Integrated Approach to Reading – 2nd to 6th Class

Introduction

  • The Integrated Reading Approach to Reading has been implemented in Killeeneen N.S. since 2008, following the completion of the Postgraduate Diploma in Special Educational Needs, by Mr. Patrick Dolan.
  • This is a uniqueapproach that uses the class reader to combine all the different elements of literacy into one lesson – questioning, predicting, oral language development, vocabulary development, reading, phonics, spelling, writing and comprehension.
  • Prior to implementing this approach, we had a separate phonics plan, spelling programme and writing was also somewhat separate from the class reader.
  • This approach offers a way of integrating these elements with the class reader to teach a more cohesive Literacy programme.
  • The beauty of the programme is that it can be adapted to the needs of our school, individual classes, pupils and it lends itself perfectly to in-class support.

Questioning and Oral Language Development

  • Questioning and Oral Language Development forms a significant component of the Integrated Approach and permeates each lesson.
  • When a story is introduced initially,the teacher begins by using literal questions focusing on the title of the story and the visual cues progressing to inferential and predictive questions
  • Once the questioning is finished,the children rule their copies. They have a page for their character profile, a page for their cool words and a page for their phonic pattern.

Highlighting Direct Speech

  • During each lesson the direct speech in the story is highlighted.
  • This allows the children to see a visual difference between direct speech and narrative text.
  • It breaks up the text and increases the child’s awareness of punctuation.
  • The children soon begin to realise the inextricable link between narrative and direct speech.Additionally, students come to the realisation thatparagraphs in stories with a high narrative text content may need to read 2 or 3 times – this process is modelled by the teacher.
  • Furthermore, they become aware that the narrative text offers direction on how to verbalise the direct speech.

Reading

  • Reading is an area that can pose a lot of difficulty for the class teacher because some children can feel under pressure when asked to read aloud. Choral reading is the predominant method employed by the Integrated Approach, where children read in groups. Individual children are assigned the role of a particular character and will read the direct speech for that particular character.

Vocabulary

  • The integrated approach gives the teacher flexibility with the vocabulary they choose to teach.
  • The vocabulary chosen is the language the teacher would like the children to use in their oral & written expression.
  • For example, at the beginning of the year thechildren are given a free writing exercise to ascertain the type of language that the children need to focus on for the year e.g. verbs, adjectives etc.
  • The teacher teaches the new word to the children, who will be active participants in this process & later the children will have to put the new word into a sentence.

Phonics and Spelling

  • Children are given an assessment at the beginning of the year to determine which phonic patterns & spellings are problematic. The teacher then creates a list of phonic patterns and difficult spellings to choose from when planning stories during the year.
  • This phonic pattern could incorporate some of the vocabulary the children are learning from the story.
  • If the story does not contain enough words with the chosen pattern the children can brainstorm additional words. This phonic pattern then becomes the children's spellings for the next one or two weeks.

Character Profile

  • The teacher chooses a particular character in the story & analyses that character in detail. The teacher picks four or five characteristics to focus on and elicits these from the children (the children may even come up with additional material).The children have to back up their characteristic with evidence from the text. Thus, improving the child's comprehension skills & preparing them to be succinct and concise with their answers.
  • The children record the character sketch in their copies and later write a full character profile using the information in their copies.

Homework

  • After each lesson the children usually have the following items for homework - spellings (from the phonics covered in class), reread what was covered in class, & writing a cool word sentence/story summary/character profile.
  • The following elements do not occur in every lesson but rather are a menu that teachers can select from as they go through stories. For example story circle, teacher in role, pupil in role, conscience ally, & writing activities.

Story circle

  • This is an excellent strategy to improve comprehension and the child's ability to select the most important information in the story. Once the class has covered a couple of pages in the story they can use this strategy.
  • Divide the children into groups of 4/5/6. The children have to summarise the story in 4/5/6 sentences. Each child has one sentence. Initially, this task can be very difficult as the children can put in a lot of redundant information. However, as children become familiar and comfortable with this task they produce excellent summaries of a story in 4/5/6 sentences. The children become adept at providing concise information & sequencing a story. Children then write their story summary.
    Teacher & pupil in role
  • Children really love this element. However, it is something that needs to be conductedcarefully by the teacher as children need careful direction. The teacher needs to model this process for the first number of stories so that the children are familiar with the process. Once the children are familiar the teacher can choose a child who is confident enough to carry out this role and it enables other children to feel more comfortable having viewed a peer in role.
  • Also the language children use will be predominantly the language that they have been learning while studying the story. They can also draw on their character sketch to help them in their role.

Conscience ally

  • This is another strategy that allows the teacher to carry out an in-depth analysis of a particular character & giving children a greater insight & understanding of how a particular character is thinking. The children form two lines & the teacher walks down between the lines. When the teacher touches the shoulder of a particular pupil they say what they feel the character is thinking.

Writing

  • The writing process is carried out in a number of ways. Through the cool word sentence, story circle, character profile & other elements that can be brought in e.g. children can write letters, debates, essays based on a particular theme that may emerge in a story.
  • For example,writing a character profile. The children will have the basic outline for this activity from their character sketch. The children work in groups and write about the character using the characteristics that were selected from the story & support it with evidence from the text. When the children finish their profile they self-edit & then peer-edit their work. Upon completion of this exercise the children have a character profile of an angry/worried/happy character, which they can incorporate into their creative story writing.

Comprehension

  • The integrated approach both implicitly & explicitly teaches comprehension strategies to the children.
  • It caters for all learning styles - visual, aural, kinaesthetic. Sections of the text are acted out by the children, which brings the story to life & makes it easier for children to understand.
  • The language is analysed in a fun and exciting way & children are asked literal, inferential, predictive & evaluative questions while studying each story.
  • By providing concise story summaries children collaboratively work together to ascertain the most pertinent information to include in a story summary.
  • Additionally, their ability to sequence information is enhanced.
  • By separating the direct speech from the narrative text children have a clearer understanding of the structure of the story.
  • Furthermore, because children are assigned characters they are more alert in their participation in class.
  • Conscience ally also improves comprehension because children are delving much deeper into a particular character and it provides them with a greater understanding of that character and of the story.
  • In a similar way, the character profile augments the pupil’s comprehension of the story.
  • The Integrated Approach compliments and uses the comprehension strategies outlined in the ‘Building Bridges of Understanding’ programme. These strategies are outlined below.
  • Prediction – setting up expectations – titles, text features, pictures, captions etc. (Building Bridges pg.17 - 19).
  • Visualisation – generating mental images as you read – may be by focusing on the senses to create a mental picture. (Building Bridges pg. 26-27).
  • Making Connections – activating your prior knowledge to evoke personal connections (Building Bridges pg.34).
  • Questioning – generating questions to explore the text further (Building Bridges pg. 41 - 43).
  • Clarifying – key ideas and vocabulary (Building Bridges pg.50 - 51).
  • Determining Importance – selecting the essential information (Building Bridges pg.63 - 69).
  • Inferring – recognise the author’s meaning where it hasn’t been explicitly stated, apply evidence in the text to deduce the author’s intention (Building Bridges pg.75 - 77).
  • Synthesising – integrate new information with your prior knowledge (schema) (Building Bridges pg.85 - 87).

Implementation Date

This policy is currently implemented.

Timetable for Review

We will review this policy in 2016.

Ratification & Communication

This policy was ratified by the Board of Management on April 3rd, 2013.

Signed: ______Date: ______

Chairperson, Board of Management, Killeeneen National School.