New Reading and Thinking: Book 1

The ‘New Reading and Thinking’ series presents exercises in inferential comprehension, where pupils must use common sense and reasoning. The series progresses in both difficulty and maturity.

Reading Age: 7 to 9 / Chronological Age: 8 to 16+

Published by Learning Materials Ltd, the ‘New Reading and Thinking’ series is used by a wide variety of people. It was primarily designed for pupils who could read but struggled to infer. Schools, parents, speech and language therapists and adult education find it a very useful series. The series presents exercises in inferential comprehension, where pupils must use common sense and reasoning. The series progresses in both difficulty and maturity. Perfect for pupils who can read but struggle to ‘read between the lines’.

The series consists of 6 books in which pupils are asked to read passages of text and answer questions relating to them. The answers to these questions are not directly stated in the text, so pupils must ‘read between the lines using common sense and reasoning. The passages increase in length and difficulty as the series progresses.

Each book aims to encourage pupils to think about what they read. Pupils newly introduced to this series may well complain that ‘It doesn’t say” when trying to answer a question. Once they realise that, by searching for clues in the text in the way a detective might solve a crime, they will become more proficient at answering them. Then the fun begins!

In some cases there may be one possible answer. The answers at the back of each book are the most likely ones but other answers may well be acceptable, providing students can justify them. A logical, reasoned answer is one that should be encouraged.