Read, Write, Grow! 4th/5th Grade Comprehension (Small Group Classes)

Join in once a week to develop your reading comprehension skills by engaging in dialogue. We will 'talk' our way into understanding a text through using the four strategies of 'Reciprocal Reading': predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. 

Predicting: What do we think might happen based on.......?

Clarifying: What words are unfamiliar? What do we think the word _______ means?

Questioning: What questions can you think of related to this text? What do you want to find out? What do you want to learn more about?

Summarizing: Can we think of an effective sentence to sum up what we have read?

By working to help each other make sense of the text, we will try to understand exactly what the author is trying to convey. Often reading comprehension is all about just writing answers to questions. In this course, we will answer questions BUT ONLY AFTER we've had a good chat first! We'll be doing lots of talking so this will be a fabulous way of improving your speaking and listening skills too!

When we read for pleasure, we are able to pick and choose books that we will enjoy, however, reading comprehension exams throw random texts at us which we may find challenging or boring. The aim of the course is to help you develop your confidence so that when you are faced with any random extract you can apply the skills which you've learnt to 'pull apart' the text and really 'comprehend' what it's all about!  

The following break-down of sessions is to give you a bit of a snapshot of the classes:

Week beginning 5th March – The Hidden Cabin
We will read a fictional text and discuss what is happening in the story. We will explore the way in which the author has used language to describe the characters’ appearance and feelings.   

W/b 12th March – Bumblebees 
We will explore a fact sheet about bumblebees and discuss why they are important to the environment. We will discuss features such as the heading, subheadings and text boxes. We will retrieve information from the fact sheet and learn new vocabulary.  

W/b 19th March – The Wrong Train
In this session we will read a fictional extract and make inferences based on the text. We will also make predictions as we go along about what might happen next in the story. 

W/b 26th March – When You Grow Up 
This session will focus on an article which discusses what life might be like in the future. We will explore features such as rhetorical questions and subheadings. We will share our opinions about the ideas presented in the text. 

Each session is a stand-alone class therefore you can join in at any point throughout the course.