What's included in the Adaptive Reading Practice The Buried Shield pack and why is it useful?

Year 5 Adaptive Reading Practice The Buried Shield (Working Towards Pack 1) pack is designed to help you deliver a full sequence of reading sessions built around a single short text, in small steps before pupils move on to independent comprehension work. The pack helps you cover pre-teaching, fluency, sequencing and comprehension in one place, prompting moments to assess understanding, address misconceptions and move children onto independent tasks.

Each pack has been carefully designed, along with core materials and supporting materials, to help you guide children on their own journey and ensure progress for every child, not just the average child. A different year group specific theme is used as a setting, and these can be found in our adaptive reading resources here.

An on-screen PowerPoint version of the pack is also available as part of the download. This can be used alongside the worksheets for in-class group, whole-class discussion or to reduce printing.

The Buried Shield links with the theme of the Vikings. Astrid, a fishing village girl, spots something jagged in the wet sand one grey morning and notices carvings too neat to be accidental. Unable to sleep for thinking about it, she returns before dawn so no one will see her, and digs out an old wooden shield — cracked across the middle and engraved with strange, letter-like symbols. As she reaches to trace the marks, a voice murmurs behind her in words she cannot understand. She grabs the shield and runs, wondering who had been watching.

Each pack follows this structure:

Core Materials

• The Text - The Buried Shield, used with the dictogloss and as a reference point throughout the pack. Includes key Year 5 and Year 6 words (shoulder, environment, physical, necessary, immediately) and spelling rules (-cial words and -tial words) for further GPS opportunities. The text is linked to the history topic of the Vikings.

• Image - Children discuss a scene from the text and answer two questions to encourage retrieval and inference.

• Dictogloss - The teacher models reading the text (or a section) two or three times before children first read it themselves, reducing cognitive load. Children make notes, then work together to reconstruct the text.

• Fluency Booster - A copy of the text alongside four activities: Beat Your Time, Skim and Scan, Vocab Checker and Partner Read, which can be repeated as needed.

• Comprehension - Retrieval, inference, vocabulary, prediction, effect of language and summary questions, with scaffolds included in the PowerPoint to support adaptive teaching.

Supporting Materials (used adaptively, individually or as a whole class)

• Vocab Pre-teach - Key vocabulary with images to encourage children to ask questions and make predictions about the story, using six words: hesitate, shore, immense, jagged, driftwood and murmur.

• Question Mind Map- A discussion opportunity for children to develop their own questions and provide potential answers.

• Sequencing - A set of two activities (ordering the text and creating the order) for children who require more sequencing practice.

• Task Boards - Tasks based on recall, explaining and justifying, used as an assessment tool. Four tasks per sheet for printing; one task cut out per child. Children are not expected to (but can) complete all three questions.

• Extended Thinking - A challenge to develop evaluation skills, asking children to identify why the author chose to leave two mysteries unanswered using the text to support their answer.

How do our Adaptive Reading Practice resources work?

Our Adaptive Reading Practice resources provide targeted, responsive support so that every child can access the same reading material at the right level of challenge. They work best used together across a number of sessions throughout the week, rather than in a single lesson.

• Start with discussing the image then complete the dictogloss activity using the teacher model read of the text.

• If required, introduce key vocabulary using the pre-teach before the children encounter the text.

• Use the fluency booster and if adaptive teaching is needed, provide the sequencing / task boards to provide extra support before moving on.

• Children will then move on to the comprehension activity to access the retrieval, inference, vocabulary, prediciton, effect of language and summary questions.

• Challenge children using the Extended Thinking task to provide further stretch and depth.

Packs provide as many reading opportunities as possible, and teachers should use discretion over which resources are necessary for their class before printing.

The stories use topics that are common across schools as a setting or story element. This keeps reading skills as the main focus while helping children make links to previous or current learning.

Each year will have 5x Working Towards, 10x Expected and 3x Greater Depth packs, progressing across the year alongside vocabulary, statutory spellings and spelling rules. Start with the five Working Towards texts in autumn – pack 1, pack 2 etc. – and then move to expected when your class is ready.

Adaptive Reading Practice resources are not a separate lower-attainment route. They provide temporary and responsive support to help pupils access the same intended learning.