Reading Reconsidered Reading Spine

Mr A, Mr C and Mr D

Present...

Reading Reconsidered

Reading Spine

Text Selector for Primary Schools

Contents

The 5 Plagues of a Developing Reader Creation of the List & Application to Long Term Plans Years 1-2 List Years 3-4 List Years 5-6 List Other Books to Consider Other Resources

p3 p4

p5-8 p9-11 p12-16 p17-20

p21

The 5 Plagues of the Developing Reader

In his book `Reading Reconsidered', Doug Lemov points out that there are five types of texts that children should have access to in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence. These are complex beyond a lexical level and demand more from the reader than other types of books.

Read his blog article here:

Archaic Language The vocabulary, usage, syntax and context for cultural reference of texts over 50 or 100 years old are vastly different and typically more complex than texts written today. Students need to be exposed to and develop proficiency with antiquated forms of expression to be able to hope to read James Madison, Frederick Douglass and Edmund Spenser when they get to college.

Non-Linear Time Sequences In passages written exclusively for students--or more specifically for student assessments-- time tends to unfold with consistency. A story is narrated in a given style with a given cadence and that cadence endures and remains consistent, but in the best books, books where every aspect of the narration is nuanced to create an exact image, time moves in fits and start. It doubles back. The only way to master such books is to have read them time and again and to be carefully introduced to them by a thoughtful teacher or parent.

Narratively Complex Books are sometimes narrated by an unreliable narrator- Scout, for example, who doesn't understand and misperceives some of what happened to her. Or the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" who is a madman out of touch with reality. Other books have multiple narrators such as Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Others have non-human narrators such as the horse that tells the story in Black Beauty. Some books have multiple intertwined and apparently (for a time) unrelated plot lines. These are far harder to read than books with a single plot line and students need to experience these as well.

Figurative/Symbolic Text Texts which happen on an allegorical or symbolic level. Not reflected in Lexiles; critical forms of text complexity that students must experience.

Resistant Texts Texts written to deliberately resist easy meaning-making by readers. Perhaps half of the poems ever written fall into this category. You have to assemble meaning around nuances, hints, uncertainties and clues.

Creation of the List

This is an ever-evolving document which will take into account newly released books and other recommendations from the teaching profession.

This list has been amended, complied and created by the following people or references:

? Aiden Severs @That BoyCanTeach ? Ashley Booth @MrBoothY6 ? Doug Lemov ? Gareth Baker ? Matthew Dix (Mr A, Mr C and Mr D Present) ? Nottingham ELS Library Service ? Rob Smith (Literacy Shed) ? Scott Evans ? Staff at Forest Fields Primary School ? The Twitter community of UK teachers

To have an input into this project, please email mracdpresent@ with your recommendations. Please state the book name, the category and the year group it is most suitable for and it will be updated on a termly basis.

Application to Long Term Plans

? The aim of this list is to provide schools with an extensive list of books which they can apply to their own long-term plans.

? These are books to use as whole class reads, study books or extracts taken from them to look at in greater detail.

? The idea is that in each year, a child will cover all 5 plagues of reading so that, by the time they reach year 6 and beyond, they have a good understanding of all of them and are able to access the more complex books expected of them in secondary schools.

This only takes into account narratives and poems so a good balance of topic-

?

appropriate non-fiction should also be read to help further develop children's background knowledge of the subject they are studying.

YEARS 1 & 2

Reading Reconsidered

Text Selector

Here is our selection of books for Years 1 and 2 carefully selected to cover the `5 Plagues of the Developing Reader'. There is a mixture of classics as well as lesser-known books to choose from.

ARCHAIC Texts

Name of Book

Author

Year Pages

The Magic Faraway Tree (4 Book Series)

Enid Blyton

1943 224

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Paul Galdone

1973 24

The Tale of Peter Rabbit (23 Book Series)

Beatrix Potter

1901 69

The Ugly Duckling

Hans Christian Anderson

1844 44

The Little House

Virginia Lee Burton

1942 40

The Cat in the Hat

Dr. Suess

1957 64

Goodnight Moon

Margaret Wise Brown 1947 32

The Little Prince

Antoine de SaintExupery

1943 96

Aesop's Fables (e.g. The Hare and the Tortoise, The Boy Who Cries Wolf, The Monkey as King etc.)

Aesop

N/A

N/A

Traditional Stories (e.g. Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Puss-in-Boots, The Princess and the Pea, Pinocchio, The Pied Piper of Hamlin, Jack and the Beanstalk)

Various Authors

N/A

N/A

The Frog Prince

Brothers Grimm

1812 90

Traditional Nursery Rhymes

Various Authors

N/A

N/A

The Frog (poem)

Hilarie Belloc

1896 N/A

A Good Play, The Swing and My Shadow (poems)

Robert Louis Stevenson

1888 N/A

The Owl and the Pussycat

Edward Lear

1871 24

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