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predict infer and analyse from pictures and text
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday situation with words and a picture A picture of an everyday event, or social setting e.g. crossing the road, or going to the cinema. A story to go with the picture (no more than 5 or 6 sentences). Or See the resource sheets in 'Language for Thinking' (LfT) by Parsons and Branagan (Published by Speechmark). If using this publication, use Module 3 and the level C questions. | 1. Choose a scenario. 2. Let the child read the story. 3. Ask the child the questions verbally. 4. Focus on questions that require more working out and understanding of the context, e.g. 'What will happen if he...?' 'Why is it made of that?' 'If you were X, what would you say / do?' 'Why can't he?' (LfT level C questions). | Use some simpler questions to start with. If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. |
improve reading fluency speed and intonation
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Recording a story for a younger child Resources: A short book that a younger child would enjoy. It needs to be quite easy for the pupil doing the reading - at least 19 words out of 20 accurate the first time they read the book. A computer with microphone, or a tape recorder, etc. | 1. Explain that you are going to record them reading a book for a younger child to listen to. 2. Either provide or help them choose a suitable book (see left, under resources). 3. Explain that they have got to make it sound exciting, to keep the younger child interested. (You may want to model someone reading in a boring way and someone reading in an exciting way.) 4. Tell them they will have as much practice as they need to make a really good recording. 5. Ask them to read the book to you. Give them as much help as they need. Keep a note of which words they struggle with. 6. Discuss what the book was about, how characters were feeling, etc. Make sure they understand it fully. 7. Go back and remind them how to read any difficult words. Discuss what the words mean if necessary. 8. Ask them to read the book again. This time focus on how they read it. Model fluent, interesting ways of reading some of the sentences for them. 9. They re-read the book as often as needed, until they can read it fluently. 10. They record the book. Ideally they should have control of the recording process (pausing the recording, re-recording, etc). 11. They may prefer to record a page at a time, and then practise the next page again before recording that. | Some pupils learn to read quite accurately, and may improve their comprehension, but still read very slowly and without expression. Their reading is not fluent. These activities are designed to improve their fluency. An alternative to the recording activity could be simply preparing the pupil to read aloud to a younger child, perhaps a younger sibling. Another alternative is for them to write and illustrate a story themselves, and then record it. Storybook Weaver is a good ICT resource for this (available on Amazon for example). Fairy stories are particularly good for this - especially ones with people talking: "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!". |
knows alphabetical order
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Using an alphabet rainbow to learn alphabetical order Two sets of plastic or wooden lower case letters. Keep the two sets in separate bags. An A3 landscape chart of the letters set out in alphabetical order and made into a rainbow arc using WordArt | 1. Check that the child knows all the letter names. Teach any they are unsure of. 2. Point to the chart and ask the child to read the alphabet with you. 3. Give the child one set of letters and ask them to make their own rainbow using the chart as a guide:
4. Ask the child to close their eyes and tell you the order. 5. Set out the the letters the child is able to recite in alphabetical order with the second set of letters, for example:
6. Select the next few letters which the child does not yet know the order of from the second set of letters, for example:
7. Ask the child to match the target group of letters with the first set, saying the name of each letter as they do so. For example:
8. Take the target group again, jumble them up, ask the child to put them in order again, saying the names as they do so. 9. Ask the child to close their eyes and put the letters one by one in their hand (in order) and ask them to identify the letter. Repeat, faster and faster. 10. Repeat steps 1-9 daily until they know the target set. Once the child is confident with this set of letters: 11. Add these letters to the known ones and introduce the next group of letters. Other exercises: 12. Ask the child to close their eyes and point to where they think a particular letter is in the array e.g. m. 13. Repeat 12 using a simple dictionary, high frequency word chart set out in alphabetical order, phone book, index of a topic book, library classification chart etc. | Use a record sheet. Make a plan with all the adults working with the child to teach the remaining letters. Make sure the child points with you. Do this daily. In this way you will identify which bits they know e.g. a-g. Keep a record of this by colouring in an A4 copy of the chart. This is the 'target group'. If a-g are already known, the target group may be h i j k. Remember that l,m,n,o,p is a tongue twister. This helps to show why it is important to know alphabetical order. The alphabet rainbow can be used to teach spellings and phonically regular patterns - letters are pulled out of the rainbow to build words. |
use pictures and text together to get information
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday situation with words and a picture A picture of an everyday event, or social setting e.g. crossing the road, or going to the cinema. A story to go with the picture (no more than 5 or 6 sentences). Or See the resource sheets in 'Language for Thinking' (LfT) by Parsons and Branagan (Published by Speechmark). If using this publication, use Module 2 and the level A questions. | 1. Choose a scenario picture. 2. Show the children the picture and let them read the story. 3. Ask the child the questions verbally. 4. Focus on questions where the child looks for the answer in the picture and just uses a little background knowledge (the LfT level A questions). E.g. 'Find one that is....', 'When did...', 'What does this do?' 'What else is a X? etc. | If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. If the child finds these questions easy ("LfT level A"), use some questions that require more working out and understanding of the context e.g. 'What will happen next?' 'How else could he do it? ("LfT level B questions"). |
recognises 20 high frequency words
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Using a race track game to practise high frequency words Set of 20+ cards with target high frequency words Dice Counters Race track or loop | 1. Read through the cards with the player(s). 2. Place the cards face down. 3. Players take it in turns to pick up a card, say the word, throw the dice and move around the board. 4. Winner is the first person to finish. 5. Repeat the game after reading through all the cards again or selecting a particular word or words to focus on. 6. Discard easy words and add new words gradually. | Children need to be able to read a range of high frequency words to develop fluency in reading. New words need to be introduced gradually. There could be several copies of each word or of selected words. Start off with a small set of words so that the child experiences lots of success. 2+ players. A short track is ideal as the game can be completed in a short time and repeated easily. If a child reads a word wrong, help them to read the word or tell them the word. Remember the game is meant to be fun! |
| Using different fonts on the computer to practise high frequency words Computer Child understands how to change font | A list of words can be obtained as above. This could be done daily. The words could be typed into boxes ready to make flash cards (2x5 per page). | |
| Sentence building to practise high frequency words Flash cards with set of words. Words which could start a sentence are provided in both capitalised and lower case form. Add one card with a full stop and one card with a question mark. Make a list of possible sentences before the session. | Teaching the words in sentence form gives them a meaningful context. Possible set of words: it, It, is, Is, dad, Dad, mum, Mum, and, off, on, big, get, can, Can Possible sentences include: It is Dad. Is it mum? Mum and dad. Keep the list of possible sentences with the words so that this can be practised daily. A duplicate set can be used for homework. This can be followed up using a programme such as Clicker (see www.cricksoft.com) on the computer. Printing a grid of words will allow the child to work on writing the sentences again independently. Add to the words gradually adding new sentences at the same time. | |
| Playing Four in a Row to help word recognition Sheet of paper as a 'board' A dice Different coloured pencils Preparing the 'board': Create a landscape page with 6 columns and 7 rows. On the first row, number each column from 1-6. Select a set of high frequency words the children have been learning to recognise, and which need reinforcing. Write the words randomly in each of the other 36 boxes - they can be repeated. The board can be photocopied for use on another day. | Children need to be able to read a range of high frequency words to develop fluency in reading. For this game, use familiar words that need more practice. Words can be changed as progress is made. For 2 or more players. You will need to decide what happens if a child reads a word wrong. Do you tell them the word? Or do they lose their go? Remember the game is meant to be fun! | |
| Pelmanism (pairs) Two sets of 10 cards with target high frequency words. Each set made on different coloured card, e.g. mum mum | Children need to be able to read a range of high frequency words to develop fluency in reading. Different pupils will manage a larger or smaller number of cards. |
use pictures and text together to get information
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday situation with words and a picture A picture of an everyday event, or social setting e.g. crossing the road, or going to the cinema. A story to go with the picture (no more than 5 or 6 sentences). Or See the resource sheets in 'Language for Thinking' (LfT) by Parsons and Branagan (Published by Speechmark). If using this publication, use Module 2 and (1) the level A questions then (2) the level B questions. This programme has questions for a range of ability levels. | 1. Choose a scenario picture. 2. Show the children the picture and let them read the story. 3. Ask the child questions verbally focusing on questions where the child must use what they can see in the picture and also some wider context to answer the questions; for example: 'What will happen next?' 'How did he...?' 'What is a ....?' 'How are these the same?' ("LfT level B" questions). | Use simpler questions to start with (e.g. the "Language for Thinking" level A questions if this publication is being used). If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. If the child finds the questions in step 3 easy ("LfT level B"), use some questions that require more working out and understanding of the context, e.g. 'What will happen if he...?' 'Why is it made of that?' 'If you were X, what would you say / do?' 'Why can't he?' (LfT level C questions). |
identifies sentences in reading and uses full stops
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Recognising sentences in reading Write or type lines of text - perhaps from books the child has read. Some of these should be complete sentences. Some of them should be unfinished sentences so they don't make sense. Start all with a capital letter, but leave out the full stop from all of them. Cut out each line of text so each one is on a separate card or piece of paper. (You could keep an extra copy with the correct punctuation added as a model.) Examples: The boy is in bed At the weekend It is time to go My house is in a Easylearn produce prepared texts in a book called 'First Stop' | 1. Child / adult read aloud through a selection of lines of text. 2. Child identifies which are complete and make sense (i.e. which lines are full sentences) and which are not. 3. Child sorts the lines of text into two groups - ones that are complete sentences and ones that are not. 4. Adult models re-reading the lines and adding the punctuation - full stops only at the ends of the complete sentences. 5. If the child is ready - let them work on adding full stops at the ends of complete sentences. | The purpose of this activity is for the child to recognise that a sentence has to make sense (and that it isn't just the punctuation that shows it's a sentence). This could be done one to one, in a pair or in a small group e.g. four children. Child could check work from a model prepared earlier. This links to 'cut up' sentences in reading / writing - child reads the words and sequences them to form a sentence. |
| Identifying sentences and sentence boundaries in longer texts and adding full stops / capital letters Four slightly longer texts than in the "recognising sentences in reading" activity, e.g. of about 3-4 lines, which you have written out or typed without punctuation. Example: it was a hot day the children were making a sandcastle it was really big Easylearn produce prepared texts in a book called 'First Stop' | The purpose of this activity is for the child to recognise that a sentence has to make sense (and that it isn't just the punctuation that shows it's a sentence). This could be done one to one or in a pair -or small group e.g. four children. Punctuation Kung Fu (described in the book Could Do Better by Phil Beadle, www.philbeadle.com), where each punctuation mark is accompanied by a kung fu movement and a noise, could be introduced as part of this activity. This links to 'cut up' sentences in reading / writing activities - child reads the words and sequences them to form a sentence. |
Two part instructions with prepositions and plurals
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Hunt the treasure Something to use as 'treasure' - an interesting object or toy. | Explain that one person will be the person to hunt the treasure (the 'pirate' if appropriate!). The other children will hide the object and think of an instruction of where to look. The person hunting closes their eyes / goes out of the room. Hide the object, and think of an instruction to give a clue of where to look. Make sure the hiding place is not too easy, so that the instruction is long enough to be challenging. (For example: "walk two steps and look behind the cupboard below the window"). Bring the person hunting the object back, and explain they need to listen carefully to the instruction. Give them the instruction. They have to follow it to find the 'treasure'. | You may need to support the person hunting the treasure to remember the instruction, by using memory strategies. If they forget where they need to look, encourage them to ask questions of the group. It is recommended that the group only answers yes / no - i.e. the child must formulate a precise question such as 'is it near the window?' rather than asking 'where is it?' Alternatively, the person hunting can say 'give me a clue'. The other children must then give them a further instruction to help them, but not tell them exactly where the object is, for example 'go forward 2 steps and look up' You may need to support the children to do this. |
| Simon Says Imagination! | The instructions you give do not just need to be actions - they can involve the children finding objects, touching particular colours, etc. | |
| Selection challenge A range of objects laid out on the table. | The objects can be everyday classroom objects. To make the activity topic specific, use objects linked to a current topic in class or in the language group. Using objects the children find interesting makes the activity more enjoyable. For younger children you could use a box, bag, or basket for them to put the objects they collect in. To help the children develop self-monitoring skills, write down or draw the list of things you asked them to find (use paper or a white board). When they have made their selection, show them the list and have them check if they remembered what they needed to find. | |
| Practical Activities Any practical activity where the child must listen to instructions and carry them out to make something - e.g. origami fortuneteller, craft activities. | This is easily transferable to classroom activities. | |
| Barrier Worksheets A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too. Colouring pens / pencils A big book or folder to make a barrier | The activity is designed so that the child has to listen to, understand, and remember an instruction of 4-5 key words. If you break the instruction up into the different steps, the child will be working with several short instructions instead of one long one. For example, 'colour the robot's head blue'. (Pause, child has chance to start doing this part) 'And then colour two shoes red.' is two instructions not one. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. There is automatic feedback in this activity, as the child will be able to see from your picture if s/he got it right. If s/he got it wrong, s/he will be able to see what the instruction actually was. |
To follow sequenced 4 to 5 key word instructions
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier Worksheets A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too. Colouring pens / pencils A big book or folder to make a barrier | Explain that this activity is to practise listening, so the child must listen carefully. You will only say the instruction once. Give the child / children a sheet (one for everyone) and take one yourself. Put the barrier up, so that the child cannot see your picture. Give an instruction telling them to colour part of the picture, and colour it yourself. Make sure the instruction has at least 4 key words, and involves doing one thing before something else. E.g. if you have a picture of a robot you could say: 'Colour the robot's head blue and then colour two shoes red.' The words underlined are the key words, and there are 2 steps to the instruction. When you have all finished that instruction, hold up your picture, so the children can check if they got it right. | The activity is designed so that the child has to listen to, understand and remember an instruction of 4-5 key words. If you break the instruction up into the different steps, the child will be working with several short instructions instead of one long one. E.g. 'colour the robot's head blue. And then colour two shoes red.' is two instructions not one. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. There is automatic feedback in this activity, as the child will be able to see from your picture if s/he got it right. If s/he got it wrong, s/he will be able to see what the instruction actually was. Topic vocabulary from e.g. a science topic or a history topic could be used, and simple worksheets created using software such as Clicker or Communicate in Print (see www.commtap.org for links to suppliers of this software). |
| Barrier Patterns 2D shapes in several different colours Something to use as a barrier | Make sure you say the pattern as one instruction and don't break the instruction up into the different steps. Otherwise the child will be working with several short instructions instead of one long one. E.g. 'A blue circle. A red square. And a triangle' is 3 short instructions. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. You can use almost anything to make patterns - compare bears, mini beasts, small world toys etc. Pictures of topic vocabulary could be printed out and cut to make cards. The barrier pattern could then be made using a pattern of pictures. E.g. 'fire, fire, bucket of water, diary, diary' (linking to the Fire of London topic). | |
| Simon Says Imagination! | Make sure the child listens to the whole instruction before doing it. Make sure that you give the instruction as one long one not several short ones. |
Recall key information from a story
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Stories that the child isn't familiar with. Stories could be taken from reading books, or from picture sequence cards. (For example 'And then' published by Schubi). | Read chunks of the story to the child, or tell the story from the sequence cards. The chunks should be around 100 words long (a couple of paragraphs) and/or contain between two and four things that happen. (Use shorter chunks if this is too long for the child). Ask the child to retell the chunk you have read. The child could also be asked to reconstruct the story using drawing, using miniatures (e.g. playmobil), selecting and ordering cards from a set of picture sequence cards. For the child to gain more information from stories and explanations at other times he/she will be assisted by the use of visuals to support this, and also by being asked a question before hearing the story or explanation so that he/she has something to focus his/her listening on. | If the child has difficulties you can help him/her to recall the story using the following: Ask a question relevant to the key information in the story. For example, suppose this was part of the story: "Lucy rode her red bicycle down the hill. At the bottom she couldn't stop and fell straight into the fish pond..." Relevant questions would be 'What did Lucy do', 'What happened to Lucy at the bottom of the hill': avoid asking questions about details which aren't particularly relevant to the story such as 'What colour was Lucy's bike?'; Ask the child the question then re-read the part of the story which contains the answer to the question; Show him/her part of the story using pictures. Try to guide the child to recall the information with the minimum amount of prompts necessary. Try to avoid the situation where you need to say what the answer is. If you keep needing to do this despite using the ideas above then the story is probably too hard. |
Improve listening skills using fun group games
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon's Egg
|
| Prompt all the children to be very quiet so the dragon can try to identify where the egg stealer is coming from. |
| Fish and Chips None | To make the task more challenging, get children to try to disguise their voices (give examples of making voice high pitched, low, monotone etc). | |
| Farmer find your Animals
| It's best to play this game with 10 to 13 children otherwise it is very noisy and difficult for the farmer to locate where the sounds are coming from. Could also play this game with zoo animals/ zoo keeper or a police man/ different types of transport (e.g. ambulance, motor bike, helicopter, train). |
Follow 4 key word instructions with before and after
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Sammy and Marvin's Picnic Two toys, one to be Sammy and the other to be Marvin Picnic 'blanket' (optional) Toy food Pictures of the toy food, and pictures of Sammy and Marvin (can be very rough!) | 1. Explain that Sammy and Marvin are going to have a picnic. 2. Have the child give them the food following your instructions. 3. Give instructions using 'before' and 'after' e.g. 'give Sammy an apple before you give one to Marvin'. 4. Select the pictures of the food you mentioned, and put them with the pictures of Sammy and Marvin in the right order (for who should have got the food first and who should have got the food second). Do not let the child see. 5. When the child has given the toys the food, have them check your pictures to see if they got it right. | Filming the child carrying out the instruction can help them to decide if they got it right by watching it back. The sentence in (4) is four key words because: a) You could say Sammy or Marvin in either order = 1 key word (because if the first one you said was Marvin, the second one the child would expect you to say is Sammy - so they wouldn't need to listen to this word to still get the instruction right). b) You could say 'before' or 'after' = 1 key word. c) You are using the names of two foods - which could be the same or different = 2 more key words the child needs to listen for. Total number of key words = 1+1+2 =4. |
| Queue Game Several different animals or toy people One or two exciting vehicles, e.g. fire engine and police car | Vary this by having the animals get into the vehicles. You may need to only use one vehicle for this. E.g. 'the horse gets in after the cow'. To make this four key words, have two lines - for example one to get in the fire engine and the other to get in the police car. Have some animals which are the same but in different queues. Now give instructions like "put the horse before the cow in the fire engine line". | |
| Super Simon Says Laminated cue sheet with a picture of a person and then pictures of several actions e.g. jump, sit down, turn around, clap your hands. For example:
Dry wipe marker | You could film this using a digital camera so that the child can watch it back and check what they did. To make this four key words you will need to combine more actions: for example "clap your hands and sit down after turning around". |
First next middle last in sentences
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier Worksheets A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too. Colouring pens / pencils A big book or folder to make a barrier | Explain that this activity is to practise listening, so the child must listen carefully. You will only say the instruction once. Give the child / children a sheet (one each) and take one yourself. Put the barrier up, so that the child cannot see your picture. Give an instruction telling them to colour part of the picture, and colour it yourself. Make sure the instruction uses 'first', 'next, 'middle', or 'last'. E.g. if you have a picture of a robot you could say: 'First colour the robot's head blue and next colour two shoes red.' Or 'colour the middle robot red and blue.' When you have all finished that instruction, hold up your picture, so the children can check if they got it right. | Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. There is automatic feedback in this activity, as the child will be able to see from your picture if s/he got it right. If s/he got it wrong, s/he will be able to see what the instruction actually was. Topic vocabulary from e.g. a science topic or a history topic could be used, and simple worksheets created using software such as Clicker or Communicate in Print (see www.commtap.org for links to suppliers of this software). |
| Barrier Patterns 2D shapes in several different colours Something to use as a barrier | If the child is struggling, break your instructions down into shorter chunks. Make sure the child listens to your whole instruction before s/he starts to carry it out. You can use almost anything to make patterns - compare bears, mini beast pictures/models, small world toys etc. Pictures of topic vocabulary could be printed out and cut to make cards. The barrier pattern could then be made using a pattern of pictures. E.g. 'fire, fire, bucket of water, diary, diary' (linking to the Fire of London topic). | |
| Simon Says Imagination! Cue sheet for 'first', 'next', 'last', 'middle' (optional) | If the child is struggling, make your instructions shorter. Make sure the child listens to the whole instruction before doing it. It may help to have a cue sheet with 'first', 'next', 'middle', 'last' written on it and a diagram or symbol. | |
| Origami A very simple origami shape. See: http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html http://www.tammyyee.com/origami.html Paper for folding. Cue sheet for 'first, next, last, middle' (optional) | If the child is struggling, make your instructions shorter. Make sure the child listens to the whole instruction before doing it. It may help to have a cue sheet with 'first', 'next', 'middle', 'last' written on it and a diagram or symbol. Model the instructions as you say them. |
Understand sentences containing a future tense
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| What's going to happen Familiar picture story books - the story should involve at least two people/animals etc. | 1. Read the book to the child - make sure they can see the pictures - (note this is NOT a reading activity - the child does not need to read the book); 2. As you go through the book, say what each person is doing and what they are going to do on the next page, for example "Daisy is wearing a hat", "Sam is going to put a hat on"; 3. Next time round, ask questions like "who is wearing a hat?", "who is going to put a hat on": accept the child's answer, however if it is incorrect, you can say "I think Sam's going to wear the hat", then turn the page, and say something like "oh, yes, he put the hat on". If the child got it right, then you can say something like "Yes! Sam put the hat on!". | Make sure your language fits the context - it can be tempting to use the target language (future tense) even though it doesn't quite fit with the situation. For example, in the example on the left with Sam and Daisy, on the first page (where Sam is not yet wearing a hat) you could say "Sam is going to put his hat on". However, when you get to the second page (which shows that he has put his hat on), the language to use is not now "Sam is going to put his hat on" (because he's already put it on), now you would have to say something like "(ah) ...Sam put his hat on". |
| What's going to happen using pictures You can use purpose designed pictures, or you can make your own: Make a set of pictures using a digital camera with at least two children you are working with. You could also use two soft toys such as a teddy and a doll. Make a sequence of pictures showing the children doing various actions, such as putting on a hat, kicking a ball, drinking something, eating a cake. First picture: show the two children; Second picture: one child doing the action e.g. putting a hat on - and the other child waiting to do the action; Third picture: the other child doing the action (the first child should also be in the picture having done the action - e.g. if they have just put a hat on, this picture should have them with the hat on). Put the three pictures in this order in a book. | It might be necessary to act out the sequence rather than just repeat it using the pictures: see "EW P7 sequences three pictures showing a practical activity" at www.commtap.org. Instead of pictures, you could film the sequence with a digital camera. |
Listen to short story and answer questions on it
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Stories that the child isn't familiar with. Stories could be taken from reading books, or from picture sequence cards. (For example 'And then' published by Schubi). You could also use stories from "Language for Thinking" (Stephen Parsons and Anna Branagan). Initially don't show the pictures but instead read the stories from p136 to the children, before asking the suggested questions on them. You could also find short animated stories on YouTube for example, so that you can show the child the story after you have narrated it and asked the child questions on it. | Read chunks of the story to the child, or tell the story from the sequence cards. The chunks should be around 50 words long (a paragraph) and/or contain between two and three things that happen. (Use shorter chunks if this is too long for the child). Ask a question relevant to the key information in the story. For example, suppose this was part of the story: "Lucy rode her red bicycle down the hill. At the bottom she couldn't stop and fell straight into the fish pond..." Relevant questions would be 'What did Lucy do', 'What happened to Lucy at the bottom of the hill': avoid asking questions about details which aren't particularly relevant to the story such as 'What colour was Lucy's bike?'; Ask the child the question then re-read the part of the story which contains the answer to the question; Show him/her part of the story using pictures. Try to guide the child to recall the information with the minimum amount of prompts necessary. Try to avoid the situation where you need to say what the answer is. If you keep needing to do this then the story is probably too hard. | You could also ask the child to retell the chunk you have read. The child could also be asked to reconstruct the story using drawing, using miniatures (e.g. playmobil), selecting and ordering cards from a set of picture sequence cards. For the child to gain more information from stories and explanations at other times he/she will be assisted by the use of visuals to support this, and also by being asked a question before hearing the story or explanation so that he/she has something to focus his/her listening on. |
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- Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide free resources to address a wide range of communication needs, including limited speech or language, interaction challenges, and needs associated with conditions such as developmental language disorder, autism, and cerebral palsy.
- Visitor donations mean we can continue to provide resources to support the work of speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, parents, and carers.
It costs £5,000 a year to cover Commtap's basic day-to-day running costs. We have £1,000 left.
Right now, less than 1% of Commtap's visitors pay anything towards the running of the site.
We know that not everyone is able to afford to pay to access these resources, however, if you can, please make a minimum donation of £10 to keep the site going.
Thank you
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