Instructional Series
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Welcome to the English medium literacy instructional series teaching and learning resources for years 1 to 8.
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Search results
166 items - Showing 151 - 160
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Our Blue Planet
by Bronwen Wall
Water is the basis of life on Earth. It’s everywhere, and it’s familiar to all students. However, many students will not be aware of how water changes form. The text provides an introduction to this aspect of chemistry and introduces aspects of the water cycle, which they will explore further when they are working at level 3 of The New Zealand Curriculum.
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School Journal Level 4 November 2019
PDFs of all the texts in this issue of the School Journal are available online as well as teacher support materials (TSM) for the following:
TSM Stories Boot Camp Hurly Burly ✔ Across the Sea Screenplay The Game Memoir An East German Childhood Articles Puaki ✔ Chinese New Zealanders ✔ Look inside this issue
An East German Childhood
by Uli Hartung as told to Lucy Corry
Uli Hartung was seventeen years old and living in East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down.
Boot Camp
by Shanna Fa‘aita, illustrations by Andrew Burdan
Liyah has never seen Uncle Joey this happy.
Chinese New Zealanders
by Helene Wong
"Chinese New Zealanders" provides an overview of migration to Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1860s until the present day. The article outlines push-and-pull factors that contributed to various waves of migration, how Pākehā New Zealanders responded to these waves, and adaptations made by Chinese migrants as they adjusted to their new home.
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.
The Game
Screenplay by Cassandra Tse, illustrations by Toby Morris
An argument about which TV show to watch quickly turns into something else.
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Bird of the Year
by Iona McNaughton
In this interview, Megan Hubscher of Forest & Bird talks to Iona McNaughton about the Bird of the Year competition – why it started and how it helps keep New Zealand native birds safe. Students can read about some of the past winners of the competition in an accompanying article, “And the Winner Is ...”
Gold 1
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School Journal Level 2 August 2019
PDFs of all the texts in this issue of the School Journal are available online as well as teacher support materials (TSM) and audio for the following:
TSM Audio Articles Wētā ✔ Pencarrow: New Zealand’s First Lighthouse ✔ ✔ Poem Ika a Whiro Stories Stealing Maru ✔ Max and Alice ✔ Look inside this issue
Wētā
by Philippa Werry
Many people are scared of wētā. They are big and covered in spikes, they hide in dark places, and they can sometimes jump. You might find one in the garden or in a piece of old wood. There could be one hiding in your letterbox – or even in your shoe!
Ika a Whiro
by Kelly Joseph
Under a moonless sky, two armoured warriors creep from tree burrows, long antennae sensing a challenger nearby.
Stealing Maru
by Maria Samuela; illustrations by Elspeth Alix Batt
Long ago, when the world still believed in magic, there was a majestic maunga, or mountain, on the island of Rarotonga. The maunga was called Maru, which means shade. The maunga stood over the village of Puaikura like a giant guardian.
Pencarrow: New Zealand’s First Lighthouse
by Tricia Glensor
New Zealand’s coastline has always been a dangerous place for ships and boats. Early Māori knew that. Several traditional stories tell of waka being washed onto rocks in storms. Since the 1790s, when the first Pākehā reached New Zealand, more than 2,300 ships have been wrecked in New Zealand waters.
Max and Alice
by Bernard Beckett; illustrations by Sarah Illingworth
On the day of the swimming sports, Max took off his shoes and socks and put them on again three times. Only then was he happy that his socks were lined up exactly the way he liked them.
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School Journal Level 3 November 2018
PDFs of all the texts in this issue of the School Journal are available online as well as teacher support materials (TSM) for the following:
TSM Stories Suckered Dangerous Games ✔ Little Fisherman Poems Kilikiti Articles Fly Me Up ✔ Listening Eyes, Speaking Hands: The Story of Deaf Education in New Zealand ✔ Hine-o-te-Rangi: The Adventures of Jean Batten Look inside this issue
Suckered
by Bernard Beckett
illustrations by Kieran Rynhart
"Jason had issues with Maia. She was smart – as smart as him, which was part of the problem. But mostly, it was the way she was smart. Jason hated her fake look of surprise whenever she beat him. And he hated the smug little smile that always came after, the one only he saw. Maia thought she was better than everyone at everything. Well, not today."
Fly Me Up
by Catharina van Bohemen
“Fly Me Up” explores the artworks of Tiffany Singh, an artist who works with communities to create large, colourful installations that draw attention to social issues. Tiffany has Indian and Samoan ancestry, and her artworks are influenced by her personal explorations of identity, culture, and spirituality.
Kilikiti
by Tusiata Avia
illustrated by Daron Parton
"Then there’s kilikiti. Kee-lee-kee-tee (perfect – top marks this time). Have a guess. What could it mean? Ummm ... Kittycat? Kilometre? Kitchenette? Nope! Try cricket (the game, not the grasshopper)."
Dangerous Games
by Johanna Knox
illustrated by Toby Morris
After successfully capturing Mirtha Dare-Sweetly in “Who Froze Farrell Flint?” (School Journal, Level 3, May 2017), super-sleuth kid-detective Minnie Sharp is back on the trail. In “Dangerous Games”, a masked protester has interrupted a television broadcast and a bodyguard is in critical care after being poisoned with a strange new bacteria.
Listening Eyes, Speaking Hands: The Story of Deaf Education in New Zealand
by Renata Hopkins
This article explores how attitudes to deafness have changed over time. The article includes a social history of the van Asch Deaf Education centre, which opened in 1880.
Little Fisherman
by Sarah Penwarden
illustrated by Caroline della Porta
"It isn’t that Haylee hates them. She just likes it better when they’re not there: Tom and Tyler, Dayne’s boys. They’re not exactly her stepbrothers, but close enough."
Hine-o-te-Rangi: The Adventures of Jean Batten
by Bronwen Wall
In New Zealand, an eighteen-year-old named Jean Batten had a dream. She wanted to become the first woman to fly alone from England to New Zealand. So in 1930, the year she turned twenty, Jean travelled to England to learn how to fly.
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What is Biosecurity
by Andrew and Anna Dickson
This article introduces the concept of biosecurity and explains how, as a group of isolated islands, New Zealand developed a unique range of ecosystems. The arrival of plants or animals from other countries could be disastrous for our environment. Therefore, our borders are constantly monitored by biosecurity agencies to protect our environment, agriculture, and our health.
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The Subantarctic Islands
written and illustrated by Giselle Clarkson
This visual text uses words and cartoon-style images to provide information about the five groups of islands that are found between New Zealand and Antarctica. The information is presented in a lively way, organised into sections that tell what and where the islands are, the weather they share, and their flora and fauna.
Information and tips for using comics in the classroom:
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Explorers of the Sunrise
by Jeff Evans and Damon Salesa
Polynesians have travelled vast distances in canoes for more than three thousand years, resulting in many settlements across the Pacific.
In “Explorers of the Sunrise”, the first article recounts a recent voyage from New Zealand to Rapanui and back, using traditional navigation
methods. The second article describes Polynesian travel, from the earliest migrations to modern-day air travel. -
The Bat That Walks on the Ground
by Marlene Bennetts
Who knew that a bat could scuttle across on the ground like a mouse? This short article explains that, like the kiwi, bats didn’t need to escape predators before people arrived in New Zealand. The lesser short-tailed bats are able to fly, but they are in danger because of their reduced habitat and the introduction of predators.
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Kurī
by Priscilla Wehi
illustrations by Spike Wademan
Māori brought the kurī or Polynesian dog with them when they migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand. This article looks at what we know about kurī, their origins, what they were used for, and why they died out. It incorporates traditional stories about the explorers Tāneatua and Īhenga and explains the importance of kurī to early Māori society. “Kurī” is a fascinating but challenging article at this year level, and you may wish to approach it in sections.
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