Thinking resources

This resource has an assessment focus on comprehension. Students study the poem 'Learning to Read' and respond to four short written response style questions. SJ-3-3-1989. Text provided.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem to students. It assesses their ability to use evidence from the poem to work out what it could be describing. SJ-4-1-2002. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to identify important information and the main idea of an article about plants. Junior Journal 27, reading age 7.5-8. Text provided.

Students read a narrative and make inferences about the characters' feelings based on evidence in the text. Text is provided with this resource. SJ-2-2-1999. Text provided.

Assessment focus: finding important information and the main idea of an informational text. The text used is about an introduced species of fish which has become a pest. SJ-2-4-2005. Text provided.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem to students. It assesses their ability to use evidence from the poem to work out what it could be describing. SJ-3-1-2004. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to identify important information and the main idea of a recount about needing to take action. Junior Journal 29. Text provided.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem to students. It assesses their ability to infer. SJ-1-1-1998. Text provided.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem. It assesses a student's ability to use evidence to predict what it could be describing. SJ-2-4-1994. Text provided.

Students are provided with four diagrams of different types of fossils. Students are asked to explain the type of information each of these fossils could provide.

Pictures are given of the life cycles of three different animals (hawk, turtle and deer). Students identify which stage the animal's survival is most in danger and give explanation of why it is not safe. Students also give one special feature that helps this animal survive at this time.

Students identify the variables to be kept constant, and the variable to be different, when they plan a fair test to show if green plants need light to grow.

This resource provides information on students’ ability to write a string of adjectives in the correct order.

Task: Students play a tag game that simulates the relationships between elements within a waterway, and discuss how different scenarios impact on the populations living there. Assessment focus: changes within a habitat affect everything living there.

Students create character vignettes with a focus on writing pieces that are brief, descriptive and set in one point in time. They should not be concerned with plot. As the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity, students need to show a controlled and elegant skill in writing, and to use figurative language to 'show' rather than 'tell'.

Assessment focus: deciding which description of the main idea of an informational text is most appropriate, and justifying their thinking. The text used is about the adaptation of bird's feet to their environment.

Students read a narrative about a family's encounter with a stray cat. They then use evidence from the text and their background knowledge to evaluate the characters. SJ-1-3-2008. Text provided.

Students use the commutative property to find missing numbers in equations and explain the property.

Students sort different shapes into tessellating and not tessellating categories and explain their reasoning.

Students read a visual and written text about native plants and animals to answer retrieval and inferential questions.

In this resource students read bullet points about different cultures and answer information retrieval questions.

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.) SJ-2-1-2006. Text provided.

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 calculate an average and a percentage from raw data and comment on these findings.

Students interpret information presented in a composite histogram to answer questions involving percentages and comparisons.