If your child is taking the Year 6 SATs exam this spring and having a hard time with reading, the sooner you can start putting in extra practise on it the better.
Beyond being a big part of the assessment coming up at the end of the school year, struggling with reading comprehension now can cause issues in the future.
Feeling like you’re “bad at reading” can be incredibly discouraging. That feeling can make it difficult for a young person to be willing to fully engage with classes where the reading becomes more challenging. Imagine trying to deal with History courses in high school when you’re not comfortable with reading a lot of material at a time? Not fun.
So it’s important to get a handle on this skillset early. But how do you start?
There may be some usefulness to going over the year 5 and year 6 spelling list over and over and over again… but for a student who’s already frustrated by spelling, that’s actually not the best way to practise.
be able to tell yourself, in your own words, the main points of whatever you just read—and be able to go back into the passage to help you answer questions.
The material in Year 6 reading comprehension tests is broken out into questions about the main argument or purpose of the passage, its uses of evidence, and the contextual elements of the passage, like point of view or tone. Once you learn how to answer those specific types of questions, and where you find the relevant information, you can answer them easily every time!
Start with shorter, simpler passages and answer the questions as they come up. This practise will help you build situational awareness so you know what to look for in the passage when specific questions come up.
take practise tests. Look for them yourself, or ask your teacher or…you know…some friendly local outside educator to see if they can create some for you!
