Thinking resources

Students are assessed on their ability to identify the main idea of a narrative concerning one child's experience of White Sunday in Sāmoa.

This comprehension task assesses a student's ability to use evidence in a text to work out what a poem could be about as it is disclosed in stages.

Students read an extract from Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' to answer retrieval and inferential questions.

Students place photos in order, then use them to write a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.

For this NEMP task students work out all possible combinations in a table tennis contest.

Assessment focus: ability to use contextual clues to infer meaning of a word. (There is a link to the text used for this resource in the Using this Resource section.) Reading age 9.5-10.5. SJ-2-2006. Text provided.

Students read an extract from a drama script and answer questions on props, dialogue, and stage sets. (The text used is reproduced in the the Teacher information pages.) SJ-4-1-2000. Text provided.

A school journal article on living in a Japanese home is the context for this assessment that focuses on locating information and general comprehension. SJ-1-3-1994. Text provided.

Students read a narrative about a girl who behaves like an overly enthusiastic parent and her father who behaves like a reluctantly involved adolescent. They use and evaluate evidence from the text, alongside their background knowledge, to complete the task. SJ-3-2-2010. Text not provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to find details about important information in a recount about a walking school bus, then identify the main idea of this text. SJ-1-1-2006. Text provided.

After reading a narrative about a shrewd boy, students identify evidence in the text that supports their thinking. Assessment focus: analysing and evaluating a character and the author's construction of him. (There is a link to the text used for this resource in the Task administration section of the Teacher information pages.) Reading age 8-9. SJ-2-4-2000. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to find details that support them to identify the main idea in a text about an endangered species of New Zealand. Reading age 8.5-9.5. SJ-1-4-2005. Text provided.

Students read a narrative about a mother-child relationship. They then use evidence from the text and their background knowledge to complete the task. Assessment focus: evaluating. SJ-1-1-2005. Text provided.

A poem and brief article about Japanese dolls is the context for this comprehension resource that has focus on comparisons and purpose. SJ-2-2-1983. Text provided.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to identify important information to establish the main idea of a narrative text about acknowledging older people. SJ-3-3-2006. Text provided.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to identify important information and establish the main idea of a text. SJ-2-2-2006. Text provided.

Students are assessed on the ability to identify important information in order to establish the main idea of a narrative text about being judgemental. Reading age 10-12. SJ-4-3-1994. Text provided.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to identify important information and establish the main idea of a narrative text. The text describes a person's experience of war and their learnings from it. SJ-2-1-2006. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to find details that relate to the main idea of a text about a flood. SJ-2-2-2004. Text provided.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to evaluate the ideas and information in a text about an environmental issue. Students are asked to read a text, then respond to four questions. SJ-4-3-2005. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to identify important information and the main idea of an article about a geologist. Junior Journal 21. 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

This is a resource in which the students read a short story 'The Reading Room' and answer ten short written questions. SJ-3-1-1998. Text provided.

Students read a story about a girl's first night in Samoa. Then they decide whether some statements are true or false and give evidence from the text to back up their responses. There is a link to the text used in the "Using this Resource" tab. SJ-1-1-1996. Text provided.

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