Instructional Series
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Welcome to the English medium literacy instructional series teaching and learning resources for years 1 to 8.
- Gold
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- 2
- 1
- Social Sciences
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- English
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- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Stories
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20 items - Showing 11 - 20
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The Story of Rona (from Night is a Blanket)
retold by Fran and Leon Hunia
illustrated by Murray Grimsdale
This text is a retelling of the dramatic Māori legend of Rona and gives an explanation for the markings that can be seen in the moon. You could listen to the audio for support with the pronunciation of the Māori vocabulary.
Gold 1
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Wheke
by Sean O’Connor
illustrated by Vaughan Flanagan
In this narrative, Martin feels uneasy about getting too close to the octopus at the marine laboratory, but after he spends more time there, he manages to overcome his fears.
Gold 1
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Red Rattlers
by Philippa Werry
This report describes the old Wellington cable cars and compares them with the current cable cars.
It includes an explanation, supported by photographs and diagrams, of the technology behind how the
old cable cars worked. The text concludes with an interview with a present-day cable car driver.Gold 2
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The Impossible Bridge
by Jane Buxton
photographs by Jamie Lean
This text describes a group of children’s attempts to build models of bridges. It incorporates a range of text forms: a recount written in diary form, “engineers’ reports”, and instructions. There is a Māori version, Te Piriti Mutunga Kore, in the Kawenga Kōrero series (item 22998).
Gold 2
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The White Tailed Spider
by Tina Johnson
photographs by Aaron Beck
This report both acknowledges that the white- tailed spider has a “bad name” and presents a different point of view. Although it has an informal conversational style, the report also includes some examples of the more formal language of report writing and of persuasive texts.
Gold 2
#LFH
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The Thief
Written by Renata Hopkins
illustrated by Andrew Burdan
In this lively mystery story, Sophie’s treasure has gone missing. Sophie and her cousin Manu make a plan to catch the thief – though students will discover that there is more than one “thief” in this story.
The Thief has a series of short chapters, giving students an opportunity to develop reading “stamina” on a longer story and to carry ideas across longer sections of text.
Gold 1
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A Gift for Aunty Ngā
by Don Long
illustrated by Judith Kunzlé
In this sequel to A Quilt for Kiri (Purple), Kiri visits Rarotonga with her parents to meet Aunty Ngā and gives her a tīvaevae that she and her mother have made. This is a rich personal-experience narrative with many layers of meaning, which lends itself to expressive reading and can be returned to many times. These notes include background information about tīvaevae and some aspects of Cook Islands culture.
Gold 1
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E Kō, E Kō - Morning Chorus (from Night is a Blanket)
by Hirini Melbourne
illustration by Peter Campbell
This Māori song, with an English translation, encourages children to make connections to their experiences of hearing bird songs as the new day arrives. This poem is best used for shared reading. The birds illustrated around the poem are, anticlockwise from top left, grey warbler, stitchbird, tūì, saddleback, bellbird, and whitehead.
Gold 1
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The Greatest Race on Earth
by Bronwen Wall
This report describes why the author considers the Tour de France to be “the greatest race on Earth”. Text boxes provide information about how the race was established. This text has strong connections to students’ experiences of, or knowledge about, sports and competition. It links particularly well to the Ready to Read text Tom’s Tryathlon (Purple).
Gold 2
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Undersea Gardens
by Julie Ellis
This report provides information about seaweeds found in New Zealand waters and how they are used. There is a quiz activity that helps children to apply knowledge from diagrams to actual examples. The rich content means that this text is best read over more than one session and shared before being used for guided reading.
Gold 2
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