
Developing Reading Comprehension Skills is a series of eight reading comprehension books for children, focusing on high-quality literature and the full range of question types assessed in the KS2 SATs and 11+ Reading Comprehension papers. The series gives children opportunities to tackle more complex vocabulary, explore how authors use language to impact their readers and develop endurance for longer passages. To support the adults using the books, each begins with guidance and strategies for teaching the eight different question types, plus suggestions for embedding these texts in the wider English curriculum.
The first two books in the series are available now with the remaining six still to come.

Classic Children’s Literature: Years 5-6 is the first book in the Developing Reading Comprehension Skills series. It contains twelve extracts from classic children’s stories. Each extract is accompanied by eight sets of questions based on the Key Stage Two Reading Content Domains. The world of classic children’s literature is full of rich language and exciting adventures. Through these timeless stories, children are able to journey to worlds and times different from their own and lose themselves in the lives of unforgettable characters. Once children get a taste of these wonderful stories, they often want to read more and go on to experience books they may not otherwise discover.

Classic Poetry: Years 5-6 is the second book in the Developing Reading Comprehension Skills series. It contains twelve classic poems. Each poem is accompanied by eight sets of questions based on the Key Stage Two Reading Content Domains. Classic poems give the reader a window into the past, to another time or another place, while building empathy and understanding. The world of poetry is a place to escape. With the power to transform and change the way readers see the world, poetry can provide peace, inspiration and hope.
The Developing Reading Comprehension Skills series is suitable for new and recently qualified teachers as well as more experienced teachers looking to expand the range of texts they use. These books are incredibly useful in the classroom, for home learning and for long-term home education. Although aimed at Key Stage Two, they would also be appropriate in Key Stage Three for supporting children who have not yet reached the expected Year 6 standard.
Purchase Links:
Brilliant Publications website (print & e-books)
Amazon UK:
Amazon Canada (print books)
Amazon US (print books)
| Content Domain Question Types |
| • Vocabulary • Retrieval • Inference • Summary • Prediction • Text Meaning • Author’s Use of Language • Compare & Contrast |
| Classic Children’s Literature Extracts |
| • Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis • Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome • The Call of the Wild by Jack London • The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien • Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery • Black Beauty by Anna Sewell • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett • The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling • Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens |
| Classic Poetry Extracts |
| • Night Clouds by Amy Lowell • An Autumn Evening by Lucy Maud Montgomery • In Flanders Fields by John McCrae • Leisure by W.H. Davies • In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti • The Way Through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling • “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson • The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes • The Listeners by Walter de la Mare • North of Time by Rachel Field • The Tyger by William Blake • A Musical Instrument by Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
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