Reading Skills Summary

The Reading Skills Summary for Years 5 and 6 outlines key objectives that students are expected to achieve in line with the National Curriculum (NC). The first skill focuses on the ability to identify and discuss themes and conventions within a text. This foundational skill sets the stage for deeper analysis and understanding of literature. Following this, Reading Skill 2 emphasises the importance of engaging with the language of the text, encouraging students to discuss words and phrases that spark their interest and imagination, thereby enhancing their reading experience.

As students progress to Reading Skill 3, they are encouraged to ensure their comprehension is sound by checking the text's coherence and exploring word meanings within context. Reading Skill 4 delves into the realm of inference, where students are taught to read between the lines and deduce characters' feelings, thoughts, and motives, supporting their conclusions with textual evidence. The fifth skill involves prediction, where students use both explicit details and subtle hints to anticipate future events in the narrative. Reading Skill 6 involves synthesising main ideas from multiple paragraphs and succinctly summarising them. The seventh skill focuses on the analysis of how an author's choice of language, structure, and presentation affects the meaning of the text. In Reading Skill 8, the objective shifts to the retrieval and recording of factual information from non-fiction sources. The final three skills, marked with an asterisk, are specific to Years 5 and 6, with Reading Skill 9 requiring students to make comparisons within and across different texts, Reading Skill 10 engaging students in evaluating the use of language by authors, including the use of figurative language and its impact on the reader, and Reading Skill 11 developing the critical ability to distinguish between factual statements and opinions within a text.