Taniwha

Taniwha

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 based on evidence from a text and your own experience.
Read the book Taniwha by Robyn Kahukiwa (2000).
Look at the pages where the boy shows his gifts to his friend and then to his koro.

Question 1Change answer

Name one feeling you think the boy had:
a)  when he showed the gifts to his friend: b)  when he showed the gifts to his koro:
 

Question 1Change answer

To identify these feelings you made inferences, using evidence in the text.
You linked this evidence to what you know and have experienced.
Identify one clue you got from the text for the feeling the boy had:
c)  when he showed the gifts to his friend: d) when he showed the gifts to his koro:
 

Question 1Change answer

Describe a time when you have felt like the boy:
e)  when he showed the gifts to his friend:
f)  when he showed the gifts to his koro:
Task administration: 
​This task can be completed with pen and paper or online (without auto marking).
 
Necessary resource: Taniwha, by Robyn Kahukiwa, first published by Viking Kestrel, 1986, republished by Puffin Books, 2000.  Also available in Te Reo Māori, translated by Keri Kaa, Puffin Books, 1986.
  • This task focuses on four pages of the above book: the pages where the boy shows his gifts to his friend, and then to his koro.
  • Students need to be familiar with the whole story. A reading of this could be a shared reading exercise, either as a whole class or a small group.
  • Ideally, the teacher would read the book to the students so that the assessment does not become dependent on decoding.
  • Students need to be able to access the pages of the book being focused on while working on the task, so if there are not multiple copies of the text available, it would be best done in a small group.
  • Students could work individually on a), b), c) and d), then pair up to share ideas and revisit the text. This will help build new understandings.
  • Teachers may want their students to separate out the visual clues from the written clues.
Level:
3
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
comprehension, inference, point of view, peer-assessment, analysis
Description of task: 
This comprehension task assesses a student's ability to make inferences about a character's feelings based on the evidence in a written and visual text, and their own prior experience.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:

  • use comprehension strategies
  • infer ideas and information that are not directly stated

as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.

Answers/responses: 
a) Student suggests any 1 of the boy feeling:

  • sad/unhappy
  • disappointed/let down/offended
  • put down/ashamed
  • confused/upset
b) Student suggests any 1 of the boy feeling:

  • safe/reassured/relieved/happier
  • confident/special
  • glad/cheerful/pleased
c) Student identifies any 1 clue that suggests the feeling for a).

  • His friend laughed.
  • His friend said they were rubbish.
  • The boy is looking down/frowning/looking unhappy.
d) Student identifies any 1 clue that suggests the feeling for b).

  • His koro said he was rich.
  • His koro made him feel special because he believed the boy had seen those important places/faces.
  • The boy looks happier/absorbed in gifts/objects.
  • His koro is smiling warmly/is holding him/the boy looks physically and emotionally close to his koro.
e) and f) Descriptions will vary.
Diagnostic and formative information: 
  • This resource has been trialled in small group situations with Year 6 to 8 students across a range of schools.
  • All students were able to suggest how the boy felt and were able to find both visual and written evidence in the text.
  • Most students were able to describe a time when they had felt like the boy, in both instances.
For another ARB resource that uses the same book, but with a focus on finding evidence of the author's message and audience, click on Taniwha messages.