Students are provided with a colour magazine containing a range of text types. They are required to read each text independently then complete multiple-choice and short-answer questions in their test booklets.

No part of the reading assessment should be read to the student. Teachers must not read either the reading texts or questions to the students nor should they reword or explain questions. If students seek assistance, teachers may encourage them to read aloud any question or part of the text.

Reading sample questions

Writing

For the writing assessment, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be required to write a narrative, using the same prompt. Students will receive a three page writing booklet and a colour stimulus page. A criterion-referenced narrative marking rubric will be used to assess students’ writing. This will enable:

comparisons to be made across year groups
growth to be measured.

Descriptions of the Writing Criteria
Audience	The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and affect the reader.
Ideas	The creation, selection and crafting of ideas for a narrative.
Character and Setting	Character: the portrayal and development of character. Setting: the development of a sense of a place, time and atmosphere.
Vocabulary	The range and precision of language choices.
Cohesion	The control of multiple threads and relationships over the whole text, achieved through the use of referring words, substitutions, word associations and text connectives.
Paragraphing	The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assist the reader to negotiate the narrative.
Sentence Structure	The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences.
Punctuation	The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text.
Spelling	The accuracy and range of spelling.

Narrative writing marking rubric

Language conventions

The Language conventions test comprises spelling, grammar and punctuation.

The Language conventions assessments require students to identify and correct spelling errors, and answer multiple-choice grammar and punctuation questions. These tasks assess the ability of students to spell at an appropriate level, and their knowledge of the correct and effective use of a range of grammatical resources such as different sentence types, speech, verb groups, and punctuation. The purpose of this assessment is to complement the Writing task.

Language conventions sample questions.

Numeracy

Years 3 and 5 students will complete only one test and will not use a calculator.

Years 7 and 9 students will complete two tests and will require a calculator for one of the tests.

Students will be permitted to bring into the test the calculator that they currently use at school or with which they are most familiar.

Teachers may give assistance to students who are having difficulty reading.

Numeracy sample questions.