English Challenge - Monday 22nd June (Reading Comprehension)

Hi year 5,

It's Mr Hissey here setting your reading comprehension this week. We will be continuing to read The Boy at the Back of the Class. This week we will focus on Chapter 8.

If you are not to Chapter 8 yet, I would spend this week reading the book to catch up.

Chapters 1 to 10 of the book can be found here:

The Boy at the Back of the Class

Here is chapter 8 on its own to make it easier to read and answer the questions. Remember to WHISPER READ the text to yourself to check your reading fluency. This chapter is quite long so don't feel you have to read it all in one go. If you find yourself losing concentration, take a break and come back to the text later. REMEMBER to have as few distractions as possible when reading - make sure the TV and any games consoles are turned off.

Here are your reading comprehension questions for Chapter 8:


1. What does mum do every Sunday morning? P70
2. What question did the narrator want to ask their mum? P71
3. Find 3 country names mentioned on page 74.
4. What is a pomegranate? P77
5. Find two pieces of evidence that mum encourages the narrator to find things out for themselves. This could be something mum says or does.
6. On page 84 it says the narrator 'scrunched up their nose.' Think of a similar word to scrunched that would fit the sentence.
7. Using the text describe what a pomegranate looks like. P87