Personal Mail

Personal Mail

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about making inferences by identifying information in a story.
 
Read the story "Personal Mail" pages 48 - 49, School Journal, Pt 3, No. 1, 1991 and follow the instructions.
Read the following sentences and select whether each one is true or false. In the space below each sentence, write some words from the story that help explain whether the sentence is true or false. This first one has been done for you.
 
a)  The boy in the story lives near a river.       True/False
     Explain your answer:
     Down behind our place flows the muddy old river. 

Question

b)  The water in the river flows quickly.

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question

c)  When the boy first reads the letter he thinks it is a bit of a joke.

    • True

    • False

Explain your reasons.

Question

d)  The reason the boy decides not to show the letter around at school is that he is worried he will get into trouble.

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question

e)  The boy has lots of friends.

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question

f)  The boy throws the bottle out to sea because he thinks it will have a better chance of floating to another place than it will in the river.

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question

g)  The boy is the sort of person who notices how other people are feeling.

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question

h)  The boy never tells Amy about finding her letter.

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question

i)  The boy wants to believe that the bottle will arrive in Australia or America

    • True

    • False

Explain your answer.

Question 1Change answer

j)  Briefly describe a time when you felt a bit like the boy in this story.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with some auto marking).
Copyright: 
Personal Mail - Text was first published by Learning Media Limited in School Journal, on behalf of the Ministry of Education. Copyright © Alan Bagnall 1991. Illustration © Crown, 1991. 
 
Source: Pages 48 - 49, School Journal, Pt 3, No. 1, 1991. Illustrated by Sarah Mathieson.
Level:
3
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
comprehension, School Journal, inference, evidence, SJ-3-1-1991
Description of task: 
Students are required to identify whether a series of statements about the School Journal story 'Personal Mail' are true or false, and to support their opinion with evidence from the text. This task assesses students' retrieval and inferential comprehension skills. SJ-3-1-1991. Text provided.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading: This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • 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
Reading for literary experience, set 4
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
 

Y7 (02/2002)

b)

False "…the sticks and leaves drift sluggishly past."

moderate

c)

True "What a laugh…"

easy

d)

False Any 1 of:

  • "I supposed that really, like Amy, I was a bit lonely too."
  • "Or perhaps I just didn't have enough courage to be that mean."

moderate

e)

False Any 1 of:

  • "…I was a bit lonely, too."
  • "I often go there after school and watch the sticks and leaves drift sluggishly past."

easy

f)

True "The water there was swift enough to carry it out to sea at least."

difficult

g)

True Any 1 of:

  • "Amy is still in my class and she still seems lonely."
  • "Amy is strange and she really doesn't have many friends."
  • "I didn't have the courage to be that mean."
  • "…the kids only take notice of her if they want to tease her…"

moderate

h)

True Any 1 of:

  • "I haven't heard about the letter."
  • "Amy is still in my class and she still seems lonely."

very difficult

i)

True "But then, that sort of mail can take ages to get to Australia or America."

difficult

j)

Any example in which the student:

  • Thought about being mean to someone/doing something wrong (and then changed their mind).
  • Felt sorry for someone who was different or unpopular.
  • Felt curious about someone who was different or unpopular.
  • Did/tried to do something kind for someone else.
  • Kept another person's secret.
  • Felt lonely.

moderate

NOTE: Marks may be awarded if students have either paraphrased or directly quoted from the correct section of text. The aim of this activity is to assess students' ability to support ideas with evidence from the text, rather than use quotation conventions correctly.

Diagnostic and formative information: 
  Common Errors
b) "The water there was swift enough to carry it out to sea at least." – 13% of students.
i) "But by the end of the week the letter was still in my pocket." – 10% of students.
j) Students write an answer indicating that they have never felt like the boy in the story – 13% of students.Students chose not to answer this question – 22% of students.