Teaching and Learning
Mr Snow
Building Strong Readers at Skye: Understanding the Reading Rope
At Skye Primary School, our goal is to develop readers who can do more than simply read words on a page, we want students to become confident readers who can understand, think deeply about and enjoy a wide range of texts.
To support this, we use Scarborough’s Reading Rope (See Image Below) as a framework to understand how children become skilled readers. The Reading Rope shows that reading success comes from many skills working together.
These skills are woven across two key areas:
Word Recognition and Language Comprehension.
Word Recognition is the ability to accurately and automatically read words. This includes developing phonological awareness, understanding the relationship between letters and sounds, and building fluent decoding skills.
This is why explicit teaching of phonics and decoding is such an important part of early reading development. When students can quickly and confidently decode words, they are able to use more of their thinking power to understand the meaning of what they are reading. Without secure decoding skills, reading can become difficult because students are using so much effort working out the words that there is less capacity available for comprehension.
At Skye, we explicitly teach these foundational skills through a structured approach, including systematic phonics instruction and opportunities to practise and apply these skills in authentic reading and writing experiences.
The other side of the Reading Rope is Language Comprehension, the knowledge and understanding children bring to a text. This includes vocabulary, background knowledge, language structures and the ability to make connections, infer and think critically.
This is why we are committed to developing a knowledge-rich curriculum across Foundation to Year 6. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so students build knowledge over time across areas such as history, geography, science, sustainability, First Nations perspectives, civics and citizenship. Through rich texts and carefully planned units, students develop the vocabulary and background knowledge needed to understand increasingly complex ideas.
We know that strong readers need both parts of the rope working together:
- They need to be able to read the words
They need to understand what those words mean
At home, families can help strengthen the Reading Rope by building knowledge through everyday conversations, reading together, exploring children’s interests and talking about new words and ideas.
Some simple ways to help:
- Ask your child questions about what they are reading: “What did you notice?” “Why do you think that happened?”
- Read a variety of texts together, including fiction and non-fiction
- Encourage curiosity by exploring topics your child enjoys
Discuss new vocabulary and use interesting words in everyday conversations
Every conversation, experience and shared book helps build the knowledge children need to become successful readers.
At Skye, we are committed to ensuring every child develops all parts of the Reading Rope, building the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to become lifelong readers.
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our students on a hugely successful Semester of learning across all areas of the curriculum.
We are incredibly proud of the effort, persistence and commitment our students have shown throughout the semester. We know how hard they are working, and it has been wonderful to see them continually rise to new challenges, embrace their learning and strive to improve.
Across classrooms, we are seeing growth in students’ learning stamina, confidence and independence. Students are developing greater ownership of their learning and demonstrating an increasing ability to persevere, problem-solve and take pride in their progress.
It is a privilege to watch our students continue to grow, and we look forward to seeing them build on these successes throughout the year.
Now it's for a very well-deserved break and I look forward to hearing about all the different adventures our kids go on over the holidays.
Mr Snow