READING

SPELLS FOR READING

 

Copy and Classify

Level Al.l, A1.2

Age 6-10

Organization individual

Aims To copy and classify familiar words

Language focus In the example: food, fruit and vegetables

Alternatives: any language, eg animals, sports tree-m:- : •

Materials

Essential: none

Procedure

1. Ask the children to tell you food words they know, write these words on the board, eg egg, tomato, chicken, sausage, cheese,appls.                                                         ham, pear, orange.
2. Draw two columns on the board.
3. Ask the children to copy the headings into their columns and to copy all the food words on the board into the correct column.
4. At the end, children check their answers with the whole class.

Comments and suggestions

• This activity provides practice in copying and writing, to think by asking children to classify the words, to transform a potentially mechanical copying activity.
• A range of other vocabulary and categories can be used in the activity, eg Food that is good /bad for you, Sports that use /don’t use a ball, Free-time activities that are / aren't good eaorxse.
• Children can also be asked to copy and classify words m a personalized way, eg Food I like / don't like, Animals I think are scary / not scaiy. This car. Lead into a speaking activity in which children ask questions and exchange

their views.

 

 

 

 Alphabet cards

Level Al.l, Al.2

Age 6-10

Organization pairs, whole class

Aims To practise spelling and making familiar words and or sentences using alphabet cards.

 Language focus In the example: the alphabet, parts of the body

Alternatives: any familiar language and vocabularv

Alphabet bingo: Children choose 6-8 alphabet cards, lay them out on their desks and turn them over as you say the letters. The first child to turn over all the letters says Bingo! and is the winner.

Anagrams: In pairs, children make anagrams of three words related to the topic, story or unit of work using the alphabet cards. They then exchange places with another pair and move the alphabet cards to turn the anagrams into words.

• The physical manipulation of the alphabet cards supports children's initial reading and writing skills and helps to make accurate spelling enjoyable and memorable.

 

 

   Shared reading

Level All

Age 4-12

 Organization whole class

Aims To read a text aloud with the children in order to model reading strategies; to build up

understanding of the content and textual features in a shared and collaborative way.

Language focus any

Materials

Essential: any text, eg letter, factual text, story, picture book, big book, graded

reader, text in the course book

Procedure

1. Prepare for reading the text by, for example, discussing the topic, eliciting what the children already know, encouraging prediction and, possibly also, pre-teaching essential vocabulary whose meaning cannot be inferred from the context.
2. Read the text aloud with the children. Children either listen and look at pictures only or follow the text as you read. Encourage participation and ask questions to build up children's understanding of the language and the content of the text, the way that it is organized and any particular features of the genre, such as the formulaic openings and endings of a letter or story, or features of the language, eg the use of repetition, alliteration or onomatopoeia (children don't need to use these terms) that you wish them to notice.
3. Be ready to pause, go back and reread bits of the text again as often as necessary in order to clarify children’s understanding and to model reading strategies that help them to decode and make sense of the text.
4. Ask questions that help children relate the text both to their own experience and lives, as well as to other similar texts that they may have read.
5. Encourage them to form their own personal views and responses to the text and think about their reasons for these.
6. With older children and higher levels, it may also be appropriate to guide their thinking about such things as the audience, style and structure of the text.

Comments and suggestions

• Reading aloud with children can have enormous benefits. These include modelling basic skills such as decoding spelling and sound patterns, and phrasing text in order to construct language and meaning from print on a page.
• In other words, you and the children interact and work together in order to investigate, analyse, reflect, reason and develop understandings based on the text. The fact that the reading is 'shared' enables you to explicitly model out loud cognitive strategies and processes which the children will be able to internalize and subsequently make use of in their own independent reading.

In order for shared reading to be successful, it is important to think carefully about the kinds of questions you will ask to build confidence and help children construct meaning

• With younger children, it is likely to be more appropriate to do the activity with one word in each sequence that is obviously different, eg hat, coat, ball, T-shirt and children identify the word.
• The activity can also be used with older children as a grammar-awareness activity, eg red, small, hat, old where 'hat' is the odd one out because it is a noun and all the others are adjectives.

Word search

Level All

Age 8-12

 Organization individual

Aims To prepare and do a word search puzzle; to improve recognition and spelling of familiar vocabulary.

Language focus any familiar vocabulary

Materials

Essential: none

Optional: photocopies of a grid of squares (10 x 10) (one for each child)

Procedure

1. Explain that the children are going to make a word search puzzle for someone else in the class to do.
2. Either give out photocopies of the grids or ask the children to use a ruler to draw a grid of 10 x 10 squares (1cm for each square) in their notebooks.
3. Either specify the number of words and lexical set that children should 'hide' in the grid, eg eight clothes words or leave this more open, eg Hide ten words we've learnt this term!
4. Explain and demonstrate that children can hide the words horizontally, vertically or diagonally and that some letters may form part of more than one word.
5. If they are unsure of spelling, ask them to check this, eg by looking in their course books, before they begin. Set a time limit for preparing the word search, eg 5-10 minutes.
6. When the children are ready, collect in the grids and redistribute them. Children do each others' puzzles by circling or colouring the squares of the words they find. Again, you may like to set a time limit for this, eg five minutes.
7. At the end, children return the grids to their owners, who check whether all the words in their puzzle have been found.

Comments and suggestions

• Children generally want to prepare word searches for their peers which are as challenging as possible! This provides a strong motivation and purpose for reviewing vocabulary they have learnt.
• A shorter, simpler alternative to a word search is a 'word snake'. Children 'hide' between 4-6 words in the snake and then take turns to find each others’ words in the same way. Word snakes are suitable for younger children. If possible it is best to give them a copy of the snake, divided into sections for each letter, for them to complete.
• As a follow-up to work on stories or other texts, you can use the same colour-code system to get children to notice and underline or circle words in the grammatical category you wish to focus on.
• You may also like to keep a colour-coded display of parts of speech, using the same colours as the grammar cards, on the classroom noticeboard. The different parts of speech can be displayed inside stars, circles, fish, flowers, monsters, etc and referred to during lessons as appropriate.

 

 

       Sentence scramble

Level All

Age 6-8

 Organization pairs

Aims To order words to make sentences by manipulating word cards; to develop awareness of word order in sentences.

Language focus In the example: conditional sentences with if, everyday activities Alternatives: any familiar language pattern or structure

Procedure

1 Recycle the language structure which is the focus of the activity by asking, eg What'll happen

Materials

Essential: sets of word and punctuation cards to make sentences in separate numbered envelopes (one for each pair), eg If it rains at break time, we'll stay in the classroom. /If Miss Anna is ill, we won't have English./If we play well,

we'll win the football match./If we don't have homework, I'll watch TV.

if it rains at break time?/What'll you do if you don't have homework? and elicit qualifying statements from the children using if, eg If it rains at break time, we'll play on the computers.

2. Ask the children to write a list of numbers, eg 1-8 (depending on how many sets of word cards you have prepared) in their notebooks.
3. Divide the class into pairs.
4. Give each pair a numbered envelope containing word cards. Children work with their partner and arrange the cards from the envelope on their desk to make a sentence. They write the sentence next to the corresponding number in their notebooks.
5. They then exchange envelopes with another pair, and so on, until they have completed sentences next to each number in their notebooks.
6. At the end, check the answers and draw the children's attention to the forms of the verbs and the position of the comma in each sentence.

Comments and suggestions

• This activity provides for physical, hands-on experimentation with word order in sentences and helps to familiarize children with particular language patterns in an enjoyable way.
• At the end of the activity, children have a permanent record of correctly written sentences in their notebooks which can be used as a model or guide in subsequent work.

Comments and suggestions

• This activity is an enjoyable way of retelling a story. As children respond to the key language by saying their three words in a rhythmic way, the effect can be dramatic as well as humorous.
• As a variation, children can respond to key words or names of characters in the story with mimes or actions instead of verbal responses. When retelling Little Red Riding Hood, for example, the children can be divided into three groups: for wolf they to hold a basket and skip on the spot, and for Cranny they pretend to knit.

 

 

    Story sequence

Level All

Age 6-12

Organization groups

Aims. To read and order a familiar story; to practise reading and retelling the story; to collaborate in a group; (to write and draw pictures to illustrate the story).

Language focus In the example: past simple, princess, prince, witch, tower, forest Alternatives: any language, depending on the story chosen

 

Materials

Essential: strips of card, each with a sentence from the story (one set for each group) (see example below, based on a traditional song)

Optional: paper for children to write and illustrate the story

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. She lived in a tall, dark tower.

One day a wicked witch cast a spell.

The princess fell asleep for a hundred years.

A big forest with very tall trees grew around the tower.

One day a handsome prince came riding by. He cut the trees down with his sword.

He climbed the tower and took the princess by the hand. The prince and the princess lived happily ever after.

 

Procedure

Use this activity to consolidate a story that children are familiar with either orally/aurally or

through a song.

1. Divide the class into groups of four. Give a set of sentences (in jumbled order) to each group.
2. Children arrange the sentences in the order of the story on their desks.
3. Check the answers by inviting individual children from different groups to take turns to read the sentences in order.
4. Ask one child in each group to collect and shuffle the sentences and distribute them randomly to each member of the group (2-3 sentences for each child). Explain and demonstrate that the children should not show each other their sentences. The child who has the sentence Once upon a time... should begin reading the story clearly to the rest of the group. The child who has the second sentence should then read that sentence, and so on until the group has read the whole story.
5. They then reshuffle the strips of card, redistribute the sentences and repeat the procedure. The aim is to take turns to read the story as a group as seamlessly and fluidly as possible.