ensures everyone reads it in the same way. Following work on fluency and vocabulary, they have then interrogated the text to answer questions which require deeper thought. These may have been inference based or explanation style questions which required the class to use the text as evidence. The class have then applied this understanding to answer or generate their own comprehension questions.