Giant weta

Giant weta

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about finding details that support the main idea of a text.

The main idea of the article "Wetas with Backpacks" is:

Giant weta are given help to survive.

Details about the main idea fall into two main groups: 

  1. Giant weta are kept in safe places.
  2. Giant weta are being studied.

This is shown on the chart below. Read the article yourself. Then fill in the chart with more details under each of these two main groups.

  Giant weta are given help to survive  
   
Giant weta are kept in safe places   Giant weta are being studied
 
Where?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Why?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Why?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
Task administration: 

This task can be completed with pencil and paper.

Equipment: Junior Journal 13, 1995

  1. To do the task, students need to read the article "Wetas with Backpacks", pages 22 to 25, of the above journal.
  2. Remind the students that the main idea is what the author wants us to understand is important.
  3. Following the guided or shared reading of the article, students are scaffolded into the task on the student's sheet. It shows students how the main idea can be unpacked by grouping details about the main idea.
  4. The task can be done individually or in groups.
  5. Responses can be discussed by teacher and student only, or with larger groups. Group discussion has the advantage of giving students the opportunities to consider others' ideas and to practice justifying their own.
  6. The student sheet can be enlarged for students to work on together.
  7. This resource could be part of a social studies or science study (see Other resources below).
  8. For further resources that support students to identify the main idea, see Other resources below.
Copyright: 
Image source: Giant weta, DOC (Crown copyright).
Text: "Wetas with Backpacks" pages 22-25 of Junior Journal 13, 1995.
Level:
2
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking
Keywords: 
comprehension, junior journal, main idea, inference, native animals, weta, conservation, locate information
Description of task: 
Students are assessed on their ability to retrieve details that support the main idea of an article about an endangered species.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use comprehension strategies
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: processing system, set 3
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
  Y5 (05/2005)
Student gives details under the group:Giant weta are being kept in safe places
Where?
  • on islands/Mana Island

Why? Any 1 of:

  • no rats or mice there/will eat/get/kill them/ they are not in danger
  • they are endangered
 easy

easy
Student gives details under the group:Giant weta are being studiedHow?
Any 1 of:
  • putting radios on weta/their backs
  • watching them/gathering information about them/their lives

Why? Any 1 of:

  • to tell where weta are
  • to tell how far each weta moves/where it has moved to
  • to learn more about them
  • to save them/they are almost extinct
 easy

 

easy

Results based on a trial sample of 172 students

"Käkäpö", Science Exemplar, Level 4, Ministry of Education.
 
Other ARB resources that relate to the topic of this one are:
  • Wetas with Backpacks, a comprehension resource using the same article, but focusing on the work of the scientist. 
  • Weta, a science resource about weta.