Guided Reading
VIPERS
VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum. They are the key areas which children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts. Whole class reading is the method used to teach individual children to become equipped and ready to answer a variety of comprehension questions. Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading (outlined in the National Curriculum and the KS1 and KS2 test domains). As a parent or guardian, it would be also helpful for you to be aware of these, so that you too can practice these skills with your child when listening to your child read.
Whole Class Reading Lesson/ Session Structure
Teachers plan key questions for each session based on the content domain being focused on. Children are encouraged to orally rehearse the answer before writing anything down, acknowledging their first answer may not always be their best. At times children are given sentence stems and vocabulary that is expected to be used within their answer. This will model to children within the early stages of securing VIPERS how they will need to answer questions in assessment situations and further study in secondary school.
Children are encouraged to provide evidence for their answer based on a text extract or a picture they have seen in the book. Where appropriate children are encouraged to use evidence from a range of different places within the text.
What do the sessions look like in each year group?
EYFS
Guided reading sessions in Nursery are in small, focused groups. Children will focus on skills such as: holding the book the right way up, joining in with repetitive phrases, sequencing events in a story and predicating what might happen.
Guided reading sessions in Reception will have four focus groups.
Class Teacher Focus Text using Vipers. | Each session with the children will focus on one or two VIPERS skills. The skill will be explicitly told to the children as they are working through the text. They will then answer a question relating to this skill verbally.
|
Teaching Assistant 1:1 reading | Phonics assessment of children is ongoing. Children are given books that are the correct phonic stage for them. TA will check that the children are on the correct phonic stage. These books are numbered. Children may pick their next book.
|
Teaching Assistant- shared read with Vipers questions | TA will have a list of question stems. TA will tell the children which skill it is ‘This is a prediction question…’
|
Teaching Assistant 1:1 reading | As above |
Key Stage 1
Guided reading sessions in Year One will have four focus groups.
Class Teacher Focus Text using Vipers. | Each session with the children will focus on two or three VIPERS skills. The skill will be explicitly told to the children as they are working through the text. They will then answer questions relating to these skills in their guided reading books.
|
Teaching Assistant 1:1 reading | Phonics assessment of children is ongoing. Children are given books that are the correct phonic stage for them. TA will check that the children are on the correct phonic stage. These books are numbered. Children choose their next book from the numbered set.
|
Teaching Assistant- shared read with Vipers questions | TA will have a list of question stems. TA will tell the children which skill it is ‘This is a prediction question…’
|
Teaching Assistant 1:1 reading | As above |
Whole class guided reading is introduced in Year 2 and follows the format below.
Monday | Cross curricular shared book session and 1:1 readers. Teacher will use a VIPERS skill/skills when working through this text. Teacher will read the passage to explicitly teach fluency of reading.
|
Tuesday | VIPERS – Skill based, selecting from VIPERS set. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Wednesday | VIPERS – Skill based, selecting from VIPERS set. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Thursday | VIPERS – Skill based, selecting from VIPERS set. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Friday | Cross curricular shared book session and 1:1 readers. Teacher will use a VIPERS skill/skills when working through this text. Teacher will read the passage to explicitly teach fluency of reading. |
Key Stage 2
Key Stage Two Vipers sessions follow the format below.
Monday | Focus for this session is to use a Non-fiction text. This could be linked to History, Geography, Science or RE. Teachers will use a VIPERS skill/skills when working through this text. Teacher will read the passage to explicitly teach fluency of reading. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Tuesday | This session will focus on the VIPERS vocabulary. The children will be read a chapter from the guided reading whole class text. Teachers will model reading skills such as expression and on how to pronounce new words. This session would include a discussion about how we could incorporate these words into our writing and exploring antonyms, synonyms, dictionary and thesaurus use. It is important that children are exposed to new words to develop their vocabulary. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Wednesday | VIPERS – Skill based, selecting from VIPERS set. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Thursday | VIPERS – Skill based, selecting from VIPERS set. Skills explicitly taught and then answers recorded in books.
|
Friday | VIPERS – Skills recapped from previous sessions. Children independently applying the skills covered in the week and complete on their own. |
