Focused on vocabulary and summarising texts Linked to my Reading Roles (see my other TES resources) Includes 4 different activities in a sequence Questions are based on this text from The British Museum: http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/war/story/sto_set.html

Short sentences are used to build tension and describe fast action sequences. This short piece of text would be better written in short sentences and can be used in various ways to encourage children to use this technique. Feel free to use in as creative a way as you can!

A comprehension activity based on a picture by Nuccio DiNuzzo taken at a US airport where protesters are protesting against Trump's Muslim ban. The questions focus on inference and do depend on children having some background knowledge, i.e. of the Holocaust.

2 simple grids with 20 different things per grid to find in picture books 2 more simple grids containing alphabet challenges

The siege account provides two parallel accounts - one from someone inside the castle defending it, one from someone outside attacking. One poem is by Alexander Anderson and has lots of great descriptive and figurative language to describe castles. The other poem is by me and looks at a castle in three time periods - in a time of peace, in a time of conflict and in the modern day.

This spy report is a fictional report based on the short film Birthday Boy which can be found on youtube.

We used this as a Talk 4 Writing text.

A informal, 'chatty' eyewitness account of the Peloponnesian War. Suitable to use during a topic on The Ancient Greeks. We used this as a Talk 4 Writing Text.

Reading Roles PLUS Generic Reading Activity The aim of this activity is to help children gain a better understanding of a text. It focuses on using 5 of the main widely-acknowledged reading strategies. Although the activity itself has a goal of enabling understanding of one text, the cumulative effect of doing several of these activities is intended to be that children begin to use these strategies automatically when they read any text. For more on Reading Roles: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/reading-roles-plus-teaching-metacognitive-reading-comprehension-strategies-11890964 & http://www.thatboycanteach.co.uk/2018/04/reading-roles-metacognitive-reading-strategies.html

With various focuses on vocabulary and retrieving and inferring information, particularly about characters. Colours/symbols linked to Reading Roles: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/reading-roles-plus-teaching-metacognitive-reading-comprehension-strategies-11890964

A very boy-friendly compare and contrast text about supercars which can be used in a transition unit at the end of year 6. An HMI inspector was very impressed that children were being taught how to compare and contrast as this is the basis of many secondary school and university essays. The structure of this one is simple: intro, similarities, differences, conclusion.