Too many children graduate from primary school still unable to read well. This can affect the way they understand, interpret and write as they grow older. It’s true that the literacy skills picked up from young have strong impacts on our later years of communication development. Also, educators believe phonics may improve the accuracy of a child’s reading but not necessarily their level of understanding. This is why confident reading makes up the bedrock of a child’s learning journey progression.
We designed Sharp Reading Programme as a class-by-class guide to help students build much-needed confidence through key reading and spelling challenges every week, ultimately equipping them with useful techniques they can employ independently.
Our applied reading programme is built on these 5 principles:
1. Cumulative knowledge
Sounds and their spellings are introduced in a logical sequence without distractions. Our experienced English teachers have taught these skills to our students through easy-to-remember symbols and codes.
2. Responsibility
From the first lesson, students learned to develop pride in their work by taking ownership of their reading practice, as well as homework and spelling progress through a weekly spelling test.
3. Sight words
Throughout the course, students will be exposed to common words that have been highlighted for them and repeated across the material.
4. Familiarity
The programme encourages students to get comfortable with printed text and writing material. This is because most words are in fact unfamiliar to early readers in print, even if they know how to say the word.
5. Basic grammar
As the course progresses, foundational grammar concepts including capitalisation, punctuation, dialogue and paragraphs will be introduced to reinforce comprehension skills.
By the end of the programme, students will have the tools to become more fluent readers, with teachers spending less time on decoding words, instead devoting more focus to comprehension and grammar activities.
Join us for a free English assessment for your child, conducted by our team of reading experts. Chat with us to find out more! If you’re wondering why a diagnostic assessment is important, we’ve listed out the reasons here.
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