Teaching Reading in Year 2-6

 

From Year 2 to Year 6, we use a whole class reading approach to teaching reading. The children have a reading lesson daily, where they study an age appropriate text and answer focused questions which develop the VIPERS skills. These skills are in line with the National Curriculum

 

Vocabulary

Vocabulary questions involve:

• Can you think of a synonym for…?

• Look at the whole sentence; what do you think … means?

• What do the words … and … suggest about the character/mood?

• Find and copy a word that means…?

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Inference

Inference involves using authorial clues to deduce meaning. Questions include:

• What impression do you get of… in this paragraph?

• Who is telling the story?

•  How do you think … is feeling in this section of the story?

 

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Predict

The skill of prediction involves ‘guessing’ what might happen based on clues that you are given. The questions include:

• Look at the cover of the story. What do you think it might be about?

• What do you think will happen next?

 

 

Explain

Questions with an ‘Explain’ focus include:

• Why is the text arranged this way?

• What structure has the author used?

• What is the purpose of this text feature?

• What is the author’s point of view?

 

 

Retrieve

The skill of retrieval involves children finding the information from the text.

• How did…?

• How often did…?

• What happened to…?

• Give one example of…?

 

 

Summarise

The skill of summarising involves the children sequencing events in order, summarising the key points of the text, or even using a certain amount of words to sum up the main events. Questions include:

• Can you number these events from 1-5 in the order that they happen?

• What was the first thing that happened in the story?

• Can you summarise in one sentence the beginning/middle/end of the story?

• In what order do these chapter headings come in the story?

 

 

These VIPERS style questions can be used to support the children when reading at home. Parents/carers can use these question stems to assess comprehension and deepen children’s understanding.