Let me ask you a question: Where do you encounter non-fiction reading in your everyday life? And is this a pleasurable experience or is your use of everyday non-fiction literacy purely out of necessity?

We look at non-fiction in the primary school and consider how it is both a necessity and a pleasure.

Ideas to help you prepare for the key stage 2 reading SAT. Perfect for new teachers and those looking for some quick reminders.

I share my thoughts about the PEE acronym and its usefulness (or not) for answering extended comprehension questions in Key Stage 2.

Want to know more about close reading? This short article tells you more…

Retrieval is a key reading skill whether you’re teaching comprehension through Guided, Close or Whole Class Reading. In this short article we share some quick and easy techniques to help your class retrieve key information from texts. All of the suggestions here are lo-fi and designed to save you time whilst have a clear focus on retrieving and recording key information from texts.

A hugely popular article signposting the suite of Primary English resources to support teaching and learning in reading. Planners, questions and prompts to support all aspects of the Content Domain for reading in KS1 and KS2.

In this article, I take a brief look at supporting children to identify themes in texts.

The National Curriculum asks that children in Year 5 and Year 6 identify and discuss themes and conventions in writing. But what are themes?Themes are not the plot and they are not the genre. Instead, themes are the underlying messages that exist beneath the words written on the page. They are the big ideas that the author is trying to convey to the reader. 

I’m currently big on graphic organisers. It’s the way that graphic organisers make it easier for children to articulate their understanding that I particularly like. But also, it’s the way that a really good graphic organiser lends itself to a multitude of educational requirements. The Freyer model (sometimes called the Freyer diagram) is one such graphic organiser.

Thoughts and ideas from the Primary English experts on how to move your guided reading practice from Good to Great.

One of the all-time most popular Primary English articles which looks at the age-old problem of teaching inference and deduction in KS1 and KS2.