Reading in Year 5

Assessing reading – Year 5 expectations

Apply knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes to read aloud and to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word.
Attempt pronunciation of unfamiliar words drawing on prior knowledge of similar looking words.
Re-read and read ahead to check for meaning.

Become familiar with and talk about a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories and books from other cultures and traditions and know their features.
Read non-fiction texts, and identify purpose and structures and grammatical features and evaluate how effective they are.
Identify significant ideas , events and characters, and discuss their significance.
Learn poems by heart, for example, narrative verse, haiku.
Prepare poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action.
Use meaning-seeking strategies to explore the meaning of words in context.
Use meaning – seeking strategies to explore the meaning of idiomatic and figurative language.
Identify and comment on writer’s use of language for effect, for example, precisely chosen adjectives, similes and personification.
Identify grammatical features used by writer – rhetorical questions, varied sentence lengths, varied sentence starters, empty words – to impact on the reader.
Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions.
Justify inferences with evidence from the text.
Make predictions from what has been read.
Summarise the main ideas drawn from a text.

Express opinions about a text, using evidence from the text, giving reasons and explanations. Point, evidence, explanation. (PEE)
Adapt own opinion in the light of further reading or others’ ideas.
Identify formal and informal language.
Know the features of different narrative text types, for example, adventure, fantasy, myths.
Compare texts by the same writer.
Compare texts by different writers on the same topic.
Summarise key information from different texts.
Empathise with different character’s points of view.
Infer meaning using evidence from the text and wider reading and personal experience.
Explain how a writer’s use of language and grammatical features have been used to create effects, and impact on the reader.
Explain how punctuation marks the grammatical boundaries of sentences and gives meaning.
Know how the way a text is organised supports the purpose of the writing.
Use scanning and text marking to find and identify key information.

Use paragraphs to structure the plot in narrative writing, showing changes in time, place and events.
Use changes in time and place to guide the reader through the text.
Use paragraphs to organise information logically and shape a non-fiction text effectively.
Sustain and develop ideas within a paragraph, introducing it with a topic sentence.
Close text with reference to its opening.
Re-order sentences to create impact on the reader.
Use expanded noun phrases to add well thought out detail to writing.
Use punctuation to clarify meaning of sentences – commas to mark phrases and clauses.
Use dialogue effectively and punctuate it accurately.