Scotland's curriculum places learners at the heart of education, and the role of the educator is to respond to the uniqueness of each child, their family and the context of the community in which they live by planning a child centred curriculum.
Responsive planning of universal approaches takes into account what each learner knows and can do, what motivates and engages them, and how we can use this to build on their strengths to support progress.
Assessment is the key to identifying a child’s strengths and barriers. We use assessment both to understand a learner’s specific capabilities and difficulties and to monitor their progress.
All forms of assessment should inform our planning for learning and teaching and should be responsive to each child’s strengths and barriers.
The Education Endowment Foundation ‘Teacher Feedback to Improve pupil learning’ Guidance Report summarised that effective learning and teaching should:

• Build on learners’ prior knowledge and experience
• Break down complex learning into smaller steps
• Encourage retention of learning by using repetition and practice
• Make good use of modelling, explanations and scaffolds to support learning
• Adapt teaching in a responsive way

We would emphasise that adaptive teaching supports the needs of all learners including those who would benefit from further challenge.

These aspects of effective learning and teaching will be explored further as we consider the pedagogical approaches needed to support progress in reading.

As described in the ‘Building knowledge of the child as a reader’ video, we need to understand and build on a child’s strengths and needs in relation to the following interconnected aspects.

• their knowledge and skills of reading – the 5 components (vocabulary, phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency) and how they interconnect,
• their phonological awareness, concepts of print, and oral language skills,
• their background knowledge and experiences,
• their motivation to read, including reading for pleasure and for purpose,
• the impact of a learner’s reader identity - how they see themselves as a reader, the influences of their family, peers and culture,
• their identified needs which may have an impact on a child's reading progress.

We will explore some of the pedagogical approaches or decisions educators need to make in planning for learning and teaching in order to support progress in reading, building on what we know about learners.

We will consider how we can:

• differentiate learning to match learners’ needs,
• provide explicit instruction and modelling,
• manage learning and teaching through flexible groupings,
• ensure that teaching reading is integrated across literacy and the wider curriculum,
• select texts appropriate to learners needs and interests.

We differentiate learning when we match learning and teaching approaches to meet the diverse needs, strengths and interests of our learners. When planning learning it is important to adapt the content and the approach to ensure that all learners have access to meaningful experiences and opportunities for success in reading. We can also differentiate learning by valuing the different ways in which children may demonstrate their skills.

Wyse and Hacking (2024) remind us that teaching requires different areas of emphasis to reflect individual children’s different prior experiences and response to teaching.

When planning learning, educators must balance the different aspects of reading instruction based on where children are in their journey to skilled reading. They must understand that all aspects of reading are being developed at the same time but that certain aspects will require greater emphasis at key points and this shifts over time, for example phonics for early readers, fluency practice as decoding begins to develop and comprehension and vocabulary for independent readers.

However, it is important to note the components of reading do not follow a step-by-step order of progression. Whilst reading fluency is necessary for reading comprehension, improving a child’s comprehension of language supports the development of their reading fluency. In the same way, a broad and deep vocabulary is crucial for reading comprehension but understanding what you are reading also leads to development of vocabulary (Such, 2021).

Another key pedagogical approach is explicit instruction and modelling of reading skills. Research (Hall, 2013, CLPE 2016) suggests that children tend to make a good start in learning to read where their teachers' model and share the processes of reading. This helps to make reading behaviours explicit for children.

Explicit instruction and modelling should be planned for across different aspects of reading, for example blending and segmenting, comprehension strategies or selecting a book for independent reading.
In addition, taking into account learners’ experiences, educators have the very important role of modelling a love of reading, enthusiastically sharing the joy and pleasure that comes from reading a text together, modelling how questions can be answered, or new discoveries that can be made through reading.

As Tennent (2015) reminds us though, modelling is not enough; children must also be given time to practise these skills either on their own, in pairs or in guided sessions where scaffolding can be offered.

Educators need to make decisions about flexible groupings to plan targeted teaching and learning opportunities in order to support reading progress.

Hall’s (2013) review of Effective Literacy Teaching in the Early Years of School found that effective educators organised learning across a variety of groupings for example, small group teaching, one-to-one, paired work, co-operative and whole-class teaching. These groupings were not fixed but flexible and matched to instructional need.

Small group teaching has a focus on explicit teaching in aspects of the 5 components of reading to meet the needs of learners.

Responsive planning creates opportunities for teaching to be repeated for learners as needed. Children learn and progress in reading skills at different rates, therefore these small groups will frequently change as will the amount of time that adults spend with groups.

Educators may identify a learner within these small teaching groups who may need some additional one–to-one coaching on an aspect of reading.

Paired groupings may be planned to practise decoding and fluency skills where the educator can go from pair to pair to monitor progress, guide a partner’s responses and provide needed teaching points as necessary.

Findings from a large body of studies (Slavin, 1983) show that children learn more through peer collaborative learning approaches compared with learning in isolation or teacher-dominated instruction.

Other co-operative groupings planned for may be ‘book groups’ sometimes known as ‘reciprocal reading’ groups or ‘literature circles’ where children take the lead in the discussion of a text. This allows learners with different levels of decoding skills to participate together in a discussion for the development of comprehension and vocabulary. For example, some learners may have read the text independently, whilst others may have listened to an audible reading of the text.

Sosu and Ellis (2014) in their report on Closing the attainment gap in Scottish education remind us of the impact that children working together in small groups or in peer tutoring can have on closing the attainment gap, especially when the groups are mixed ability and where children are encouraged to talk and articulate their thinking to develop reasoning and problem-solving skills.

In planning for whole class shared reading sessions, the educator will be mindful of the different learning experiences children need modelled across all aspects of reading whilst also creating an opportunity for enjoyment and a sense of togetherness around a shared text.

For further exploration of different groupings for different purposes please see the video ‘Shared and guided experience of reading’.

Aside from educators using books for instruction and sharing books for pleasure, ensuring that opportunities are planned for children to have access to books to browse and look at independently is an important part of helping children to develop early reading behaviours (Clement and Tobin, 2021).

We should also ensure that teaching reading is integrated across literacy and the wider curriculum.

Firstly, educators should promote the natural connection between listening, talking, reading and writing when planning for learning experiences within literacy and across the curriculum.

Hall (2013) identifies a key pedagogical approach in the early years of school is the integration and balancing of learning the structures of written language, for example word recognition and punctuation with purposeful and relevant literacy experiences. Planning should take account of connections across curricular areas with a strong emphasis on listening and talking.

Tennent (2015) highlights that encouraging children to talk through their thinking helps us to build a picture of their understanding, in order to responsively plan for and model approaches.

Secondly, a positive literacy curriculum should be planned to promote reading for purpose and pleasure by educators who are enthusiastic about literacy learning across the wider curriculum.

Breadmore et al. (2019) describe how the attitude a child holds about reading can mean they either avoid or engage with reading. However, attitudes are not fixed, they are shaped by feedback and experiences. The researchers note how important is it that learning is planned to present literacy as useful, important, and enjoyable, and ensures that children have positive experiences of reading and writing.

Children who have a range of rich and diverse positive reading experiences, can recognise their growing success as readers.

Another important consideration for planning is the selection of texts appropriate to learners needs and interests.

Wyse and Hacking (2024) remind us that educators play an important part in encouraging reading motivation including carefully selecting texts as a focus for lessons.

Taking into account your children’s experiences, interests and reading habits to carefully choose texts for shared and guided reading, to include in your class library or to recommend to children is key to developing children’s interest and enthusiasm for reading.

McGeown, Oxley and the Love to Read team (2023) highlight how important it is that children have access to books that are culturally relevant and meaningful to children’s and their families’ lives- to ensure children see a person like them represented in books they read.

Books should reflect diverse ethnicity, cultural and social backgrounds, positive reflections of disability and family structure as well as books relevant to their interests.

The Scottish Book Trust provide helpful lists of books categorised under different interests and themes. Please find these and other book lists to support text selection in the signposting section.

It is also important to understand the demands of texts in terms of decoding, vocabulary and comprehension and plan the supports needed for different learners. Reading and writing in the 21st century involves multiple modes of text – verbal, video, digital and images, which all place different demands on a reader. It is important to plan for these within your text choices and to model how they can be used.

In the video ‘Building knowledge of a child as a reader’, emphasised the importance of learning about children’s interests, context and range of skills. Developing an understanding of what this means in terms of their strengths and potential barriers provides a holistic assessment which we can use to ensure children experience success as a reader.

We adapt practice by understanding what learners know and can do well, providing learning experiences that build on these strengths. We encourage children to appreciate their own strengths and see themselves as readers using specific feedback to help them build an accurate picture of their strengths and next steps.

It is important to encourage learners to view difficulties as opportunities for growth and celebrate small victories, such as decoding a challenging word or understanding a complex passage.

Learning and teaching should be planned in response to the identified strengths and barriers of all learners

Breadmore, H. L., Vardy, E. J., Cunningham, A. J., Kwok, R. K. W., & Carroll, J. M. (2019). Literacy development: Evidence review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81-90.

Collin, J., & Quigley, A. (2021). Teacher feedback to improve pupil learning: Guidance report. Education Endowment Foundation.

Education Scotland. (2015). Route map through career long professional learning (CLPL) for dyslexia and inclusive practice. National Improvement Hub.

International Literacy Association. (2019). Children experiencing reading difficulties: What we know and what we can do [Literacy leadership brief]. Newark, DE: Author.

Use what you know about the learners to identify the pedagogical approaches needed to support progress

Breadmore, H. L., Vardy, E. J., Cunningham, A. J., Kwok, R. K. W., & Carroll, J. M. (2019). Literacy development: Evidence review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.

Birsh, J. R., & Carreker, S. (2018). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. Brooks.

Clements, J., & Tobin, M. (2021). Understanding and teaching primary English. Sage.

CLPE (2016). The reading scale. The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.

Education Endowment Foundation. (2020). Improving literacy at Key Stage 1: Guidance report.

Hall, K. (2013). Effective literacy teaching in the early years of school: A review of evidence. In The SAGE handbook of early childhood literacy (2nd ed., pp. 523-540). SAGE Publications Ltd.

McGeown, S., Bonsall, J., Andries, V., Howarth, D., & Wilkinson, K. (2020). Understanding reading motivation across different text types: Qualitative insights from children. Journal of Research in Reading, 43(4), 597–608.

McGeown, S., Oxley, E., & the Love to Read team. (2023). Love to Read: A programme to inspire and sustain a love of reading (1st ed.). University of Edinburgh.

McGeown, S., & Wilkinson, K. (2020). Inspiring and sustaining reading for pleasure in children and young people: A guide for teachers and school leaders. Minibook 50, UKLA.

Slavin, R. E. (1983). When does cooperative learning increase student achievement? Psychological Bulletin, 94(3), 429–445.

Sosu, E., & Ellis, S. (2014). Closing the attainment gap in Scottish education. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Such, C. (2021). The art and science of teaching primary reading. Sage.
Tennent, W. (2015). Understanding reading comprehension: Processes and practices. Sage.

Wyse, D., & Hacking, C. (2024). Decoding, reading and writing: The double helix theory of teaching. Literacy.

Adapt practice to ensure that children experience success as a reader, building on their strengths in order to overcome barriers

Clements, J., & Tobin, M. (2021). Understanding and teaching primary English. Sage.

Collin, J., & Quigley, A. (2021). Teacher feedback to improve pupil learning: Guidance report. Education Endowment Foundation.

Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Hattie, J. (2017). Teaching literacy in the visible learning classroom. Corwin.

Schwartz, R. M. (2005). Decisions, decisions: Responding to primary students during guided reading. The Reading Teacher, 436-443. International Reading Association.