Creating an Inclusive Reading Classroom

A pupil can decode a whole page and understand almost none of it. Another may be years away from print, and it's easy to leave them out of reading altogether. Both belong in your reading classroom.

Once you know how children learn to read, you can work out where a pupil's barrier actually sits. The simple view of reading splits it into word recognition and language comprehension, and each needs a different response. From there the ideas are practical: multi-sensory and sensory stories, high-interest books pitched at a level pupils can manage, immersive reader tools, and being read to every day, at any age.

Reading shouldn't stop at the school gate either. You'll find ways to send something home with every pupil, from a bag of story objects to a story recorded on their communication device.