Readers' Workshop

At Montrose Primary School, students are immersed in reading and a love of reading is promoted from Foundation through to Year 6. Students are taught that understanding and thinking about what they read is important.

During the daily Readers’ Workshop lessons at Montrose Primary School students are explicitly taught reading strategies and then given the chance to practise them. Students are taught to read accurately and fluently. They are taught to think about what they read, to ask questions as they read, to make predictions and to evaluate their thinking.

Students are taught to think about their thinking while they read. Students know this as ‘metacognition’. They think about their schema, which is how the books they read relate to their own experiences, to other texts they have read, and to what they know of the wider world.

In order to immerse students in a wide range of texts, each grade has a classroom library which is well stocked with books which have been grouped and classified by the students. The classroom libraries have texts catering to all interests and abilities. There is a range of fiction and non-fiction titles.

Each student at Montrose Primary School has their own book box, which contains texts which are carefully selected by the student. They select books that are ‘Just Right’, which are based on their own interest and ability. Each day students independently read books from their book box. Displayed on the front of their book boxes are the individual reading goals for each student.