The Comprehensive Reading Curriculum F-6, 2024

About this teaching resource

This resource, The Comprehensive Reading Curriculum by Diane Snowball (2024),  is essential for educators, emphasising the importance of understanding and teaching the strategies used by effective readers. The curriculum addresses all components crucial for developing successful reading skills, extending beyond the commonly referenced "big six" (phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and oral language).

Key sections of the curriculum include:

1. Reading Processes: Understanding and teaching prediction, cross-checking, and self-correction.
2. Comprehension Strategies: Employing techniques such as setting reading purposes, visualising, inferring, and summarising.
3. Vocabulary Learning: Enhancing word recognition and understanding through various strategies.
4. Fluency Development: Fostering automatic word recognition and expressive reading.
5. Word-Solving Strategies: Beyond phonics, incorporating letter-sound relationships and morphological awareness.
6. Response to Reading: Encouraging personal and analytical discussions about texts.
7. Metacognition: Promoting awareness of reading processes and strategies.
8. Purpose: Setting authentic reading goals.
9. Habits and Attitudes: Developing regular and varied reading habits.
10. Background Knowledge: Utilising world knowledge and text familiarity to aid comprehension.
11. Morphological Awareness: Recognising the meaning behind word structures.
12. Motivation: Intrinsically motivating students to read.
13. Executive Function Skills: Building cognitive flexibility, working memory, and self-regulation.

The Comprehensive Reading Curriculum also emphasises the importance of teacher demonstrations, guided practice, and independent reading, fostering a comprehensive, integrated approach to teaching reading.

 It highlights the necessity of regular assessment and tailored instruction to meet individual student needs, ensuring all students become competent, lifelong readers.