Reading at Key Stage 2

Contexts for teaching reading at Key Stage 2
Teacher reading aloud

This has often been a marginalized activity at KS2 but thankfully there is now more recognition of its purpose. You will need to discuss its value in creating a listening community and in extending readers. Student teachers often think they should read what the children want to hear rather then introduce them to new authors and genres.

	There are important lessons about reading that can only be learnt from books themselves. To learn to read a book, as distinct from simply recognising the words on the page, a young reader has to become both the teller (picking up the author's view and voice) and the told (the recipient of the story, the interpreter). (Meek, 1988: 10)
Model how to read well aloud (performance reading), so that students learn how this can bring the text alive for listeners (Meek 1982; Collins (2005). Introduce new authors and genres so that they can see the value of this activity in encouraging readers to try something new (Graham 1999). Explore how this is one way of helping children to gain access texts that would be too difficult to read independently. Revisit What children need to learn/posess to become readers Share the research findings from The Reader in the Writer (Barrs and Cork 2002) about the value of performance reading. Give guidance so that student teachers can prepare a paired performance reading to share with a group in session. Model how to give critical feedback about tone, pace etc and encourage them to do the same to each other (Trelease 2001). Make reading aloud a requirement of any period of school experience. Ensure that they are selecting challenging texts to read which will extend their pupils as readers.