Thinking resources

Students read an extract from the narrative 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and answer a combination of multiple-choice and short answer questions.

An anecdotal story about fever and the discovery of quinine provides the context for this assessment with its focus on information retrieval and making inferences. The text is provided with this resource.

Students explain who is most likely to win a game based on spinners, and how the game could be made fair.

A poem about fleas from a School Journal is the context for this resource. The assessment focus is on making inferences. SJ-3-1-1999. Text provided.

Students read an article on starfish and find factual information to complete a retrieval chart and answer comprehension questions. SJ-1-2-1999. Text not provided.

Students read an article on dog grooming. They find information to complete a retrieval chart and answer comprehension questions. SJ-1-1-1997. Text not provided.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to identify and justify evidence used to visualise and make inferences about a character and setting.

The assessment focus is on student ability to make inferences about character and justify these with evidence from text.

Students first do the science activity Throwing Balloons - investigation (PW2548) where they predict, observe, and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Then the students do this writing task where they describe the balloon and what happened when it was thrown, and explain why they think it moved the way it did. Six annotated exemplars of student scripts (writing) are included under the "Working with Students" tab.

Task: Predict, observe and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Assessment focus: making and explaining predictions and observations.

A story about getting rid of family junk is the context for this task. Students find evidence to make inferences about the characters. SJ-1-4-1998. Text not provided.

Students identify statements of fact from a range of statements.

Students conduct a statistical investigation about their prediction of the most common words used in English. They make graphs, describe their shape, and compare their own graph with ones that other students produce.

Students identify types of figures of speech used in some common phrases.

Students read a story about family dynamics to answer inferential questions. SJ-3-3-1996. Text provided.

Students read an article on cold water survival and retrieve information from this text.

Students read a narrative about a toy glider competition, then answer retrieval and inferential questions. SJ-3-1-1994. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to identify important information and the main idea of an article about a conservation project for an endangered species. Junior Journal 13. Text provided

Students are required to read an article, answer questions and complete a retrieval chart.

Students read a short article about Black Holes to answer retrieval and inferential questions.

Students read a poster on sand dunes to answer retrieval and inferential questions.

This task assesses close reading and making inferences about the setting, backdrop, props, costumes, and acting required in a performance of the Junior Journal play "Too Much Noise".

This comprehension task assesses student ability to find details that relate to the main idea of a text about a Māori naturalist/scientist. Students are asked to read a text, find details about the given main idea, then justify why they think the main idea is right or wrong.

Students produce a simple written description, using nouns and adjectives with some precision.