National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (Parent Information)

NAPLAN Scale The NAPLAN scale is made up of 10 equal bands, however, only six bands will be reported for each testing year i.e. Year 3 – Bands 1-6 Year 5 – Bands 3-8 Year 7 – Bands 4-9 Year 9 – Bands 5-10 (Band 5 will be the first band that is reported across all testing years)

NAPLAN: State Literacy findings Demonstration of criteria Grammar focus Persuasive Text focus Integrate the QTF to develop intrinsic meaning Early Stage 1: Use Reading Strategies and Engagement to enhance writing strategies and interest in Narratives and Persuasive texts Stage 1: Focus on the “Beginning/Orientation” of a Narrative or Persuasive text Stage 2: Focus on the development of a resolution in Narrative e.g. use of prediction, suspense. Focus on grammar, building the argument in Persuasive texts. Stage 3: In Narratives: a focus on dialogue and characterisation is essential to critical literacy. In Persuasive Texts, a focus on linking arguments and developing a strong conclusion is important.

Marking Criterion 1.Audience 2.Text Structure 3.Ideas 4.Character and Setting 5.Vocabulary 6.Cohesion 7.Paragraphs 8.Sentences 9.Punctuation 10.Spelling Spelling Punctuation Sentence Structure Cohesion/Paragraphs Audience Ideas Text Structure Vocabulary Character and Setting Sentence Level features Whole Text Structure Whole Text Features Word Level control

NAPLAN: Numeracy strategies State findings Language: Key issues are language e.g. comparison (comparative adjectives), time, volume, ordering, predictive language. Terms such as “largest”, “even”, “next”, “fewer”, “more” were not understood by students. Numeracy: Students performed poorly when they had to physically write down answers and show working out. Across the state, students showed weakness in their working out. Students had problem with multi-step problems e.g. they couldn’t subtract, add and convert with decimals in one question. Measurement: Students had difficulty with volume and mass conversions e.g. from litres to mls. They had difficulty reading visual diagrams or cues to problem solve. Chance & Data: Students can read tables and make graphs, but they can’t combine the information to answer questions, predict or make up their own questions.

Space and Geometry:  Students had the greatest difficulty with position e.g. working out visual descriptions and understanding written language directions.  Irregular hexagons were a major stumbling block. Students need more experience with the name and features of irregular shapes.  Also, students had difficulty when answering questions on 3D manipulation e.g. rotation questions and nets.  Angles Fractions: Students had difficulty with multi-layered fraction questions where you had to read a pie graph and then work out percentages/fractions. Thinking and Working Mathematically: Students received low marks when written answers were needed. It highlights the need for higher order thinking with problem solving and working out answers. NAPLAN: Numeracy strategies

Web Teaching Support Go through the DET intranet. Click on School Measurement Toolkit (SMART) link. On the EMSAD homepage, click on What’s New? Click on Literacy or Numeracy and go to teaching strategies