Reading Skills for Early Years Students

According to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), by the end of Year 2, students are expected to be more confident and fluent readers who can interact with others, share ideas and opinions, and comprehend a variety of texts. They should be able to recount information, express thoughts about topics of interest, and begin to understand how texts are constructed and why authors make certain choices.

By the end of Year 2, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken texts including stories. They share ideas⁽¹⁾, topic knowledge⁽²⁾ and appreciation of texts⁽³⁾ when they recount, inform or express an opinion⁽¹⁾, including details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts. They organise and link ideas⁽⁴⁾⁽⁶⁾, and use language features^(7)(11) including topic-specific vocabulary⁽⁸⁾ and features of voice⁽¹²⁾.

They read, view and comprehend texts⁽⁹⁾, identifying literal⁽⁶⁾⁽⁸⁾ and inferred⁽¹⁰⁾ meaning, and how ideas are presented⁽⁷⁾ through characters and events. They describe how similar topics and information are presented through the structure of narrative and informative texts⁽⁵⁾, and identify their language features and visual features⁽⁷⁾. They use phonic and morphemic knowledge, and grammatical patterns to read unfamiliar words and most high-frequency words⁽⁸⁾. They use punctuation for phrasing and fluency⁽¹²⁾…

– ACARA 9.0, Year 2 Achievement Standard

This article highlights key reading skills that students should be developing by the end of Year 2 and how to incorporate them into a Talk For Reading unit.

Key Reading Skills

These key reading skills are drawn from, but not limited to, the Australian Curriculum’s achievement standard:

Forming an Opinion
Activating Background Knowledge
Identifying Key Messages
Connecting with Personal Experiences
Comparing Texts
Retrieving Literal Meaning
Recognising Language Features
Expanding and Using Topic-Specific Vocabulary
Comprehension Strategies (e.g., visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning…)
Making Inferences
Analysing Text Structure and Features
Reading Aloud with Fluency and Expression

How to Incorporate into Talk For Reading

The Talk for Reading approach begins by introducing children to a text to build a basic understanding. It then guides them through strategic reading to investigate the text more deeply and uncover its central themes. In the final phase, children are given the opportunity to demonstrate their independent understanding. The following shows how key reading skills extracted from the achievement standard are incorporated into the approach. While they are sequential, they do not necessarily need to be a strict linear skills/lessons.

Introduction Phase

Activating Background Knowledge

Use charts such as KWL or Wonderings Page to record prior knowledge and thinking.

Ask open-ended questions before reading to spark curiosity and personal connections.

Forming an Opinion

Encourage students to share their initial responses to the topic, book cover.

Hold small group or class discussions around themes, characters, and settings.

Comprehension Strategies

Predicting: Predicting by the cover, clues from the text. Use prediction prompts (e.g., What do you think the book is going to be about? What might happen next?).

Questioning: Encourage students to ask questions to clarify understanding.

Visualising: Use imagination to create mental images through figurative language, such as personification.

Monitoring: Practise rereading or asking for help from friends and/or teacher.

Connecting with Personal Experiences

Invite children to link story events to their own lives.

Create “text-to-self” moments through drawings or short recounts.

Expanding and Using Topic-Specific Vocabulary

Practise sounding out decodable words with dots and bridges underneath, or memorise sight words.

Create word walls with definitions and examples.

Practise making verbal and written sentences with the new words.

Practise reading new words through games and shared reading.

Retrieving Literal Meaning

Practise answering questions using facts, including illustrations, found in the text.

Investigation Phase

Identifying Key Messages

Organise, connect, and discuss ideas to identify themes in stories.

Ask students what the author might want us to feel or learn.

Making Inferences

Discuss your focus areas. They could be characters, settings, issues, illustrations… to understand main themes at a deeper level.

Discuss characters’ motivations and feelings using clues from texts.

Role-play or use thought bubbles to express what a character might be thinking.

Comprehension Strategies

Questioning: Encourage students to ask questions to clarify understanding.

Visualising: Use imagination to create mental images through figurative language, such as personification.

Monitoring: Practise rereading or asking for help from friends and/or teacher.

Comparing Texts

Read two texts on a similar topic and compare their messages or literary elements (i.e., how do other authors build characters and settings or use a different text structure for the same themes).

Identify similarities and differences in characters or presentation of ideas.

Recognising Language Features

Highlight interesting vocabulary and discuss why the author chose those words.

Explore adjectives, verbs, or figurative language in context.

Examine the images/illustrations used in a text.

Analysing Text Structure and Features

Explore how a text is organised (e.g., a recount: Who, what, when, where, why).

Recognise the language features of texts: The opening of a narrative often begins with “Once upon a time…” to set the stage for the story.

Compare with the structure of an informative text (e.g., headings, diagrams).

Independent Phase

Comprehension Strategies

Summarising: Recount details from the text, including key messages, events, favourite characters.

Forming an Opinion

Reflect on the key messages of texts.

Evaluate them as a whole.

Reading Aloud with Fluency and Expression

Model expressive and fluency reading, phrasing with punctuation.

Use echo reading, choral reading, or reader’s theatre to practise fluency.

Considerations and Limitations

Building strong reading habits early on sets a foundation for lifelong learning. With intentional planning and engaging activities, teachers can guide students toward becoming expressive, strategic, and appreciative readers by the end of Year 2. In the next article, we’ll explore how to weave together selected text features and these reading skills with the Australian Curriculum to begin drafting lessons for the reading unit.

This article focuses on reading development only, not writing. While some skills, such as summarising or making inferences, are aimed at Year 2 students, introducing them gently in Foundation Year can still be valuable. Teachers can simplify the terminology and adjust the activities to suit the cohort’s level.