Reading

Reading Skills

Identify the genre of the story using the clues on the cover and in the title.
Make a prediction using their understanding of the genre. For example, what do they expect to happen in a ghost story?
Predict the theme using the clues in the cover.
Analyse the design choices made by the publisher by discussing the font, the image and the colours, including what the colours suggest.
Compare a selection of different covers for the same story and think about what they show. Do the covers give the same ideas about the story?

Discuss the main relationships in the story.
Identify the good and bad relationships in the story.
Discuss changes in relationships by identifying the turning points that redefine a relationship.
Explain what causes a change in an important relationship in the story.
Explain if a character is a round character who changes and develops or a flat character who is unchanging.
Identify when and why a character acts in an unexpected way.
Identify when a character changes and explain why he or she changes.
Use a precise vocabulary to describe personality traits and emotions.
Quote accurately to support an opinion about a character.
Predict a character’s life after the end of a story.
Name similar characters in other stories in the same genre or by the same author.
Describe how a character profile is built up using physical details, actions, dialogue, relationships and emotive words.
Compare similar characters across texts in the same genre or by the same author.

Describe the mood clearly and assess the impact of the setting on the characters.
Describe the mood of the scene using several relevant details and assess the impact of the setting on the characters and on the reader.
Identify the atmosphere of the text using precise terms.
Explain how atmosphere is created using natural features, colours, emotive words and figurative devices. Quote precisely to back up a point.
Consider why the setting was chosen. Does it reflect the conventions of the genre?

Identify the turning points or dramatic moments in a text. They can explain how these events change characters and situations.
Track sympathy and tension levels across a text to explain how the story develops.
Identify if a story is written in the first- or third-person narrative voice.
Identify the opening hook technique that the writer has used.
Identify the type of ending that the writer has used.
Identify the number of problems in the story and where they are solved.
Compare two or more story plots and identify how they are similar and different.
Comment on the choice of narrative voice by thinking about whose voice is missing from the story and whose voice is heard the most.
Discuss the perspective that the reader follows by thinking about whose point of view is important and suggest how it influences the reader.

Use genre clues to make predictions about the words and phrases they expect to find in the story.
Identify how stories in the same genre have similar features, like settings, events, characters and objects.
Explain how stories manipulate genre conventions – Which ones do they keep, and which ones do they play with? What is expected and unexpected in the story?
Explain which genre conventions have been kept and which ones have been manipulated, ignored or changed to keep the reader interested.
Assess independently which genre the story is written in and explain how the writer has used genre conventions.

Comment on the writer’s use of onomatopoeia, double and triple adjectives and alliteration.
Identify where the writer has used simile.
Understand that similes make a comparison.
Draw a simile to show understanding of what it makes the reader visualise.
Identify where the writer has used adjectives to offer judgements and evaluations.
Identify where the writer has used personification.
Understand that personification brings the world to life by giving inanimate objects human characteristics.
Draw a personification to show understanding of what it makes the reader visualise.
Understand where the writer has used comparisons and superlatives to create atmosphere, offer opinions and create characters.
Identify where the writer has used metaphor.
Understand that metaphors create extraordinarily strong comparisons.
Understand that metaphors ask the reader to make more than one point of comparison to create an idea.
Draw a metaphor to show what it makes the reader visualise.
Identify where the writer has used animal imagery to describe people.
Draw the animal image to show understanding of why the characters are like the animal.
Comment on the writer’s use of a range of language devices, such as adjectives and superlatives and figurative devices, such as similes and personification.
Identify a range of language and figurative devices independently and accurately.
Appreciate the ways that a text has been crafted.

Ask relevant questions to clear up any queries.
Use a detailed evaluative language to describe parts of the story and refer to the text to support their reasoning.
Give an evaluation and quote precisely from the text to support their opinion.
Make simple comparisons with other texts in the same genre or by the same author.
Make detailed comparisons between other texts in the same genre or by the same author.
Return to a selection of story covers after reading and discuss which one is the most suitable.