The texts that students will be able to read, largely by themselves, include junior novels, poems, plays, procedural texts, and fiction and information texts designed for this age group, including picture books, junior reference materials, and some multi-media texts. These texts often include:
- stories with minimal illustration, plots that are more complex, and less-familiar settings, characters, and themes that may change or develop over time;
- information texts that cover less-familiar topics and concepts (these may include more than one text type, e.g., there may be opinions within a procedure);
- visual-language features such as photographs, diagrams, maps, charts, and graphs that support the text;
- vocabulary that includes basic academic words (e.g., list, table, discuss, explain) as well as more content-specific words and that requires depth of word knowledge (e.g., knowledge of collocations and of grammatical contexts);
- grammatical constructions used for specific purposes (such as to show relationships between and within sentences).
“Fish Drive” by Jo Phillips
School Journal 2.3.06
Students will have a strong sense of what they like to read as well as what they are able to read and will know where to locate such materials.
As they read, students build on their expertise and demonstrate that they:
- work out the meanings of new words by using strategies such as:
- applying knowledge of the meanings of most common prefixes (e.g., over-, mis-, sub-, pre-, inter-, semi-, mid-) and most common suffixes (e.g., -ist, -ity, -ty, -ion, -able/-ible, -ness, -ment)
- using reference sources to find meanings of words (e.g., dictionaries, thesauruses)
- inferring word meanings from taught roots and affixes (e.g., by using the known meanings of tele- and -port to infer the meaning of teleport);
- can work out the meanings of unfamiliar phrases and expressions (e.g., figures of speech) by using their prior knowledge and the context;
- recognise the features and purposes of different text types and use this knowledge to navigate and understand texts;
- use and integrate a variety of comprehension strategies to meet their purposes for reading;
- use a variety of strategies to monitor reading when meaning breaks down (e.g., cross-checking, re-reading, using what they know about words and sentence structure, and looking for clues to confirm their predictions and inferences);
- can evaluate a variety of texts and discuss their responses to them (e.g., by evaluating the effectiveness of a text for its purpose);
- can read for sustained periods (twenty to thirty minutes) and sustain meaning in longer texts over time (e.g., by reading short novels over several days).
As they write, students build on their expertise and demonstrate that they:
- understand their purposes for writing and how to meet those purposes;
- plan and organise ideas and information logically, using tools such as headings, graphic organisers, questions, and mind maps and using strategies such as note taking and note making;
- write texts on a variety of topics and confidently express ideas and opinions;
- encode words by using their knowledge of consonant and vowel sounds, of common spelling patterns (e.g., -ot; -ight), and of root words and affixes;
- use appropriate subject-specific and content-specific vocabulary;
- expand their writing vocabulary by using strategies such as:
- applying knowledge of the meanings of most common prefixes (e.g., over-, mis-, sub-, pre-, inter-, semi-, mid-) and most common suffixes (e.g., -ist, -ity, -ty, -ion, -able/-ible, -ness, -ment)
- using reference sources to check meanings of words and to find words (e.g., dictionaries and thesauruses);
- use a variety of sentence types and sentence beginnings;
- reread as they are writing, to check for consistency of meaning and fitness for purpose;
- revise their writing for clarity and impact in response to feedback;
- proofread for accuracy, using supports and reference materials when necessary;
- make choices for publishing in a range of media, including digital and visual media.
The texts that students will be writing, largely by themselves, include texts in print and electronic forms to meet the demands of the curriculum. Students write to recount, describe, narrate, explain, instruct, and report. The texts they write will often include:
- structure and language that suits the purpose, e.g., an orientation, sequenced events described in the past tense, and linking words to denote the time sequence (for a recount);
- a variety of text types and forms;
- grammatically correct sentences that clearly express ideas, feelings, or information and that convey thoughts to others;
- phrases and simple sentences elaborated for impact, e.g., by the addition of subordinate clauses;
- a variety of vocabulary items and sentence forms to reflect differences in register;
- simple academic and subject-specific vocabulary, used appropriately;
- a variety of visual-language features;
- conjunctions that link ideas (e.g., but; because);
- correct use of most punctuation marks (full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, speech marks, and an apostrophe for a contraction) to support meaning;
- correct spelling of most high-frequency words.
Students can use information and language gained in their reading to inform their writing.
