Reading for literary experience resources

The assessment focus is on students' abilities to identify the details in a text that support a given, main idea.

A poem is disclosed in stages to students. The task assesses their ability to make inferences using evidence from text and prior knowledge to work out what it could be describing.

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.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem. It assesses a student's ability to use evidence to predict what it could be describing. SJ-2-4-1994. Text provided.

Students are asked to interpret the changing feelings of the main character in the School Journal story 'Grey Hair', and to provide evidence of these feelings by identifying the words and actions of the character. SJ-1-3-1996. Text not provided.

Students read a narrative then complete three tasks that focus on one of the characters. Assessment focus: an evaluation of a character and the author's construction of that character. SJ-4-3-2004. Text provided.

After reading a narrative about a shrewd boy, students identify evidence in the text that supports their thinking. Assessment focus: analysing and evaluating a character and the author's construction of him. (There is a link to the text used for this resource in the Task administration section of the Teacher information pages.) Reading age 8-9. SJ-2-4-2000. Text provided.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem to students. It assesses their ability to infer.

This comprehension task assesses a student's ability to use evidence in a text to work out what a poem could be about as it is disclosed in stages.

Students are assessed on the ability to identify important information in order to establish the main idea of a narrative text about being judgemental. Reading age 10-12. SJ-4-3-1994. Text provided.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to identify important information and establish the main idea of a narrative text. The text describes a person's experience of war and their learnings from it. SJ-2-1-2006. Text provided.

This comprehension task involves progressively disclosing a poem to students. It assesses their ability to infer. SJ-1-1-1998. Text provided.

Students read a narrative that is about being different and about group dynamics. Assessment focus: an evaluation of characters and the author's construction of them. (A link to the text is provided. Reading age <8.) SJ-1-4-2005. Text provided.

Students read a play (retold from a traditional Persian folktale) about the interactions at a market place in old Baghdad. They then use evidence from the text and their background knowledge to complete the task. Assessment focus: evaluating. SJ-4-2-2009. Text not provided.

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.

Students read a narrative about how a character copes with changes in her family dynamics. Students then complete three tasks focusing on that character. Assessment focus: an evaluation of a character and the author's construction of her. (The text used for this resource is reproduced under the "Working with Students" tab.) Reading age 10-12. SJ-4-2-2000. Text not provided.

Students read a narrative about relationships and wanting to impress others. Assessment focus: the author’s construction of a character and an evaluation of this character.