Supporting your child with Reading

Year 8

Most popular books for

children in year 8

Year 8 books most read by

high achieving readers

Rank Title and Author

1 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

2 Catching Fire Suzanne Collins

3 Mockingjay Suzanne Collins

4 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne

5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney

6 Holes Louis Sachar

7

Harry Potter &the Philosopher’s Stone JK Rowling

8

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets JK Rowling

9 Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo

10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney

Rank Title and Author

1 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney

3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney

4 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne

5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Jeff Kinney

6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Jeff Kinney

7 Holes Louis Sachar

8 The Twits Roald Dahl

9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth Jeff Kinney

10 Catching Fire Suzanne Collins

HTCS

Inspire | Support | Achieve

Reading can be entertaining and educational, can open up new worlds and enrich your life, and can improve hand-eye co-ordination and enhance social skills. When your child's reading skills improve, their listening, speaking and writing skills improve too. Here are some of the specific reasons why:

Listening as they read along can help your child improve their pronunciation skills.

Reading is the best way for your child to learn and remember the proper spelling of words.

The constant repetition of words and patterns in reading helps children to learn and remember vo-cabulary and grammar structures.

Reading helps children to become familiar with the rhythm of English. Over time they will start to no-tice when a sentence or phrase doesn't seem right.

Good reading skills can improve your child’s for-eign language skills.

Unlike conversation, reading is something your child can do on their own and is often free.

Teachers can spot those children that read regularly be-cause their vocabulary is more developed, they can ex-press themselves more clearly and accurately in their speech and their writing, and they are generally confident in sharing their knowledge. If you want to improve your child’s English, they need to learn to love reading. The best readers often get the best grades, jobs and opportunities. If you are concerned about your child’s reading or would like more ideas on how to support your child with reading at home please contact your child’s Communications Teacher or Ms E Watson on (01429) 261446.

1. Choose a quiet time for regular practice. Set aside ten to fifteen

minutes for reading per day. 'Little and often' is best.

2. Make reading enjoyable. Try to sit with your child but do not pressur-

ise them and if they lose interest do something else.

3. Maintain the flow. Ask your child to read aloud to you as this really

helps with their understanding of grammar. If your child mispronounces

a word do not interrupt immediately, allow opportunity for self-

correction and look back at any errors when there is a natural break in

the text.

4. Be positive. Boost your child's confidence with constant praise.

5. Success is the key. Parents anxious for a child to progress can mistak-

enly give a child a book that is too difficult. Build your child's confidence

by keeping to easier books and texts that interest them. Struggling with

a book with many unknown words is pointless. Flow is lost, text cannot

be understood and children can easily become reluctant readers.

6. Visit your local library with your child.

7. Talk about the book. Always ask questions about the pictures, the

characters, how they think the story will end, and their favourite part.

You will then be able to see how well they understand as well as devel-

oping their comprehension skills.

8. Variety is important. Remember children need to experience a variety

of texts to understand how different types of text are put together as

well as developing their vocabulary.

How to Help Your Child Read? Year 8 books most read by

struggling/ reluctant readers Why Read?

Rank Title and Author

1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney

2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Jeff Kinney

3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Jeff Kinney

4

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Jeff Kinney

5

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth Jeff Kinney

6 They Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne

7 Holes Louis Sachar

8 The Good Student Alison Hawes

9 The Twits Roald Dahl

10 The Dark Never Hides Peter Lancett