Many teachers have asked us to create more VIPERS comprehensions for use in lessons.  We have some on Literacy Shed plus already for ages 9-11 and we are looking at developing more. 

I have created a VIPERS comprehension pack based on an article about The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier aimed at Year 6.  (Aged 10-11) 

People love to send me films and I have been sent this one quite a few times over the last few weeks. 
'Rang Tan' is an educational film made by Greenpeace to educate people about the destruction of the rainforests due to human intrusion, primarily from the Palm Oil manufacturers. 

These resources are adapted from the great resources that were developed by Greenpeace on the subject.  The originals can be found here 

When using this film with a group of Y4 children this week to tie into their Rainforests topic we began by finding out lots about Orangutans. 

We began by watching this short film from YouTube. 

The children then created information sheets about Orangutans using the templates below.  The objectives of the lesson here were twofold, the children practise their reading skills in order to find the information but also to improve their knowledge of Orangutans in order to write about them in the following lesson.   Before reading, we discussed and contextualised the tricky words from the image below. 

In the next session we watched the 'Rang Tan' video voiced by Emma Thompson and discussed the dual narrative and the story it told.   The children followed the text and read along.  There are opportunities here for performance, the children could choose a section to perform dramatically. 

Following the reading sessions, we then decided that we would write letters to the Prime Minister in protest against palm oil products in the UK.

This began with a discussion about persuasion.  We decided that we should describe the beauty of the Orangutan as in the model below.  This would act as a persuasive device as people are more likely to protest for something if they have a relationship with them. 

I have been developing some ideas around linking picture books, films and text in order to teach comprehension skills based on our VIPERS reading prompts. 

The following video is based on a group of lessons which introduces children to the concept of inference as looking for clues and creating a hypotheses from the evidence that they can find.  The beauty of using still or moving image is that it is inclusive, that reluctant readers or non decoders can also join in the discussion.  In the following film you will see the development from still image, to moving image and then the application of the skill on some text extracts. 

This short presentation was delivered at the OURfP group on 2nd October at Holcombe Brook School, Ramsbottom. 

The Non-fiction books mentioned on the later slides.  Click the image for more information. 

​Links to George's Marvellous Medicine

​Links to Anne Frank's Diary

Links to Ice Trap
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