| Teaching reading at Key Stage 2
What do Key Stage 2 readers need to learn?
| Reading is an active creative process. |
Texts and teaching and learning strategies that will help student teachers to develop knowledge and understanding of this principle:
Assess what prior knowledge student teachers have about the reading process and what needs to be learnt. They may already have had modules/experiences in KS1 or working as a teaching assistant.
Revisit reading at KS1 using NLS materials and/or the video Becoming Independent (CLPE 2001). Draw on Literacy at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1.
Support student teachers in familiarising themselves with the National Curriculum for English and the Primary National Strategy and thinking about what model of reading underlies the level descriptors and relevant core learning strands.
Model your own thought processes when reading (Geekie, Cambourne & Fitzsimmons, 1999), and help students to articulate themselves as readers (Benton & Fox, 1985; Meek 1988). Guidance for doing this in an introductory session, is given in What goes on in our heads when we read?
Applying this learning to Key Stage 2 readers Having thought and talked about how they made sense of the text, student teachers now need to think about how they learnt to do this. You will need to help them to recognise that much of what they know has not been explicitly taught, but has been learnt through individual interactions with meaningful texts (Meek, 1988). The quality of their active engagement will very much depend upon their experiences as readers.
Draw out implications for Key Stage 2 readers It is useful to draw up a ‘global picture’ of what it is that children need to learn/possess to become readers. This should include attitudes and experiences as well as strategies. With prompting, Year 2 student teachers at Brighton University produced a useful reference document entitled What children need to learn/possess to become readers.
 
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