As an avid reader myself, I have always been determined to create a culture of reading among the children in my class. Over the years, I have implemented various strategies to strengthen and develop this culture.
Starting from the beginning of our journey together, I made sure to incorporate plenty of read-aloud time into our daily routine. This allowed the children to always have a story during the day. We primarily focused on chapter books, occasionally incorporating picture books as well. One book that the children particularly loved was “The Folk of the Faraway Tree” by Enid Blyton. I made sure to choose high-quality and age-appropriate stories for them to listen to.
Towards the end of class one, I introduced big books. These are A3-sized story books that the children could sit in front of me and read along with. This gave them a sense of reading as they started to recognise more words. Over time, they were able to read the book with me, which was a great achievement for them.
In class two, I incorporated some strategies from the Daily Five literacy toolkit. One of the most successful strategies was having a book box for each child. I filled our classroom library with age-appropriate and engaging texts, and each child had their own magazine file box to store their chosen books. They could select a book from the classroom library and put it into their book box. This allowed them to have access to their chosen book and also encouraged them to share books with each other.
I also focused on teaching the children how to choose a “just right” text – a book that was neither too hard nor too easy for them. We explored different ways of reading a book, such as looking at the pictures, reading the words, working with a partner to create a story based on the pictures, or reading a familiar text together and filling in the gaps. This approach gave every child a sense of achievement with their reading, as they were able to pick a book that they could read.
In class two, I also started formal reading groups. Through assessments, I determined the reading level of each child and provided them with appropriate readers each week. I also involved parents in supporting their child’s reading progress and implemented reading logs. This approach significantly accelerated the progress of supportive reading in my class. By the end of class two, most of the students were comfortably reading early readers and were able to independently select their own books with more success.
By implementing these strategies in class one and two, the foundations were set for reading to become a passion. Main Lesson and Literacy Practice Lessons also focussed strongly on phonics work and other literacy skills, but in reading time the focus was primarily on reading and getting the children comfortable with their reading abilities. This approach allowed them to start reading at a young age and develop a love for reading.
Moving into class three, four, and five, I have continued to use these strategies while working towards independence and challenge. This will be a topic for another post, but I firmly believe that starting children on their reading journey from a young age is the right thing to do. Alongside traditional activities such as reading their own writing and exposure to oral language, poetry, and stories, fostering a culture of reading has been a priority in my classroom.