Siobhan Skeffington, English Consultant
Are you keen to better understand the 2023 Reading Framework? Looking to make sure your reading provision is up to scratch? Here we’ll talk you through the framework, its contents and guidance, giving you the confidence to take it forward into your school.
Published in July 2023 by the Department of Education (DfE), the framework is aimed at primary and secondary schools in England, as well as specialist provisions, initial teacher training partnerships and the wider education community.
The focus of the document is to provide guidance on how reading should be taught in primary schools to ensure that pupils are well-prepared for secondary school. It recognises the importance of reading as part of the English curriculum but also as a medium for understanding and accessing all areas of the curriculum. Ultimately, it addresses the importance of reading in education and emphasises the government's commitment to raising literacy standards for all children.
Structure and content
The document begins by emphasising the social, cultural, and economic significance of reading. It highlights the importance of reading in the national curriculum, provides a conceptual model of reading and provides practical support for high-quality teaching of SSP, fluency and comprehension, including assessment. The guidance considers the experiences and practices of schools excelling in reading education, including those in the English Hubs programme administered by the DfE.
The document is structured to support school leaders and teachers in auditing their current practices, while acknowledging that teaching reading may vary depending on the fluency levels of the children. It supports schools in evaluating their reading teaching practices from Reception to Year 9 and helps identify areas of improvement where further support is needed.
The content is based on teachers' experiences, classroom observations, assessments, and research, alongside advice from experts, and reflects the practices of successful primary and secondary schools. There are also references to research for further reading, several appendices and a glossary.
With regards to phonics teaching, the framework takes a research-based approach, outlining the importance of talk, stories, and systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) in Reception and the importance of "fidelity to the programme" in phonics. It emphasises the DfE's evidence-informed position on the best way to teach reading.
The significance of systematic phonics teaching is highlighted, even for older pupils who are at risk of a limited understanding of reading texts because they are unable to decode proficiently. Decodable books allow children to use the phonics they learn during the phonics lesson to practise and memorise the sounds so that they build their accuracy, fluency and confidence when reading. Systematic phonics teaching is considered the optimum way to not only support reading and spelling but also to help support children with SEND who will benefit from direct instruction but may need this reinforced in a small group.
The framework is not only valuable for primary schools but also for secondary school teachers as it provides an insight into how reading is taught from the beginning and how it develops before children enter year 7. It offers support for teaching children who may not have reached the expected levels of reading, for example replacing picture books with graphic novels for older children to maintain and ensure their interest.
Curriculum
The Reading Framework makes clear that schools should meet the expectations set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework, national curriculum and Ofsted’s Framework, placing quality children’s literature at the heart of the reading curriculum.
The guidance aims to motivate pupils to develop a love of reading, emphasising the importance of reading engagement. Teachers are encouraged to ensure that reading for pleasure is an integral part of a quality book-based English curriculum. This can be done through:
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adults reading aloud regularly, including in class or form time
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informal book talk, including recommendations from peers and adults
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encouraging library use, including the local public library
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providing time to read
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sociable reading environments, reading together and sharing books.
Fluency
By the end of Year 6, children’s reading and writing should be fluent enough to meet the demands of the Year 7 curriculum, not just in English but across all subjects. The primary goal is to ensure that pupils start secondary school as confident readers, ready to engage with the challenges of a wider curriculum.
Building a reading environment
Classroom book corners need to contain quality books with time for all children to be able to share, review and borrow books. The focus should always be on making a significant difference in children's reading habits. The books should be displayed like a library with fluid groupings, be at eye level and be rotated so that children have different ones to look at throughout the year.
Books can be organised into groups for both the school library and the classroom:
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core literature by year group (multiple copies for lessons)
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non-fiction by subject and year group where books support the curriculum
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picture books for younger readers
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picture books and graphic novels for older readers
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poetry books for younger and older readers
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very short page-turners (can be read by young readers or older readers who need extra practice)
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A wide variety of non-fiction books both long and short that can be used by all the children.
Choosing books for your school
The Reading Framework offers guidance on how to select books to best support children to become fluent, engaged readers, meeting the requirements of the curriculum:
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A wide range of genres and literary forms should both reflect and broaden children’s lived experiences.
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Consider a range of stories set in the UK and around the world, both traditional and modern, as well as non-fiction.
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Refresh the list regularly, at least once a year, as new books are published, and new teachers arrive, to avoid its being set in stone.
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Use stories the class will know from previous years.
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Supplement the core “read aloud” stories with others of the teacher’s choice.
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Consider sharing the list with parents, and explaining its purpose, so they could buy or borrow the books.
Strategies
The Reading Framework offers a number of different ways that books can be used in the classroom, including encouraging using books over a series of lessons to explore in-depth layers of meaning and to consider linguistic complexity alongside text structure.
There should be a shared story time each day where the children can just enjoy listening to a story. This is a particular priority for Reception and Year 1. This can include poetry and singing in the younger years but offers the opportunity for children to extend their knowledge of vocabulary that may be beyond their reading level. This vocabulary acquisition can be developed alongside any misconceptions and understanding can be addressed by explicitly explaining the meaning of unfamiliar words and providing additional examples of their usage to enforce their meaning.
Reading aloud allows teachers to model pace, expression and fluency. Meanwhile, children can develop their grammatical understanding by listening to stories and hearing a wide variety of sentence structures which they can then use in their writing and speaking. Story time can sometimes be used as a book club time to discuss and share books and stories the children have enjoyed, or a time to visit the class or school library.
As a teacher, ensure you know the books you want to promote, the pupils’ interests and the books they like:
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Recommend books with similar themes, settings and characters: “If you liked this book, you might also like ...”.
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Find series of books by the same author or illustrator.
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Promote other teachers’ and the headteacher’s suggestions.
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Display children’s reading selections in a “story suitcase”.
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Read a small part of the book from a new title that will be arriving soon.
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Remind pupils of the books that have been read in story times.
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Invite children to register to read a book, such as one that has just been read to them in class, and keep a waiting list.
Teachers need to plan for reading sessions that encourage active participants in a classroom rich in vocabulary and dialogue. Well-designed collaborative learning approaches are proven to increase progress and necessitate the development and use of several types of language.
Paired talk can be a particularly effective way to encourage collaboration, but the children need to be guided in how to make this work. They need to pause, take turns and use full sentences when they direct their ideas towards each other. Teachers need to monitor the discussion and select different pairs to share their ideas with the group.
Another effective strategy is using discussion and questioning techniques to enable developing readers to understand and gain meaning from the text. Teachers also need to model how a skilled reader draws on the range of comprehension strategies required to make meaning from a text rather than focusing on one domain in isolation. Questioning is most effective when it is text-specific and builds on rich discussion that enables children to share ideas that build on prior knowledge and create new connections so that they have a deeper understanding of the text they are reading. Role-play can also be used to bring characters and various parts of a story to life. This supports children to develop an understanding of the motivation of characters in a plot.
The framework supports schools in collaborating with parents to help their children learn to read. Schools should encourage parents to read aloud to their children, to make an effort to understand their children’s motivations and reading behaviours, and to provide opportunities for children to read at home as much as possible, not just in the early years but in all stages of a child’s reading journey.
Overall, this document aims to equip primary and secondary schools with the knowledge and strategies to improve reading instruction and ensure that children are confident and fluent readers by the time they enter secondary school. Children who are more engaged in reading are more likely to make comprehensive progress in all areas of the curriculum.