Reading at school

Reading

 

In Year 2, there is a list of things that a child has to be able to do to be considered "working at age related expectations". These include reading multi-syllable words, reading our Year 2 common exception words, reading words with common suffixes (e.g. -ed, -ing, -ly) and sounding out unfamiliar words without hesitation. In order to meet these targets, we require children to be reading a level 23 book or higher by the end of Year 2. Children are also expected to read fluently (at over 90 words per minute) without overt sounding out and blending aloud (e.g. for words such as display). 

 

As well as this fluent, clear and expressive reading, children are also expected to be able to understand and answer questions about what they are reading. This includes being able to explain what is happening to show that the text makes sense to them and using clues in the text to answer questions where information is not explicitly stated. 

 

If you have any concerns or questions about these end of year expectations, please speak to your child's class teacher. 

The Government have provided exemplification for teachers and parents to show what a Year 2 child's reading should look like at the end of the year. This is in the form of written transcripts but also videos. One of these videos is shown below, but if you want to view any others, you can view their reading exemplification playlist of videos here (via YouTube). 

This is one of the above mentioned videos of a child reading How to Hide a Lion by Helen Stephens. This shows the pupil reading fluently (at over 90 words a minute) and sounding out unfamiliar words without hesitation. They read a variety of common exception words with no issue and read words containing common suffixes taught in Year 2 (e.g. hiding).