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Topic “Secondary (11-16yrs)”
Secondary school age (11-16 years)
To indicate own needs.
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Help card Laminated 'I need you to help me' card | Use the card during classroom tasks. Introduce it as something that reminds us to ask for help when we need it. Make it a 'reward' to have the card for an activity. Tell the child who has the card for that activity, that they can ask anyone for help by showing them the card. Give them a target to use it at least once. Praise the child for using the card. | |
| Sabotaged class activities | Some children are shy of 'correcting' adults, so make sure they know it is ok to tell you can't do the activity. You may find it useful to 'prime' the children and tell them that you might give them an impossible instruction to check if they are listening. You may need to provide the children with a model sentence to use when they let you know that they cannot carry out your instruction. | |
| Shopping Game
| There are commercial games which are similar to this, many of them lotto games. Have the children work in pairs,, so that they must ask each other to collect the pieces they need. |
Predict what might happen next in a social story
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Think of the ending Sequencing cards (focus on social situations) Card with large question-mark on it. | 1. Explain to the children that you are going to see the beginning of a story or something that happened, and that they need to think about what the ending could be. 2. Show them the first 2 or 3 cards in the sequence (this depends on how many cards are in the sequence). 3. Show the question mark at the end and discuss what might happen next. 4. Help the children to think about different scenarios: you could write these down or draw them. 5. Finally look at the final cards in the sequence to see what the author decided on. | |
| Talking about situations Large picture showing a situation: for example a developing argument; a child standing alone whilst other children are playing in a playground. Sets of prompt pictures showing possible outcomes from the situation - for example: child seeks to join in play and is accepted/is rejected, child goes off on his own etc. | ||
| Flip Book A4 ring-binder folder (if you have one with 4 rings this is better, but 2 rings will do.) A5 paper / A4 cut in half Pictures of an event, A5 size |
To find out information about someone by asking questions
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Interview - Prompt questions - Record sheet | 1. Have the children think about questions we can ask each other to find about each other. 2. Have the children interview each other, using the prompt questions. 3. Have them report back to the group on the child they interviewed. | |
| News This is appropriate on a Monday, or after a holiday. Paper Pen | You could have each person choose someone who is not in the group (either an adult or another child) to ask. | |
| Who thinks that? Blank flashcards Pens Paper Questions prompt sheet | Suggested questions for flashcard answers: -What do you like to watch on TV -What is your favourite food? -What is your favourite toy? -What do you like to do when you play with your friends? -What do you like to eat for breakfast? -Where would you like to go at the weekend? -Who lives at your house? -How do you get to school? etc! | |
| How are you feeling today? Feelings / emotions chart (chart containing a range of emotions). Question prompts |
Using word webs to learn new vocabulary/words
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| What word am I? - A selection of word webs you have already completed with the word in the middle covered. - Post it notes
| 1. Choose a word web and cover the attributes of the word with post it notes as well as the word in the centre. 2. Explain to your child/student that you will take the post it notes off one by one and they have to try and guess the word that is hiding. 3. See how quickly they are able to guess the word.
| This activity will help your child/student to recall words that they have learnt. |
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Activities to develop the use of irregular plurals
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 1. Explain to your child that you are going to talk about plurals - this is where there it more than one item. 2. Explain that for lots of items, we add an 's' on the end of the word to indicate more than one, e.g. 'one cat, two cats'. 3. Explain that some words use a different ending. Look through the picture cards together and talk about hte different words.
| To work on regular plurals first - click here for activities (add link) |
| Matching Pairs | ||
| Lotto | To make this game harder, you could say a sentence with your target word in. |
Building story telling/narrative skills using visual aids
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Story Lines - Washing line - Pegs - Selection of pictures | 1. Peg a picture on the line and ask your child to look at it - you could ask you child to choose a picture from a selection. 2. The adult says "It's story time and we are going to make up a story with the pictures" The adult starts the story by using the word on the picture. 3. Encourage your child to take the next turn by choosing a new picture and thinking how they can add to the story that has already been started. 4. Keep going until all the pictures have been used, or the story comes to a natural end. | This activity can be carried out with a small group of children You may need to recap the story at each turn, or give options if your child is finding it challenging to know what they can add. You could use a familiar story and use pictures from the book pegged to the line - you could encourage your child to retell the story with the pictures.
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| Story Dice | This activity can be carried out with a small group of children You may need to recap the story at each turn, or give options if your child is finding it challenging to know what they can add. |
make predictions in simple stories and situations
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Sequencing pictures Sets of sequencing pictures; Question mark card (optional). | 1. Put the pictures in order so that you can easily show them to the child one at a time; 2. Show the child the first picture in the sequence; 3. Ask them to tell you what's happening in the picture; 4. Then ask them to imagine what might happen next. To show this visually, put a card with a large question mark on it to the right of the picture; 5. When the child has suggested a sensible thing that might happen next, show them the next card in the sequence; 6. If there are differences between what the card shows and the child's suggestion, discuss why this might be; 7. Repeat for all the cards in the sequence. | When working with sequencing pictures, always work from left to right, and top to bottom, as this mirrors the direction we use when writing English. Choose your set of pictures carefully - you need sets that show a specific event happening (such as a car driving over a broken bottle and getting a flat tyre) rather than a sequence that develops over an extended time span (e.g. a child growing up, or the changes that happen to a tree during the different seasons). |
| Story books Story books |
Understand that written words convey meaning
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting up a sentence A sheet of paper or the child's writing book A pen A long piece of card (to write sentences on) A large marker pen Scissors | 1. Explain that you are going to play some sentence games and need to begin by writing a sentence. 2. Start from the child's experience so that the writing will have meaning for them. For example: "Tell me what you did last night.", "Tell me about your friend." 3. If necessary, and appropriate, discuss how to add to (or enrich) the sentence with an "extra clause", or an "adverb", or "adjectives" (see the comments for an explanation). 4. Write the agreed sentence in the child's book or on paper (in preparation for writing it on the card), encouraging the pupil to remember the sentence as you write it slowly. Constantly read what you have written so far, asking s/he to repeat what it was you said. 5. Ask the child to read the sentence to you as you write it slowly on the long piece of card. 6. Ask the child to cut up the card into separate words. 7. Re-read the sentence together then muddle up the separate pieces of card. 8. Ask the child to re-make the sentence, encouraging re-reading. 9. Ask the child to close his/her eyes, take a word away, ask the child to deduce the missing word by re-reading. | This activity demonstrates for pupils the link between speaking/reading/writing. It gives them a purpose in reading and re-reading. It develops the skill of holding words of a sentence in their heads as they write them. Some examples of enriching a sentence might take you from 'I went to the park' to 'I went to the park until my mum called me' (extra clause - underlined) or 'I went excitedly to the park' (adverb - which describes an action word - such as "went") or 'I went to the dark, scary park' (adjectives - which describe things such as a park). If the child struggles to identify one of the words cut up from the card encourage his/her use of decoding strategies, for example: (1) what might the word be, given the topic we are talking about (and remembering the sentence); (2) sounding out any familiar letters or combinations of letters in the word; (3) what words might fit into the sentence to make it sound right. Many extensions may be made to this activity. For example, the child might be more involved in the physical writing process. Initial letters might be cut. Can the child match them to the correct words? |
Sequences three or more pictures
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Picture sequencing Ready made picture sequence cards, for example 'And then' (published by Schubi), pictures taken from a storybook. Sources of picture sequences: | Step 1 1. Start with three cards: the three cards can make up a whole story, or be part of a longer one; 2. Tell the story with the cards introducing each card one by one; 3. Get the child to have a go at retelling the story. Step 2 Using the same cards, this time give the child the cards all mixed up - the child needs to put the cards back in the right order and tell the story. Step 3 1. Using three cards which the child hasn't seen before, mix them up and give them to the child to try and work out the story; 2. When the child has put them in an order that he or she is happy with (not necessarily the right order) get him/her to tell you the story (see 'comments' column for ideas of what to do if the cards are in the wrong order) Step 4 Continue with more cards from the same story if the whole sequence is more than three steps long. Step 5 Try working with longer sequences. | To work on this activity, the child must understand the concept that a sequence of pictures can relate to a story, if not, do the activities in the sheet called "sequences three pictures showing a practical activity" which introduces this concept. If the pictures are in the wrong order, the child may notice this when they try to tell back the story. If not, ask questions to prompt the child to rethink how they've ordered the pictures. For example, if picture 1 shows a girl next to her snowman, picture 2 shows the sun melting it, and picture 3 shows the girl crying, but the child has got pictures 2 and 3 swapped around, you could ask about the second picture 'why is she crying?' and look confused. If you can physically act out the sequence this may also help. The idea is to try and get to the point where the child gets the pictures in the right order with the minimum amount of assistance from you. Try to avoid the situation where you need to physically re-arrange the pictures (if you keep needing to do this despite using prompting, then the sequence is probably too difficult). |
Recognise half the letters of the alphabet
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Match, select and name letters: step 1 - match 2 sets of moveable letters, or letters printed clearly on cards | 1. Make sure the child knows the concept of 'same' and 'different' (if not, this can be taught using objects, or pictures of objects). 2. Choose 2 letters that do not look or sound similar (e.g. s and m). 3. Put one of each letter in front of the child. 4. Hold a second copy of one of the letters, and say 'Look, this is the same as this'. Put the letter down next to its pair. 5. Give the child the extra letter, and ask 'Which is the same?' they should put the letter down next to its pair. 6. If the child does not know, or does it wrong, model again. 7. Repeat with the second extra letter. 8. Ask the child to match the letters 3 or 4 times in this way, or until they are clear which pairs of letters are the same. | Teach same and different, where necessary. This activity is for children who are finding basic letter knowledge very hard to acquire. You will need to move at their speed. s, a, m, and t are good letters to use at the beginning. |
| Match, select and name letters: step 2 - select 2 sets of moveable letters, or letters printed clearly on cards | You will need to follow the practice in your school about whether to use letter names or sounds. For this activity, stick to one or the other. | |
| Match, select and name letters: step 3 - name 2 sets of moveable letters, or letters printed clearly on cards | At this point you may choose to show the child how to write the 2 letters. When you are sure the letters you are working on have been mastered, add an extra letter - and begin with step 1 - match again. When 4 or 5 letters have been introduced, remove the easiest ones so that there are never too many on the table at one time - but check earlier ones from time to time. If you find you no longer need to do the 'match' step, it may be a sign that the child is ready for a standard phonics programme, such as Direct Phonics, instead of this. Alternatively, this procedure could be used alongside a phonics programme whenever a new letter is introduced. |
use pictures and text 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 3 (the child reads the story) and the level A questions. | 1. Choose a scenario. 2. Let the child read the story. 3. Ask the child questions verbally focusing on questions where the child looks for the answer in the text and just uses a little background knowledge, e.g. 'Find one that is....', 'When did...', 'What does this do?' 'What else is an X? etc. ("LfT level A questions"). | If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. If the child finds these questions easy, 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"). |
sequence chunks of text to make a whole eg story
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Jumbled sentences A photocopied piece of text without illustrations on A4 paper/card for each pupil, such as a traditional tale or a set of instructions. Each pupil should have a different text, at a level they can all read aloud quite easily. A second copy of each piece of text for you to keep in your 'Results' envelope. Ruler/pencil Scissors 1 envelope for each child and 1 envelope marked 'The results'. | 1. Give out one copy of the text to pupil and keep one master copy for yourself. Put the master copy in the 'Results' envelope. 2. Explain the task is to make a comprehension puzzle for another pupil and then to become a 'comprehension detective' to improve their reading for meaning skills. 3. Give pupils time to read through the page of text independently. 4. Ask pupils to read the text through again. This time they need to decide where to divide it up into a puzzle with a beginning, middle and end. 5. Pupils indicate with pencil where they would like to divide the text up. (They will draw 2 lines to make three pieces.) 6. Check with pupils where they are going to divide the text up before they start cutting it! Sensitively suggest changes if necessary. 7. Cut it up with scissors. Each pupil places the pieces of text in their own envelope. 8. Pupils swap envelopes with a partner. They read through what their partner has given them and put it back in the right order. 9. Before you give each pupil the original uncut copy, encourage them to talk about and point to the 'clues' in the text, which lead them to make their decision. 10. Open the envelope! Were they correct? | This activity may be useful for bilingual pupils and pupils with speech and language difficulties, who can sometimes read aloud with confidence but have difficulty in understanding/answering comprehension questions. This activity could be done in a small group (e.g. with 3 pupils) or in pairs. It could also be adapted for 1-1 work. Try to keep the activity fun. Encourage them to explain why they would divide the text up at the points they have chosen. Support pupils with fine motor skills difficulties where necessary. When being the detective, encourage them to look for language that shows sequence, e.g. firstly, after that, finally. Write down notes/phrases that helped them on a white board/flipchart. Extension activity You could ask them to divide the text into 4, 5 or 6 segments if appropriate for their comprehension needs. |
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. 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 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. (LfT level A and B if you are using the Language for Thinking book). If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. If the child finds these questions easy, move on to having them read the story without looking at the picture. Go back to using simpler questions and move up through question levels again. (LfT Module 3). |
relate pictures and text to the wider context
| 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 B questions). | 1. Choose a scenario. 2. Let the child read the story. 3. Ask the child the questions verbally. 4. Focus on the questions where the child must use what they can see in the picture and also some wider context to answer the questions ("LfT level B questions"). E.g. 'What will happen next?' 'How did he...?' 'What is a ....?' 'How are these the same? | Use some simpler questions to start with. If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. If the child finds these questions easy, 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"). |
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. |
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