Can You See Me?

Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott

With diary entries written by eleven-year-old Libby Scott, based on her own experiences of autism, this pioneering book, written in collaboration with esteemed author Rebecca Westcott, hasbeen widely praised for its realistic portrayal of autism.

Tally is eleven years old and she’s just like her friends. Well, sometimes she is. If she tries really hard to be. Because there’s something that makes Tally not the same as her friends. Something she can’t cover up, no matter how hard she tries: Tally is autistic.

Tally’s autism means there are things that bother her even though she wishes they didn’t. It means that some people misunderstand, her and feel frustrated by her.

People think that because Tally’s autistic, she doesn’trealise what they’re thinking, but Tally sees and hears – and notices – all of it. And, honestly? That’s not the easiest thing to live with.

Main Focus: Hyphens

This Year 5 | Year 6 resource is linked to Chapter 1 of the book ‘Can You See Me?’ and focuses on hyphens.

A hyphen is shorter than a dash and joins words together. There are no spaces between a hyphen and the words.

twenty-five (not twenty – five)

Hyphens can be used for many reasons, including –

• Some suffixes ( -based, -elect, -free, -style, -like)
• Compound adjectives – they glue words together beforea noun ( stainless-steel, brightly-lit, long-lasting)

Main Focus: Character Development

This resource helps your KS2 class to look deeper in the development of the character Mrs Jarman in the story.

Your Year 5 | Year 6 class will look at the events and vocabulary the author has used to help build up a picture in the reader’s head and give them information about the type of character she is.

Main Focus: Dashes

This Ks2 literacy resource is linked to Chapter 12 and focuses on dashes  to help your children add more details to their sentences.

Dashes are a form of parenthesis and can be used to add extra information to a sentence (a bit like brackets).

The sentence has to make sense without the information between the dashes; it’s just a bit more interesting with the added detail.

‘Anyone who hasn’t done it can expect a lunchtime detention – you know the rules, people!’ p132

Main Focus: Diary Writing

Nell is Tally’s older sister.  This Ks2 activity looks more closely at Nell’s feelings.

This is a brilliant activity for your Year 5 / Year 6 class that helps them  write a diary entry using some of the important extracts from the story.

Main Focus: Different Viewpoints

This activity looks at the different viewpoints of the best friends: Tally and Layla and focuses on chapter 17 of the Can you see me? book.

Your Ks2 class is tasked to write a recount of the events of lunchtime, from Layla’s point of view. First, they will draw a table like the one in the resource and complete each section with Layla’s account of what has happened. One has been done as an example.

Main Focus: -shun Spellings

The endings –ion and –ian often have t, c, ss or s before them and the whole ending is added to the root word.

• -tion is the ending when the root word ends int or te. Notice that the e is dropped from the root word.
• –ssion is used if the root word ends in ss(express – expression) or mit (permit – permission).

This resource helps your choose the correct -shun endings to complete the sentences.

Main Focus: Problem Solving

This is an activity is based on Chapter 21 and is linked to problem solving in the viewpoints of characters.

The task is to write a guide to problem solving using pages 256 to 261 to help.

Main Focus: Chapter 22

This is a fantastic resource that encourages your class to reflect more on the ‘rules for being normal’ and how this impacts Tally.

Your class will create a list of rules to help Tally through situations.

Main Focus: Comprehension

This comprehension is linked to chapter 26 of the story and helps your children answer questions linked to the story in the areas of: Vocabulary, Retrieval and Inference.

Main Focus: Non-Fiction Comprehension

This is a great non-fiction comprehension linked to guide and assistance dogs. It provides your class with some fantastic information and improves their understanding of their importance.