Year 7-8

What are the children learning?

Throughout the Intermediate years, the focus for reading moves from learning to read, to reading to learn.

When students enter Year 7, they encounter increasing demands in terms of the complexity of the text they read in all areas of the curriculum, including English. They are supported in developing their reading expertise by deliberate and explicit literacy instruction that uses these textu. The text and task demands of the curriculum are similar for students in year 7 and year 8. Students read in order to locate, evaluate, and synthesise information and ideas within and across a range of text as they generate and answer questions to meet specific learning purposes across the curriculum.

During years 7 and 8, students continue to develop their accuracy, fluency, and independence in reading and in using text to support their learning. This expertise includes reading at a rate that is appropriate to the text and the task. By the end of year 8, students need to be confidently and deliberately choosing the most appropriate strategies to suit their purposes for reading in different learning areas. Click here for the LITERACY PROGRESSIONS END OF YEAR 8.

What does it look like in the classroom?

In reading, students undertake a variety of activities that require them to locate, analyse and combine ideas specific to their current learning focus.  In support of this, teacher’s run targeted reading sessions based on identified student needs and abilities.  Student agency is developed through sharing assessment information such as e-asTTle with students, this enables them to see what they can do well and what they need to work on, which they then use when signing up for workshops within their reading whanau.