The Kuia and the Spider

The Kuia and the Spider

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
This task is about finding evidence and using it to explain character and points of view.

Read 'The Kuia and the Spider' by Patricia Grace. The kuia and the spider both value similar things.

a) Identify 3 things that both the kuia and the spider value. b) What clues did you use to make each of these inferences?
i)
 
 
 
 i)
ii)
 
 
 
 ii)
iii)
 
 
 
 iii)

The kuia and the spider have similar personalities.

c) Identify 4 personal characteristics shared by both the kuia and the spider. d) What do they do that demonstrates each of these characteristics?
i)
 
 
 
 i)
ii)
 
 
 
 ii)
iii)
 
 
 
 iii)
 
e)  What do you think the author is saying about how we sometimes relate to each other?
 
 
 

f)  What is a clue in the story that tells you this is the author's message?

 
 
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper.
 
Necessary resource
 
'The Kuia and the Spider', by Patricia Grace, illustrated by Robyn Kahukiwa. 
First published by Longman Paul Limited in association with Kidsarus 2 Inc., 1981.
Published by Picture Puffins in te reo Mäori, 1981, translation by Hirini Melbourne with Keri Kaa.

Administering the task:

  • Prior to working on this task, it would be helpful to have a class/group discussion about texts students know of that teach lessons (e.g., Aesop's fables).
  • Ideally, the teacher would read 'The Kuia and the Spider' as part of a shared reading exercise with the students. This allows students to focus on identifying points of view and avoids the assessment becoming dependent on decoding. Students could carry out inital close reading as individuals before working in pairs or small groups to share ideas and revisit the text. This will help build new understandings.
  • Ensure students have access to the book while working on the task.
  • Consider separating the visual clues from the written clues.
  • While building the language of the reading strategies for students is important, teachers may want to simplify some wording in this task, as appropriate for their students. See Change a resource for instructions on how to do this.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
comprehension, inference, analysis, synthesis, point of view, message, character, personality, character traits
Description of task: 
This task assesses students' ability to analyse a text to identify and justify character traits and points of view, including the author's.
Curriculum Links: 
 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • reflect critically about character
  • infer ideas and information that are not directly stated in the text
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Making sense of text: reading critically, set 4
Reading for literary experience, set 5
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
a) Any 3 of: 

  • weaving/making/things/creativity/excellence/work
  • grandchildren/whänau/family
  • each other/their relationship
  • natural environment/simple pleasures
  • tidy/neat/orderly home
 b)  Student links their suggestions with the following evidence:

  • they weave a lot/they make many different types of things
  • they argue with each other over whose is better
  • they have a competition about it
  • they do things for them/weave for them
  • they have them to stay/spend time with them/care for them/sleep with them
  • they boast about them (being better than each others')
  • they don't stop arguing with each other/they keep on communicating for the rest of their lives
  • they don't move out of the house
  • they use things/resources around them/in their own environment/content with what they have
  • their homes are very tidy
c) Any 4 of:

  • excellence/being good weavers/hard workers
  • being resourceful
  • being independent
  • being competitive/wanting to prove themselves/boastful
  • being argumentative
  • being determined/stubborn/proud
  • being loving/caring of their grandchildren
 d)  Student links their suggestions with the following evidence:

  • they both weave quality articles/lots of things
  • they use things/resources around them
  • they do things by themselves
  • they keep on challenging each other/boasting
  • they constantly argue
  • they don't give up
  • they have them to stay/spend time with them/care for them/sleep with them
e)

  • When/if we argue/compete, it doesn't necessarily mean we don't like each other.
 f) Any 1 of:

  • The grandchildren don't respond, showing that they understand the relationship between their grandparent and the spider/that they really do care about/like each other.
  • The kuia and the spider stay living together/neither of them move out.
  • They carry on arguing/communicating/living together for the rest of their lives.

This resource was trialled in class and small group situations with students from Years 5 to 8, across a range of schools.