Competent readers read between the lines and can see meaning that isn't stated directly. They deploys a wide range of strategies to find and read texts for different purposes.
Pupils who are becoming competent readers have secured sufficient reading strategies, such as sounds, situational / contextual clues and a sense of grammar, to tackle new and unfamiliar texts, with confidence, on their own. Whilst they may still read hesitantly on occasions, they possess sufficient self-help strategies to hear their errors and self-correct when necessary. They not only scan ahead to tackle longer, complex sentences; they are beginning to look beyond the sentence to paragraphs, chapters and whole-text layout.
Pupils at this stage read for meaning and are willing participants in the imaginative world of the text, visualising, feeling for the characters, imagining what it might be like to be the characters and making judgements about what they read. For these readers, reading can be a rewarding and self-sustaining activity, worthy of the time and energy they invest in it.
Pupils who are securely established as competent readers read with understanding at a literal level and can also read beyond the text and between the lines. They work out both hidden and implied meanings and, even though their inferences may not always be securely rooted in the text, they generally make sense.
Pupils at this level deploy a range of imaginative responses to text, such as empathy, prediction and speculation. They may compare the world of the text to their own experiences and are able to make simple comments about a writer's viewpoint as well as the effect of the text on the reader.
In texts, pupils are able to pick out relevant points, supporting them by some generally relevant textual reference or quotation as well as identifying and making simple comments about the writer's use of language and organisational features.
Competent Reader Prompts
Can you explain how the text title / chapter title connects to the section you have read?
Can you identify the genre (category – e.g. horror, adventure...) of the text and explain how this is shown in the section you have just read?
Using evidence from what you have just read can you make a prediction about... ?
What might be an interesting thing (as far as you are concerned) to happen next?
What other choices could the character have made?
What other choices could the writer have made, in terms of the presentation / direction of the story?
What are the main things that you think the writer wanted you as the reader to know in that section?
Can you explain what it is you like about the text?
Can you explain what it is you dislike about the text?
Can you re-read that section and tell me what you think is factual information and what you think is inferred (what ideas are being suggested but need you to ‘read between the lines’)?
Can you provide evidence for an indentified ‘inference’ (see above) from the section you have just read?
Can you provide evidence for an indentified ‘inference’ (see above) from your previous reading earlier in the text?
Can you use an online encyclopedia or internet search engine to give you a little more information about the setting of the text or the writer and make a connection between what you discover and something that happens in the text?
Can you pick out several words used by the writer in the section and identify the effect that they collectively have on the reader?
Can you explain what the writer’s point of view is on an idea or issue (e.g. bullying) presented in this section of the text?
