Instructional Series
Welcome to the English medium literacy instructional series teaching and learning resources for years 1 to 8.
- 4
- 2
- 8
- English
- Social Sciences
- Health and Physical Education
- Science
- The Arts
- Mathematics and Statistics
- Technology
- Non-fiction
- Fiction
- None
- Articles
- Stories
- Poems
- Plays
- Comic
Search results
64 items - Showing 51 - 60
-
Boot Camp
by Shanna Fa‘aita, illustrations by Andrew Burdan
Liyah has never seen Uncle Joey this happy.
-
Hurly Burly
by Paul Mason, illustrations by Rosie Colligan
“Hurly Burly” is a spooky morality tale set in the New Zealand gold rush and based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. John Macbeth is returning to camp when he sees three wild and withered creatures stirring a foul stew and incanting “double, double, toil, and trouble”. The unearthly creatures prophesise his future riches. When John returns to the camp, his brother Duncan announces that he has struck gold and asks John to head into town to register his claim. The story takes a dark turn when John’s wife Sarah encourages him to murder his brother and take the claim as his own.
-
Puaki
based on work by Michael Bradley
Tā moko is the art and practice of traditional Māori tattoo, a taonga that almost disappeared as a result of colonisation. Puaki means “to come forth, to reveal, to give testimony”. Photographer Michael Bradley used this concept as the basis of a project exploring ways that tā moko has been both visible and invisible across the generations. In this article based on his project, four people explain why they proudly wear tā moko and how their facial moko connect the past with the present. The story is complemented by stunning portraits of each storyteller.
-
Game Changers
by Clare Bardsley
The students at Newlands Intermediate have learnt that creating successful digital technologies requires a realistic, think-small approach – and that it’s OK to make mistakes. As well as attempting to build their own game, they were also part of a real-world software development team that developed and tested Mixiply, a platform for making games and apps that use augmented and virtual reality.
-
Feedback
by Matt Boucher
This article is a follow up to “Climate Change: Our Biggest Challenge”. It explains the phenomenon of feedback loops – positive feedback loops, which can cause climate change to accelerate, or negative loops, which can lessen the factors that cause change.
-
Leaves
by Lily Ng
This poem explores the relationship between the poet and her grandmother who was a refugee from China following the Cultural Revolution.
-
Last Match
by Paul Mason, illustrations by Alex Cara
In 1866, the General Grant was sailing from Australia to London when it was shipwrecked on the one of the Subantarctic Islands. Of the eighty-three people on board, only fifteen made it ashore. A survivor later wrote about how the castaways only had six matches, with five "squandered". The lighting of the last match was a critical moment in their survival.
-
Journeys of Discovery: The Life of Alfred Wallace
by Paul Mason
illustrations by Gavin Mouldey
The naturalist Alfred Wallace and his close association with the theory of evolution is little known – most people think of Charles Darwin. Yet Wallace’s story is a classic one of adventure, talent, and persistence before he was able to offer one of the most ground-breaking scientific theories of all time. Most readers are exposed to the work of scientists in the present day; the nineteenth-century setting of this text is an excellent way to broaden their understanding of how scientists have increased their understanding of the world over time and the major milestones along the way. This article is designed to be read alongside the fictional story “Dodinga, 1858”, written by the same author.
-
Dodinga, 1858
by Paul Mason
illustrations by Gavin Mouldey
A historical narrative that is a companion story to the related article “Journeys of Discovery: The Life of Alfred Wallace” – this story provides some detail about the experiences the famous amateur naturalist Alfred Wallace had while travelling in far-flung places of the globe, hoping to crack the mysteries of evolution. Dodinga is the Indonesian village where Wallace was staying when he had his famous breakthrough in 1858. An author’s note describes the story’s links to actual events.
-
Shrinking Violet
by James Brown
illustration by Sarah Wilkins
This sophisticated poem plays with the natural tension created when a poem’s form doesn’t seem to match the content. James Brown’s jaunty use of structure and rhythm challenges the reader to understand both what the poem is about and why the author made the decisions he made.
Literacy Online home
