Teach Primary 18.8

56 | www.teachwire.net When approaching the text with the class, begin by modelling reading comprehension strategies: • Visualisation – What do you see at this point? • Background knowledge – Does this section remind you of anything? • Questions – Do you have any questions at this point? T he 2024 reading paper had mixed reviews; some schools reported that it was easy and accessible, while others found it challenging. One thing it does do though, is provide some great pointers on how to teach for SATs success next year. Drip in test-style questions Repetition is vital. The more pupils encounter test-style questions in a practical and fun context, the less fazed they will be when it comes to the actual test. In practice, this simply means that when completing a reading lesson, adjust your questioning. This is not about testing the pupils, but about cleverly adapting the questions you ask. Here are some examples used in the 2024 KS2 reading paper: • Find and copy… • How can you tell… • This suggests… • Tick two ... • According to the text… Let’s take the extract, below, from The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow ( tinyurl.com/ tp-GoodfellowExtract ) as an example. Keep reading for pleasure and information The way to develop vocabulary and background knowledge is to read a wide range of fiction, non- fiction and poetry texts on a variety of subjects across the curriculum. to experience what a whole paper looks like, but there is also a benefit to explicitly teaching skills. For example, pupils need to be clear about the question stems used in the reading paper. They also need to have an in-depth understanding of the vocabulary. The more complex inference questions focused on children being able to decipher a person’s personality and compare it to others. Personality is the characteristics of an individual. Question 39 this year, which was the final question on the paper, read as follows: Ruskin’s personality made him different from the hunters he met in the forest. Explain two ways in which his personality made him different from them, using evidence to support each answer. Just under 33 per cent of pupils across the country answered this correctly, and 76.5 per cent attempted the question. To gain the full three marks for this question, children would Need to KNOW Shareen Wilkinson breaks down this year’s reading paper, and pulls out some secrets to 2025 success... “Draw on strategies like visualisation, and maximise spoken language opportunities to unpick texts” Alternatively, you could use ‘I think, I see, I wonder’ to model the same concepts. Then, adapt your reading comprehension questions. So, instead of ‘What is Miss Nolan’s character like?’, ask children: ‘Miss Nolan rubs the boy’s back.’ What does this suggest about her? And rather than ‘How is the boy feeling?’, ask pupils: How can you tell the boy is angry? Give two examples from the text. This broadens pupils’ experiences and ensures they have a rich vocabulary and knowledge to prepare them for the demands of the tests. In 2024, pupils’ knowledge of habitats, extinction and species are all aspects of the science and geography curriculums, but can also be explored through extensive reading across the curriculum. Pupils need to learn new ideas by building on what they already know. In essence, being familiar with a topic, not necessarily the exact topic in the reading paper, enables pupils to access the paper swiftly because they are familiar with the content. Explicitly teach test techniques Teaching test techniques is sometimes addressed by giving pupils endless past papers to complete. This is nearly always (in my experience) an unproductive activity. There is a place for pupils All I remember is from somewhere really deep down in me I feel a darkness risin’ but like a hot darkness like fire and smoke all mixed together and my fists are flames and the next thing I know I’m curled up in The Sunshine Room cryin’ and cold and, man, I’m tired so tired and my teacher Miss Nolan’s rubbin’ my back and the whole room’s in bits the whole world is.