Instructional Series
This site will be closing soon as its content has moved to Tāhūrangi.
2024 titles are available on Tāhūrangi. Use the filters to find specific series.
Find Literacy resources at Tāhūrangi - Literacy.
Welcome to the English medium literacy instructional series teaching and learning resources for years 1 to 8.
- Gold
- Green
- Purple
- Blue
- Turquoise
- 4
- 3
- 2
- 1
- 7
- 5
- 6
- 4
- 8
- 3
- 1
- English
- Social Sciences
- Science
- Health and Physical Education
- Technology
- The Arts
- Mathematics and Statistics
- Non-fiction
- Fiction
- None
- Nature of science
- Living world
- Planet Earth and beyond
- Material world
- Nature of technology
- Physical world
- Geometry and Measurement
- Statistics
- Technological knowledge
- Use evidence
- Engage with science
- Critique evidence
- Gather and interpret data
- Articles
- Stories
- Poems
- Plays
Search results
153 items - Showing 21 - 30
-
The Great Barrier Reef
by Sarah Wilcox
The Great Barrier Reef is very beautiful – and threatened. This report describes the Great Barrier Reef and explains what coral is. It also outlines the threats to the reef from climate change and its “evil twin”, ocean acidification.
-
Captured in Ice
by Veronika Meduna
Nancy Bertler is a scientist who studies the ice. She’s been examining Antarctic ice cores to discover what Earth’s climate was like in the past – and how it might change in the future.
-
Hui Te Rangiora: The Navigator
by Sandy Morrison
Long before the tūpuna of Māori settled in Aotearoa, people sailed across the Pacific Ocean using their knowledge of the stars and nature to find their way. One of those people was Hui Te Rangiora. Nearly 1,500 years ago, he made an amazing journey deep into Te Tai Uka a Pia (the Southern Ocean), where nobody had ever been before.
-
How Cars Changed the World
by Bronwen Wall, illustrations by Scott Pearson
-
School Journal Level 4 June 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 Kāhuipani Something Alive ✔ The Village Poems Giving my Father Frights Articles Ben Hawke, Mosgiel's Meteorologist Climate Change: Our Biggest Challenge ✔ Pandemic: The Deadly Flu of 1918 ✔ Look inside this issue
Climate Change: Our Biggest Challenge
by Tricia Glensor
Climate change isn’t only about warmer weather. A rise in the temperature means more extreme weather, including wild storms and heatwaves. Climate change also means more frequent droughts and wildfires, melting ice sheets, melting glaciers, and flooding.
Dive
by Gina Cole
illustrated by Elspeth Alix Batt
Shelly is forced to brave sea snake infested waters when she drops her phone in the river. As it is Shelly's only way of contacting her Dad back in New Zealand, she has no other option.
Ben Hawke, Mosgiel's Meteorologist
by Claire Finlayson
When thirteen-year-old Ben Hawke says things like “precipitation” and “atmospheric pressure”, his friends groan and say, “Speak English!” Ben uses technical weather terms a lot. He finds them useful, which isn’t surprising given he writes his own weather forecasts. He even has a column in the Otago Daily Times. You could say Ben’s something of a meteorological star.
Giving my Father Frights
by Ashleigh Young
illustrated by Donna Cross
We discover no end of windows of opportunity for giving my father frights. Our house is for hiding in. We crouch in the porch, waiting for the bend of his shadow.
Kāhuipani
by Anahera Gildea
illustrated by Andrew Burdan
Based on a true story, Kāhuipani details the journey of two children to the Tuakau bridge to find Te Puea, a young woman who cared for more than 100 orphans during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Pandemic: The Deadly Flu of 1918
by Renata Hopkins
Most students are aware of New Zealand’s participation in the First World War, but few will know of the flu pandemic that swept across the world in its aftermath. In New Zealand, the epidemic took over nine thousand lives in under two months – an appalling number, especially if compared with the eighteen thousand soldiers whose lives were lost to the war. This article conveys the horror of the event while imparting factual information about how the virus spread and how the government and communities tried to deal with it.
Something Alive
written and illustrated by Jem Yoshioka
Jem Yoshioka was born and bred in New Zealand to New Zealand-born parents, so technically she only belongs to one place. But her Japanese ancestry is a living part of her. This graphic novel, written and drawn by Jem, explores a struggle we are all familiar with: that of seeking to understand who we are and where we belong. Rich in both written and visual imagery, this text invites multiple readings.
Information and tips for using comics in the classroom:
The Village
by Paul Mason
illustrated by Kimberly Andrews
Looking for adventure on a family holiday with her parents, Ava wonders off to explore some nearby ruins.
-
The River
by Paul Mason
Leo has travelled from New Zealand to visit his father, who has a houseboat in England. Leo and his dad touch briefly on memories of earlier visits to England, when the family was still together and living in New Zealand. The river has changed since the earlier visit, polluted by a factory upstream. Leo’s desire to see the selkie he saw previously causes him to fall into the dirty river. Leo finds that to save himself, he has to “stop fighting the river”, and students may hypothesise that this realisation could help him deal with the changes in his life.
-
The Dinosaur Hunter
by Norman Bilbrough
This article tells the story of a New Zealand woman who, like Mary Anning (see “Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter”), had a great curiosity about rocks and the fossils in them. The article continues the theme of change over time.
-
Benny
by Bernard Beckett
illustrations by Pippa Keel
“That day last week shouldn’t have been different, but it was.”
-
The Musician
by Sarah Penwarden, illustrations by Elliemay Logan
This family story captures the experience of forming a new relationship and how circumstances that are outside our control can end relationships. Equally, it’s about how families change – and especially about young people becoming aware of their parents as people with separate lives and with their own needs.
-
Out of the Wild
by Matt Comeskey
When did the chicken cross the road? Probably about eight thousand years ago – no joke! That’s when some scientists think chickens were first domesticated. What about dogs, cats, and other animals? When did they start living with people. And why?
Literacy Online home
