English resources

The main focus of this task is punctuation. Students will read Janine's email to her new pen pal and insert eight question marks in the correct places.

Students are required to identify the verbs in a short story about a boy jumping off a diving board.

The text that is read to students is about a household task in Greece. Students listen and then respond to 8 multiple-choice questions. SJ-2-1-1995. Text provided.

Students read a non-fiction contents page to identify where to go for different information.

This resource assesses students' ability to select appropriate key words, from a given list, for the purpose of finding information that can be used to answer a given question. Students' ability to generate key words is also assessed.

Students read a boy's description of himself, identify the places in which capital letters have been omitted for proper nouns, and insert these.

Assessment focus: ability to use contextual clues to infer the meaning of a word. (There is a link to the text used for this resource in the Using this Resource section.) Reading age 9.5-10.5. SJ-4-3-2004. Text provided.

Students are assessed on their ability to identify the main idea in a text about bridge construction.

This task assesses close reading and making inferences about the setting, backdrop, props, costumes, and acting required in a performance of the Junior Journal play "Too Much Noise".

Students are assessed on their ability to find details to identify the main idea of a text about cultural change in a Pacific context.

This task assesses student ability to find the text features of a science report about moa.

Students read a personal recount about family relationships in a Pacific context. Assessment focus: the author's construction of two characters and an evaluation of them.

This focus of this resource is punctuating direct speech. Students drag speech marks into place to show where direct speech begins and ends. The resource ends with a collaborative writing activity. Students work with a partner to create and punctuate a conversation based on the characters in a photograph.

Students read a short extract from a legend to answer retrieval and inferential questions.

Students produce a simple written description, using nouns and adjectives with some precision.

Students read an advertisement then identify and explain some of its language features.

Students complete a cloze passage and use their vocabulary and knowledge of grammar to create well-formed sentences.

Students make inferences from a poem. SJ-2-4-1993. Text provided.

Students read a newspaper article about outdoor activities then answer some comprehension questions.

The assessment focus is on the features of an explanation. Students explore and write an explanation of the impacts the food industry could have on improving health.

Students first do the science activity Throwing balloons 3 or Throwing balloons 4 where they predict, observe, and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Then the students do this resource's writing task where they describe the balloon and what happens when it is thrown, and explain why they think it moved the way it did. Six annotated exemplars of student scripts (writing) are included under the "Working with Students" tab.

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.

This task assesses students' ability to analyse a text to identify and justify character traits and points of view, including the author's.

This task assesses student ability to find the text features of a science report about one of our native birds. The task is essentially a literacy task in the context of scientific writing, and can also be accessed from the English Bank.

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.