Reading at Da Vinci Academy
Year 6 – Summer Reading Newsletter
KS3 and KS4 Transition – Summer Reading Newsletter
Da Vinci Academy is committed to providing high quality reading opportunities for all pupils. We believe that reading for pleasure is a vital part of everyday life. We actively encourage pupils to develop a love of reading: this will enable them to interact with texts not only as entertainment, but also as portals to development. We follow the synthesis of research provided by Doug Lemov’s book, ‘Reading Reconsidered’ which surmises that there are four key reading priorities when it comes to learning.
The four key reading priorities are:
1 Read harder texts
2 ‘Close read’ texts vigorously and intentionally
3 Read more non-fiction more effectively
4 Write more effectively in direct response to texts
We believe that, by equipping teachers with need-to-know reading approaches, students will better understand – and enjoy reading – the texts they encounter during their learning journey.
DVA Reading
DVA is committed to providing a Reading Programme to help all students achieve their potential. Research has shown that reading is just as important for secondary students as it is for younger years. As a school, we are delighted to launch DVA Reading which will see students reading from a wide ranging canon, encompassing the best that has ever been written!
Four times per week, students will be read to by their form tutor whilst they follow along in their own book. An example of the texts we will be reading are:
Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah – Year 7
Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman – Year 8
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee – Year 9
Touching the Void, Joe Simpson – Year 10
Once a class has finished reading their first book, they will move onto one of the following books:
Y7
Boy, Roald Dahl
The Hunger Games, Book 1, Suzanne Collins
Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah
Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibotson
My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece, Annabel Pitcher
After Tomorrow, Gillian Cross
Y8
Bog Child, Siobhan Dowd
Little Women, Louisa M Alcott
1984, George Orwell
Me, My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Canon Arthur Doyle
Y9
Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Outsiders, S. E. Hinton
Journey to Jo’burg, Beverley Naidoo
Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
Y10
Touching the Void, Joe Simpson
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald