Writing meaningful text: text features resources

This punctuation resource is on the use of brackets. Students explain when brackets are used, then insert them into four sentences.

Students fill in speech bubbles from direct speech in sentences. The purpose of this activity is to assess students' ability to identify the words actually spoken.

For this NEMP task students write a letter to a bookshop requesting information about a book.

Students express interest in a job by writing a letter and a message to leave on an answer phone.

This assessment task has students writing a short conversation between friends, using speech marks that have been modelled in the task.

The focus of this resource is the use of simple conjunctions. Students decide which conjunction to use to combine two ideas to make one sentence.

The focus of this resource is selecting the appropriate punctuation to end sentences. The resource ends with a shared activity where students write some sentences about themselves, share them with a partner, and give each other feedback on their punctuation.

Students design an advertisement to sell a bike.

Students write both open and closed questions about the importance of smartphones to students their age.

This resource provides information on students’ ability to write a string of adjectives in the correct order.

Students use the ideas from a brainstorm to write six sentences about caring for pets.

Students place photos of a canoe trip in order, then use them to write a narrative with a beginning, middle and end.

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 task assesses the initial understanding needed to punctuate direct speech, by asking students to re-write words in speech bubbles as direct speech and insert the necessary punctuation.

Students create simple and compound sentences to go with given photos. The focus is on combining sentences, using simple conjunctions. A peer sharing task completes the resource.

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.

This focus of this resource is punctuating direct speech. Students drag speech marks, commas, and full stops 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 write a report which gives details about a problem, gives reasons for the problem, and suggests how it might be fixed.

Students explore the issue of school uniforms, developing arguments around it from different points of view.

For this NEMP task students write a thank you letter to the Playground Trust. The letter is assessed on letter conventions, content, and language.

This task assesses students' ability to provide examples of different parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) in the context of writing two four-word alliteration poems.

Students use a given example of a blurb about a book to create their own blurb for a book of their choice.

Using the whare tapawhā model of hauora (well-being), students explore the different dimensions of health, and write an explanation of how each can be cared for. The assessment focus is on the features of an explanation.

An example of a personal letter provides the context, with questions about letter formats and abbreviations being the assessment focus.

Students write an invitation to a party.