During the last week of the Christmas term I used the John Lewis Christmas advert in our guided reading sessions to develop the children’s inference and deduction skills. We watched the video once and used talk partners to discuss key questions such as:

• How long had the elderly man been living on the Moon and how did we know this?
• What kind of personality did the girl have?
• Why did the man have a tear in his eye?

After the initial group discussion, the children split off into pairs where they have to verbally answer the question as if they were writing it. They use their talk partner to give them feedback on how they can improve their answer. Only then are they allowed to write it down without being a ‘parrot’ (copying the answer from someone else!)

The children really engaged with this and I had some fantastic answers whilst also bringing a bit of festive spirit to the classroom!