Setting up the learning to engage children and excite them makes a huge difference to the way they approach a new book. A hook can:

• provide an immersive multisensory experience with artefacts, images, sounds…and even smells
• start with a dramatic scenario to provoke questioning
• kick off with a visit to a place of interest
• present a problem for the children to solve
• be an attractive book display which encourages browsing and roaming around a topic for a period before the book is introduced
• begin with a visit from a writer or an illustrator

The orientation gives consideration to what needs to be put in place for children to access the text. This could be achieved through:

• Activation of prior knowledge
• Helping children make connections between their own experiences and a text
• Building background knowledge
• Developing background knowledge prior to reading.
• Key vocabulary
• Take One Book uses a blended approach to vocabulary teaching which is woven into the teaching sequences.   

A principle of the Take One Book approach is that the first encounter with a book should be a wholly pleasurable experience. One of the best reading lessons, that reading is rewarding and pleasurable, is taught implicitly through sharing a book. 

Approaches used in Take One Book for introducing :

Reading aloud

Exploring ideas

Checking literal understanding, clarifying and explaining

Exposing thinking

Securing a surface understanding, exploring the children’s initial responses and questions, leads on to uncovering the multiple layers in text. The form this takes is dependent on the type of text. 

After reading the focus is on reviewing the text as a whole:

• With fiction and nonfiction, children might summarise a text by distilling key information.  Making evaluative responses requires thinking beyond the book to consider how it measures up against other texts.
• Opportunities are provided for children to discuss the relevance of the book to the wider concerns of the world. 
• Returning to the text after reading allows the children to make further connections and deepen their knowledge.

Each lesson in the framework includes a reflective element. At the end of the reading sequence children reflect on what has been learnt. 
Children are encouraged to evaluate their learning and identify the strategies that were particularly useful so that they can use them in their independent work.