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Reading Vipers

20/3/2017

59 Comments

 
I have been thinking about and researching how to improve comprehension skills using a range of high quality texts, images, picture books and of course film. 
After a number of sessions with children in schools using the new content domains, which can be found on the gov.uk website, I found that all of the key comprehension skills were being covered through the domains. As some of you who follow this blog will know, I like a mnemonic.  So I set about thinking about a mnemonic that could be used by teachers, other adults who read with children and also the children themselves.  My first attempt - MR SIP TEA was not the catchiest so we have come up with Reading Vipers.  Vipers cover the key comprehension skills in line with the 'new' content domains. 
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The same mnemonic can be used by both KS1 and KS2 with a little adaptation. 

The main differences being in the S - sequence in KS1 and Summarise in KS2 also in the Explain section.  

In KS1 'Explain' is not one of the content domains, rather it asks children to explain why they have come to a certain conclusion or to explain their preferences, thoughts and opinions about a text. 

In KS2 the Explain section covers the additional content domains of 2F, 2G and 2H which are not present in KS1. 

(See Table below.)
 
We have created a useful set of question stems for each of the VIPERS which teachers will soon be able to download.
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At Literacy Shed the minions are now busy making a whole host of resources that will link to Reading Vipers.  There are now 30+ Film VIPERS on www.literacyshedplus.com

We are also creating a range of comprehension materials based on extracts from classic texts such as Black Beauty, The Time Machine, Robinson Crusoe and many more which will soon be available here. www.literacyshedplus.com   Until then you can download The Time Machine sample (as seen below) by clicking here. =
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Visual Vipers

The same key viper skills can be rehearsed effectively using single images or picture books.

Take a look at this example using the picture book 'Return' by Aaron Becker. 
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V - Can you think of one word that will best describe how the girl's Father is feeling?
I - How is the girl feeling at this point?  Use evidence from previous pages to explain why she may be feeling like this. 
P - What do you think will happen now her Father has arrived? 
E - Explain the difference between her Father in this scene and when we see him in the first two pages of the book. 
R - Where are the characters when the girl's father finds them?
S - The Father will want to know what has been happening.  Imagine you are the girl, summarise the events in the story so far to tell to her Father.

FILM VIPERS

There are over 30 sets of VIPERS questions for the Literacy Shed films now on www.literacyshedplus.com
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The question stem documents can be downloaded by click on the relevant image below. 
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As always comments are welcome! 
Click the text below for further reading. 

Further Reading:  Applying VIPERS

59 Comments

Using voice technology to aid spelling.

17/3/2017

12 Comments

 
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Today I had the pleasure of delivering a keynote at a conference in Wolverhampton today alongside some great speakers and the team from Wolverhampton LEA. 

One thing I will take away is using technology to aid spelling in writing.  Mark Smith and others demonstrated how Siri can be used to aid those children whose spelling problems stop them from using a dictionary properly.  His example was with children looking up 'mystery' in the dictionary by searching in the m-i-s- section and being unable to find the word they want. 

Here is a video of Noah in Y2 asking Siri to spell 'Caterpillar' for him:
As you can see in the video as well as displaying the written spelling it also reads the spelling to the child. 

We then tried it with a homophone 'allowed' with mixed results.   There is also an option on Google Search using the microphone button there.  Here is what happened: 
So as you can see it may be that homophones confuse the situation, but it could still be a useful tool for some children. 

We were advised today that if this is normal classroom practice that STA will accept it as independent writing for assessment purposes. (when used for single words and not whole sentences) 

​Even if you do not think you would like to use it in independent writing it could be useful for novice writers in other year groups who can write but struggle with spelling. 

Comments welcome as ever. 

​Rob 
12 Comments

    Rob from Literacy Shed

    Just writing down what I think about school and education. 

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