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An instructional series published in three levels, the School Journal supports literacy learning across the curriculum for students in years 4–8. Each issue of the School Journal is aligned to level 2, 3, or 4 of The New Zealand Curriculum.
The School Journal supports students in years 4−8 to develop the knowledge and skills required to meet the reading demands of all the curriculum areas. Since 1907, the School Journal has delivered New Zealand content to motivate, excite, and engage students across the curriculum. Now, the School Journals are available in digital form as well as print, giving you more ways to use these resources with your students.
Looking for our latest resources?
An online catalogue has been created for Instructional Series.
You'll find Teacher support materials (TSM), audio files and digital copies of the text where available.
Teacher support materials are available for three items from each School Journal. Teachers can use these materials as a basis when planning how to work with similar texts that may not have TSMs.
Example and sample lesson plan
The example below (“The Bittern”, School Journal 3.1.09) illustrates how the support materials can be used.
To order resources please contact Ministry of Education resource catalogue by email at [email protected], or by freephone 0800 660 662 or freefax 0800 660 663.
Responding to the needs and strengths of all students, is one of the foundations of an inclusive classroom. The successful participation of special needs learners in literacy tasks across the curriculum, involves a team response to individual needs – and participating at a suitable level often means academic success.
What is importantThe most effective support programmes have a strong focus on raising student achievement. Teachers help students recognise the progress they are making through well-defined goals and making explicit what they need to do to succeed. The active involvement of students in monitoring their own progress and in getting appropriate feedback about their learning is strongly motivational for students at risk of not achieving.
In addition, the teacher responsible for a student or group of students, structures programmes that are responsive to assessed learning needs. Students are not conveniently fitted into an existing programme. Instead, the programme is discussed, tailored and resourced to meet their learning needs. Responsive teaching is important for all learners and particularly critical for students with special learning needs.
Teachers are knowledgeable about their students and ensure that, where learning programmes are devolved to teachers aides or voluntary adults, these people are fully conversant with the programme expectations and resources, are trained in the teaching strategies to be used and contribute to student feedback and monitoring processes. In the best instances, those responsible for teaching have management practices that focus on and sustain active learning rather than emphasise compliant behaviour.
from Schools' Provision for Students at Risk of Not Achieving, ERO 2008
Captioning to Support LiteracyOne motivating, engaging, and inexpensive way to help build the foundational reading skills of students is through the use of closed-captioned and subtitled television shows and movies. These supports can help boost foundational reading skills, such as phonics, word recognition, and fluency.
Using Storybird to improve literacy skillsSusan Lee, teacher at Te Kura o Kutarere shares how using Storybird, a free digital story writing tool, in her classroom has made a significant impact on the literacy development of her students. She describes how students have become self motivated and proud of their work. Using Storybird has meant reluctant writers are now, "constantly reading their own work and reading other students stories and the writing is just flowing because it's not pen to paper it's keyboard, choose a picture and tap away."
Working together: writing with iPadsAvondale School teacher, Rae Marsh talks about how using iPad writing app Screen Chomp has made a difference for one of her Year 5 students in learning how to form letters correctly. With a combination of Google Docs and Screen Chomp, her student is able to participate in class activities and express his creativity.
1:1 Netbooks - Allowing excellence in the classroomTyler is a Year 6 student at Parkvale School. He has dyspraxia. Using a netbook gives him the freedom to write creatively instead of being inhibited by the speed of his handwriting or his ability to form letters. Tyler comments, "It is the best thing that ever happened to me at school. It’s just completely changed everything. It’s been much easier. I’ve been able to actually complete my work and generally just have a good time."
Using an iPad to support independent writing for a student with ADHDDaniel, a student with ADHD, and his teacher, Kate Friedwald, explain how he uses apps on his ipad to support his reading and comprehension. He can now structure his own learning because he can see and hear what it is he needs to be doing.
Literacy support for students with complex communication and learning needsIn this EDtalk, Sally Clendon discusses technology support for literacy learning in students with complex communication and learning needs.
Literacy frameworksThese frameworks expand and enhance Level One of The New Zealand Curriculum in literacy. Holistic learning progressions are set on a continuum, identifying the fine-grained progressions that some students make. The matrices were developed to help teachers identify the key features of learning, achievement, and quality in relation to each achievement objective. Teachers are able to use the matrices to place each student on an individual starting point, identify next step planning and teaching and hold suitably high and realistic expectations for achievement. Accompanying the matrices are exemplars, which make explicit the critical features of a student’s work, the important things to watch for, to collect information about and act upon.
NZC Update 2 – Supporting literacy learningThis update is addressed to the school leadership team and describes a range of literacy interventions in New Zealand schools.
Self-review tool for schools: Focus on students achieving below curriculum expectations in literacy (years 1–8)Rubrics for evaluating school management of literacy interventions, including examining the school literacy learning culture, consultation and involvement with parents, caregivers, families and whānau, and the effectiveness of classroom teaching practices for students achieving below curriculum expectations in literacy.
Using digital tools to build literacy skills across the curriculumAccess to tools that can support literacy across the curriculum are increasingly at student’s fingertips. As part of a Universal Design for Learning approach, choices and supports for all students are built into the learning design at the outset. Consequently, students should have access to tools that personalise learning and match their needs and preferences across the curriculum.
Writers' Lab – a writing strategy to support students with disabilities A process to support students with additional needs to write accounts and narrative.
The electronic story books The Ministry of Education’s Electronic Storybook is a targeted instructional series designed for teachers to accelerate the literacy achievement of students in years 5–8 who are 2–3 years below expectations and requiring language and literacy support.
The School Journal Story LibrarySchool Journal Story Library is a targeted instructional series that supplements other instructional series. It provides additional scaffolds and supports for teachers to use to accelerate literacy learning for students in years 5-8 who are reading 1-2 years below expectation. The series includes books, teacher support materials, and audio.
Dyslexia affects people in different ways and differently depending on contexts. Most students with dyslexia have difficulty with literacy and/or numeracy and many may also need support to process thinking or with self-organisation.
Difficulties may include:
Adapted from: Beyond Words, a school pack from the British Dyslexia Association, on Inclusive Education.
Defining dyslexia is a complex and contested process and there are no agreed definitions internationally. The Ministry of Education has drafted this definition as a starting point for our work and, as such, it is as a working definition with further refinement expected:
Dyslexia is a spectrum of specific learning difficulties and is evident when accurate and/or fluent reading and writing skills, particularly phonological awareness, develop incompletely or with great difficulty. This may include difficulties with one or more of reading, writing, spelling, numeracy, or musical notation. These difficulties are persistent despite access to learning opportunities that are effective and appropriate for most other children.
People with dyslexia can be found across the achievement spectrum and sometimes have a number of associated secondary characteristics which may also need to be addressed, such as difficulties with auditory and/or visual perception; planning and organising; short-term memory; motor skills or social interaction.
People with dyslexia often develop compensatory strategies and these can disguise their difficulties. People with dyslexia can also develop compensatory strengths which can provide an opportunity to further advance their learning.
Early identification followed by a systematic and sustained process of highly individualised, skilled teaching primarily focused on written language, with specialist support, is critical to enable learners to participate in the full range of social, academic, and other learning opportunities across all areas of the curriculum.
These resources and videos are sourced from the Inclusive Education guide to dyslexia and learning.
Classroom approaches – dyslexia
Listening and speaking are powerful learning modes for students with dyslexia. This video emphasises the need to provide plenty of discussion opportunities for your classroom.
Use recommended approaches to support literacy learning, years 1–8Resources and examples of targeted support that builds reading, writing, and spelling skills.
Resource teachers of literacy conference 2013: Phonological and morphological awareness workshop handout A paper by Gail Gillon of the University of Canterbury for the Resource Teachers of Literacy Conference, 2013. It explores linguistic awareness intervention activities for older children struggling with reading and spelling.
About dyslexiaA Ministry of Education handbook that provides specific strategies for supporting students in phonological awareness, reading, and writing.
Primary teacher Linda Ojala describes how she talks with students with dyslexia in her class to find out what most effectively supports their learning.
Classroom approach – supporting writing in students with dyslexia
Sandra Gillies of Onslow College explains how she poses questions for students to support them with expanding and organising their writing.
Writing hubThese resources will help strengthen your knowledge and skills for teaching writing across the curriculum and increasing students’ rate of progress.
Improving teaching, improving learningSounds and Words is a Literacy Online resource to support teachers and students to learn about phonological awareness and spelling.
Having dyslexia – how teachers can help
Once identified, it is important that dyslexia is not regarded as a label, but rather as a call for action. Modifying the learning environment will benefit all students.
Worldwide, it seems that classroom teachers are facing the same problems and asking similar questions about how to cater for gifted children in the literacy classroom: Who are gifted children? Who are gifted readers? Are all gifted children gifted readers? How can I cater for these children in my classroom? (Vosslamber 2002). It is important that teachers are able to find some answers to these questions because, without them, school is not always the inspiring and challenging experience it could be for gifted children.
Gifted children are not necessarily "successful readers and writers", and this is one of the reasons that they are not always identified as gifted. Although many gifted children do indeed achieve excellent results in literacy and a range of other academic areas, others underachieve, and some even experience great difficulties in reading and writing.
from Catering for gifted students in the literacy classroom, Taylor, T and Oakley, G, 2007
Catering for the learning needs of gifted and talented students in a New Zealand contextA qualitative research project conducted by Adrian Smith ASB/APPA travelling fellowship 2013.
Literacy Strategies for Gifted LearnersA series of slides describing the characteristics of gifted readers and writers, and some strategies for creating effective teaching and learning programmes.
Twice exceptional (or 2E students) are sometimes also referred to as double labelled, or having dual exceptionality. These are gifted students whose performance is impaired, or high potential is masked, by a specific learning disability, physical impairment, disorder or condition. They may experience extreme difficulty in developing their giftedness into talent.
Gifted students with disabilities are at-risk as their educational and social/emotional needs often go undetected. Educators often incorrectly believe twice-exceptional students are not putting in adequate effort within the classroom. They are often described as "lazy" and "unmotivated". Hidden disabilities may prevent students with advanced cognitive abilities from achieving high academic results. 2E students perform inconsistently across the curriculum. The frustrations related to unidentified strengths and disabilities can result in behavioural and social/emotional issues.
Use pictures ( Countdown website) from supermarket advertising brochures. Give each member of a pair three food-related pictures. Aim: to find out what your partner's picture is through questioning. Partner is only able to answer yes or no. Elicit types of language that could be used ("Is it a vegetable?" "Does it have..?" "Can you cook it?" "Do we use it in the kitchen?"), and write these on the board.
There could be a competitive element to it. See who guesses the most correct using the least number of questions. (With new English language learners, the teacher may choose a type of food that they are familiar with.) The aim is to identify and describe various foods and food products found in New Zealand supermarkets and to practise appropriate language structures.
Discuss the healthiness of the various food items. Who has an example of some healthy food. Who has an example of something that is not so healthy?
Vocabulary development: Syllable stress.
How many different types of food can you name?
The teacher puts the food the students can name into categories depending on the number of syllables each word has. The teacher stretches a large rubber band between two thumbs to demonstrate syllable stress. Pull on the rubber band when the syllable is stressed. Primary and secondary stress can both be clearly demonstrated in this way. Using food pictures students go through the same process using the rubber bands to identify the stressed syllables. Can any generalisations be made?Introduce new vocabulary (such as: ripe/unripe, cost, expensive/inexpensive, taste, sweet, sour, savoury, pleasant, unpleasant, hot, texture, crunchy, soft, hard, smooth, shape, raw, cooked/uncooked). These vocabulary items can be added to students' individual picture dictionaries for later revision.
Draw the healthy food pyramid. Using magazines or pictures from the Internet (New World website), cut out and paste food onto the healthy diet pyramid. What do you need most of? What should you only have a little of?
Expected time frame: 3-4 lessons
Teaching and learning purposes
These learning activities are designed to activate the prior vocabulary knowledge of students and to build their understanding of topic-specific words. See activating prior knowledge for more information. Students also read a written text for specific information.
Ensuring learners know the content and language learning outcomes
Finding out about learners’ prior knowledge
1. Activating prior knowledge
Brainstorming: Give students one minute to write down as many words as they know about government (or democracy). Put the students into pairs - they say their words to each other. Each student writes down any new words and explains their words to their partner.
Find out what students already know about the system of government in their own countries.
Giving learners many opportunities to first notice then use new language
2. Pre-teaching key vocabulary
3. Reading to learn about NZ’s system of government
Grouping sentences: Cut the sentences (Word 31KB) into strips. The students sort the sentences into groups of related sentences and give each group a heading.
Planning the learning tasks so that all learners are actively involved
4. Reading to learn about NZ’s political parties
Use the information on the bar graph to draw a pie chart to show the different parties that make up our parliament.
Ask students to find out which of the political parties have coalition agreements with the governing party and the opposition party.
Help students achieve the same explicit learning outcomes with differentiated levels of support
Variations for extra support
Include opportunities for monitoring and self-evaluation
5. Reviewing student learning
6. Reflection
Learning Outcomes | Teaching and Learning | Assessment and Evaluation | Printing Version
Where is my Shadow?
Please note that in order to view this video you either need a web browser that supports HTML5 video or to ensure both JavaScript and Flash are enabled for your browser. Alternatively you can use the download link below to view the video in your player of choice
What You Need
What You Do
Take the students outside to observe their shadows on an asphalt surface.
Get the students to discuss what their shadow looks like. What happens to their shadow when they jump in the air? Where does their shadow go when they face into the light source (the Sun)? Remember never look directly at the Sun.
Give each student a copy of the worksheet (PDF 40KB) and get them to draw in their shadow. Students then share their drawing in small groups and discuss the results. Teacher can display and observe the drawings and modify subsequent lesson content in order to meet the needs This could be used at the end of the unit for students to make any changes based on what they now know.
What to Look For
(What do my students need to learn)
Speaking Writing and Presenting
Level 1 Recognise how to shape texts for a purpose and audience. Use language features, showing some recognition of their effects (topic-specific words).
Level 2 Show some understanding of how to shape texts for different purposes and audiences.Use language features appropriately, showing some understanding of their effects.
Nature of Science
Extend their experiences and personal explanations of the natural world through exploration, play, asking questions, and discussing simple model. e.g. the students are observing and sharing their ideas like scientists do
Physical World
Level 1 and 2 Explore every day examples of physical phenomena. (Shadows) Seek and describe simple patterns in physical phenomena. (Shadows)
Literacy Learning Progressions
After two years at school
After three years at school
(What do I need to know and do to meet the range of identified learning needs of my students?)
(What is the impact of my teaching and learning?)
Provision for identifying next learning steps for students who need:
Assessment is ongoing and embedded in each of the tasks at a self, peer and teacher level.
An expectation that students understand and explain how scientists work.
An expectation that students can use science specific vocabulary in the correct context by explaining their ideas and understandings in oral and written form
Teachers adapt and modify content based on key questions from the Teaching as Inquiry Model Open ended investigative possibilities - posing questions to these ideas in the real world
Opportunities for new knowledge to be shared across the class by students based on experiences Class use and understanding of scientific vocabulary in context with tasks
Multiple opportunities for learning and of reinforcement conceptual understandings.
Tools or ideas which, for example, might be used to:
Oral Peer and Self Assessment opportunities in relation to the Learning Intentions
Students ability to comment on their own understandings in relation to the tasks
Students ability to share and justify their understanding with peers in relation to the tasks
Resources to complement this unit
Picture Books
MOE teacher resources
Teacher Resource Support
Online Teacher and Student Writing
Other websites
Sidewalk Circus book, postcard and science activities
If you are not able to access the zipped files, please download the following individual files.
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