Section 3: Ways of reading and responding to information texts

Key Focus Question: How can you develop your questioning skills to help pupils use information texts effectively?

Keywords: information texts; comprehension; summary; questions; assessment

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will have:

  • developed your ability to create questions and tasks that encourage close reading of texts and personal responses;
  • explored ways to teach pupils how to read and write about information presented in different forms;
  • helped your pupils develop the skills needed to summarise texts;
  • used these strategies to assess learning.

Introduction

In ‘the information age’ we all need to be able to read and respond to information presented in many different forms. Reading information from a chart or diagram requires different skills from reading a story.

As a teacher, your role is to help pupils understand what they read, summarise the main ideas in a text and respond with their own ideas. While it is important for pupils to be able to write answers to questions on what they have read, some will produce better work if they have opportunities to demonstrate what they understand through other activities, e.g. making posters or pie charts.

This section suggests ways to help pupils develop their comprehension and summarising skills.

Resource 4: Sustained silent reading

1. Reading for understanding