My Book
When children are ready to progress from their phonics based reading books, they will work through reading books that are grouped by colour band. Colours begin at Lilac in Reception and work through to Dark Blue, Dark Red and even Black in Year 4. These books are from a range of publishers and cover different genres of text. This levelled book is referred to in school as 'My Book' and children understand that this book related to their current reading stage.
Ongoing reading assessments are used by teachers to establish which level children are reading at and whether they need to move up to the next level to maintain the right level of challenge. Children progress through the banded colours as they gain confidence and show understanding in what they have read. All children progress at different rates and the following table is simply a guideline:
As a school, we refer to VIPERS key skills in reading to ensure children know which particular area of reading they need to work on. These areas are Vocabulary, Inference, prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summary and are explored in reading lessons. Exploring these at home is encouraged and supports children in progress they make.
Our Book
Alongside a weekly levelled reading book, children also take home a book of their own choice to share with a parent or carer. This text is called 'Our Book' so that children have the opportunity to hear and enjoy more interesting stories with their families, encountering rich language and gaining knowledge. These books are selected from either class libraries or the whole school library and cover a wide range of genres and text types.
