Year 6 – Supporting Children in English

• Supports home learning

Reading and Comprehension

Word reading:

• Practise recognising Year 5/6 words – make up silly sentences with them. You can find a list of Year 5/6 words at the end of this ‘I Can Statements’ resource.
• Encourage your child to use spelling patterns and known words to decipher unknown words, as well as the context of the writing and checking for sense.
• You may wish to explore more complex words with your child.

Comprehension:

• Encourage your child to read across a wide range of book genres and to read a mix of challenging and easier reads and those with more complex themes and topics.
• Explore the VIPERS/Reading Content Domains approach to comprehension questions. This approach offers lots of ideas to get children thinking about what they read and what is read to them.
• Ask a range of questions about your child’s book without interrupting the flow. Discuss the book at the end and explore the characters, any messages and your child’s overall opinion of the book.
• Model correcting yourself – this teaches children to correct themselves, which is a sign that they understand the text that they are reading as they know when it doesn’t make sense! This is a sign of a good reader.
• Question yourself around complex word meanings, inference around characters, or plot elements – ask a question out loud and work through how you are answering it. This sets a good example for your child.
• If your child encounters an unknown word, ask them to read the sentence before and after, as well as the sentence with the word in it. This will give your child contextual clues. They should also look at the word itself and think about related or possible root words.
• Spot and make a record of unusual words that your child can use in their writing. Challenge your child to learn how to spell and use them in writing. They can surprise their teacher by slipping them into their school work where appropriate.