Sunday, 29 June 2014

Guided Reading and the New Curriculum

Having had a successful year with changing how we teach Guided Reading to whole class teaching (read why and how here), it is time to consider how we will adapt our practice for the new curriculum which is coming into play in September. Using the new KS2 Reading objectives, which can be found here, we can adapt our approach from the AFs of APP to the themes which are displayed in the new curriculum.

Obviously, the government are keen for children to be able to retrieve information (the old AF2) and there is still a need for them to interpret feelings and emotions and to use these to predict (the old AF3).   They wish for children to identify a writer's viewpoint (the old AF6) and to comment on the author's choice of language, structure and presentation (the old AFs 4 and 5).   Interestingly, performance poetry now appears under the Reading heading in English and so that should be added into our Guided Reading units.  There is no specific mention of historic relevance or cultural influence, although these could come under the author's viewpoint.

Therefore, over the summer, some adaptation will be needed in regards to the Read With RIC resources I made last year.  I will likely remove the numbers as these only related to the APP grids and change the language as follows.

1) Decode
2) Retrieve
3) Interpret
4) Organise
5) Choice
6) Viewpoint
7) Culture

New Curriculum Suggestions
Interpret - including predictions
Choice - including language, structure and presentation
Viewpoint - including history and culture if appropriate

The RIC (Retrieve, Interpret, Choice) skills are still the most important and so the RIC starters which we have been using all year can remain, as can our character, RIC!  With a few weeks still to think about these and discuss them with colleagues, keep your eyes peeled for the new RIC resources as the summer kicks in.

UPDATE AUGUST 2014: New Read with RIC resources for the 2014 Curriculum can be found HERE.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2014: How Whole-Class Guided Reading Lessons Work including how the school has adopted this across key stages 1 and 2.



  1. I like the sound of whole class guided reading. It seems more worthwhile than what I currently do! I intend to try it in September. However, I wonder how you manage with books? Do you have 15 of each book?

  2. In some cases, yes. Sometimes we are looking at certain articles/poems/song lyrics etc so those we just copy 30+ times. But in cases where we study a set text - yes we invested in copies of the books (or asked the children to bring one is, as with Matilda). Let me know how the whole-class teaching goes!

  3. Thanks for the reply. I will have to try it out with poems and articles etc and prove how great it is to help persuade the HT to put some more money into books!

  4. That is the main problem with whole class texts isn't it? It is much easier to get hold of 6 copies of a reasonable amount of books than 30 plus.

  5. This all sounds so interesting! Have you just changed your practice in one year group (and if so - which?) or across the school? Have you noticed an impact on yor reading levels? Many thanks :-)

  6. Thanks for your comment. Can I guide you towards this post:
    It explains in a bit more detail how we have adopted it across the school and how lessons work.

  7. Hi I have been using whole class guided reading for quite some time. I find it works far better than carousel groups. I was just wondering if you have adapted the set for upper key stage 2? Or do they just use the same? Thank you

    1. Hi,
      Yes - upper KS2 use the same. Y1 asked me to add in a predict logo so I believe that is in the file.
      Hope this helps,

  8. Would it be possible to email me an example for Year please

