Instructional Series
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You can now find Literacy resources at Tāhūrangi - Literacy.
Welcome to the English medium literacy instructional series teaching and learning resources for years 1 to 8.

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- English
- Social Sciences
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- Health and Physical Education
- Technology
- The Arts
- Mathematics and Statistics
- Learning Languages
- Fiction
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- Nature of science
- Living world
- Nature of technology
- Statistics
- Geometry and Measurement
- Planet Earth and beyond
- Technological knowledge
- Physical world
- Material world
- Number and Algebra
- Technological practice
- Gather and interpret data
- Use evidence
- Critique evidence
- Engage with science
- Interpret representations
- Articles
- Stories
- Poems
- Plays
- Activity
- Comic
- Kākano | Seed
- Tupu | Seedling
- Māhuri | Sapling
- Rākau | Tree
- Consonant digraphs
- Consonant patterns
- Initial and final blends
- Long vowels
- Short vowels
- Single consonants
- Complex morphemes
- Tense
- Vowel digraphs
- Contractions
- Syllable types
Search results
1187 items - Showing 891 - 900
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Bad Advice
by Tim Upperton
Tim Upperton plays with poetic form, especially the pleasures of a tight rhyme scheme, to give readers some unusual “advice”. His poem is a homage to the nonsense text of Doctor Seuss, with a black-humour twist.
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A Mugging in Maths
by Cassandra Tse, illustrations by Josh Morgan
This classroom mystery is solved by Ruby, a student who loves detective novels and who has honed her skills through reading. The author delights in mysteries and plays – and works both forms to their advantage.
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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.
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The Winning Side
by Sarah Johnson, illustrations by Craig Phillips
This story references general elections, in the context of an election to a school council. “The Winning Side” introduces a few big ideas: the need for a platform, the importance of giving everyone a voice, and why we vote.
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Muse
by Paul Mason, illustrations by Mat Tait
This is the third instalment in this series, which is set in a dystopian future. Although it follows on from “Hushed” and “Wind Chimes”, the story can stand alone.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.