What Will I Write?
Writing Assessment Tasks Made Easy
by Helen Robinson
available now
A series of 4 books, providing teachers with an easy-to-use resource to help them teach and assess their students’ writing.
Features
- Each writing task is fully self-contained, with students and teachers working from the same sheet — ensuring that it is the student’s writing skills that are being assessed, rather than their general or specific knowledge.
- The ‘copy-and-go’ format is very simple to use, with no explanation required, making the books ideal for beginning teachers and casuals, as well as the normal busy teacher.
- Each book covers nine text types: narrative, recount, review, description, information report, discussion, procedure, exposition and explanation.
- Each text type is provided with a proforma to address individual class needs, plus three stimulus sheets for the writer.
- Space is provided on each sheet for student self-evaluation and for specific comments from the teacher.
- These writing activities provide ideal practice for the writing tasks in the NAPLAN tests.
| Book 1 | (Year 3) | 978-1-921454-20-2 | $29.95 each | ||
| Book 2 | (Year 4) | 978-1-921454-21-9 | |||
| Book 3 | (Year 5) | 978-1-921454-22-6 | |||
| Book 4 | (Year 6) | 978-1-921454-23-3 |
Reading and Thinking
by Helen Robinson
Four blackline master books providing comprehension and inferential activities plus higher order thinking activities.
Features
- Graded to meet curriculum requirements in all states and territories.
- The activities use high-interest topical reading matter, and are based around Bloom’s revised taxonomy and Gardner’s eight Intelligences.
- Each book covers 9 text types: procedure, exposition, discussion, narrative, review, explanation, factual and literary description, factual and literary recount, and information report.
- 27 units of work in each book—three units per text type.
- A set of 8 matrixes enables teachers to address individual learning preferences, open-ended questioning techniques, discovery learning, freedom of choice, group interaction and variation in pacing.
| Book 1 | (Year 3) | 978-1-921085-13-0 | $32.95 each | ||
| Book 2 | (Year 4) | 978-1-921085-14-7 | |||
| Book 3 | (Year 5) | 978-1-921085-15-4 | |||
| Book 4 | (Year 6/7) | 978-1-921085-16-1 |
Creative English Activities
by Jenny Rudd O'Neill
Two genuinely exciting teacher resource books filled with creative activities to develop and extend students’ interest and skills, and stretch their imagination.
Features
- Photocopiable pages for student work plus individual teacher pages providing background information, notes on procedure, further ideas and follow-up activities.
- Activities cover writing, vocabulary, poetry, speaking and debating, drama, reading, listening and research.
- Extensive lists of topics for writing, speaking and listening.
- Suitable for individual, group or whole-class work, and can be used at school or at home.
| Book 1 | (Years 3-4) | 978-1-921085-01-7 | $34.95 each | ||
| Book 2 | (Years 5-7) | 978-1-921085-02-4 |
Script Solutions
Drama for the Classroom
by Hazel Edwards
available March 2009
An outstanding drama resource for primary schools from one of Australia’s best known and admired children’s authors.
Features
- Allows children to explore a range of issues through drama.
- Offers a mixture of script types, including flexible casts, outside staging and choral work, with varied length and complexity of costuming from very simple to ‘dressed up’.
- Reading range from non-readers, to a narrator having the most challenging role.
- Subject matter ranges from fiction to non-fiction, and the whacky to the serious.
- Minimum/maximum cast numbers provided.
- Overlapping possibilities exist for audio with SFX, puppetry, web cams, screenplays and videos, as well as suggestions for festivals or school assemblies.
- The plays are of period length, and are simply performed with parts for all class members via elastic choruses.
- Easy to use by non-drama specialists — each play is accompanied by detailed teaching notes.
- All the plays have been successfully trialled in schools.
| Book 1 | (Years 1-2) | 978-1-921454-24-0 | $34.95 each | ||
| Book 2 | (Years 3-4) | 978-1-921454-25-7 | |||
| Book 3 | (Years 5-6/7) | 978-1-921454-26-4 |
Dramatics
A Drama Resource for Primary Teachers
by Hazel Edwards & Goldie Alexander
available March 2009
A revised edition of The Primary Drama Resource Book, providing teachers with a multitude of drama activities suitable for middle and upper primary students (years 3—6/7).
Features
- Includes an interesting range of material, such as choral scripts, multi-age ‘buddy’ scripts and community festivals.
- Deals with important issues such as bullying, making it a particularly useful resource for schools.
- The activities are designed to incorporate a variety of key learning areas, using drama as a vehicle for research.
- Aims to foster creative collaboration, team-building and negotiation.
- Fosters the idea of learning by doing.
- Activities include creating catchy titles, a short play, sample texts, dramatic hints, script writing, improvisation, adaptation of story to script, video and TV show ideas, mime dance and puppet scripts, eventing on site, book and internet collaborations, and multimedia scripts.
| Dramatics | 978-1-921454-27-1 | $39.95 |
The White Elephant & Other Plays
Plays based on Asian Folk Tales
by Edel Wignell
available March 2009
A collection of plays for children aged 8–12 years, adapted from traditional Asian folk tales.
Asian folk tales are rich in fantasy, adventure and humour, and are splendid for telling, reading and acting.
Features
- Photocopiable play scripts are respectful and true to the cultures from which they come.
- Provides a drama context for multicultural issues.
- Detailed notes for teachers which:
- locate the folk tales in their geographical settings
- give background information to enhance understanding of the folk tales and the cultures from which they have evolved
- offer suggestions for classroom activities covering a variety of KLAs
- provide literature and folklore links.
| White Elephant | (Years 3-7) | 978-1-921454-28-8 | $34.95 |
Thinking Through Themes: Air & Flight
Learning Centre Activities for Years 3–6
by Ron Thomas & Shirley Sydenham
available April 2009
The first of a series of four books providing learning centre activities on the themes of Air, Water, Earth and Fire.
Features
- Each book contains student activity task cards, plus teacher resource materials.
- Information necessary for completion of the tasks is provided as resource material, or references are given to where information can be found, including online sources.
- The activities are based on Gardner’s theory of multiple Intelligences, plus the six sequential levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy.
- The task cards are printed 2 per page for teachers to photocopy onto cards, which can be laminated to provide a reusable resource.
- There are checklists for teacher organisation, student self-assessment and record keeping.
| Air & Flight | 978-1-921454-38-7 | $36.95 each |
Using the Library
by Ron Thomas & Shirley Sydenham
Three books written specially for classroom teachers who are required to take their classes into the library to undertake a library program using the resources housed there.
Features
- Provides a structured, sequential and balanced program for the complete primary school years aimed at developing students as independent library users.
- Units include photocopiable activities and worksheets, full directions for teachers on how to conduct each activity, and extension activities for fast finishers.
- Activities can be used individually, in small groups or the whole class, and encourage a ‘hands on’ use of resources.
| Book 1 | Lower primary | 978-1-921085-25-3 | $34.95 each | ||
| Book 2 | Middle primary | 978-1-921085-26-0 | |||
| Book 3 | Upper primary | 978-1-921085-27-7 |
English Resource Books 1 & 2
by John Barwick, Jenny Barwick & Kerry Fraser
Two flexible English teaching resources for years 3 to 6/7.
Features
- Activities cover the areas of reading, writing, talking and listening, plus teacher resources.
- Activity sheets range from open design, catering for varied student responses, to more directed, to help teaching and to reinforce particular concepts.
- Includes activities suitable for remediation, self-directed extension, guided lessons, group activities, individual or group research tasks and assessment tasks.
| Book 1 | (Years 3-4) | 978-1-876580-64-3 | $29.95 each | ||
| Book 2 | (Years 5-7) | 978-1-876580-65-0 |
Preparing for Secondary English
by John & Jenny Barwick
Ensures that students in the final year of primary school have mastered all the necessary skills of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and reading and writing text types.
Features
- Contains diagnostic tests, clear explanations and examples of each skill, exercises for consolidation, revision and practice, and extension work.
- Includes 8 proficiency tests to test proficiency in reading, grammar, spelling and punctuation.
- Very helpful for students who are preparing for selective and scholarship examinations.
| Preparing for Secondary English | 978-1-876580-02-5 | $26.95 |
The Primary Speaking and Listening Resource Book
by Adrian Pauley & Kevin Ryan
An invaluable source of information, ideas, activities and photocopiable worksheets dealing with a comprehensive range of communication skills for middle and upper primary students.
Features
- Information for teachers is explicitly modelled and easy to read, and follows a logical progression with clear examples.
- Includes posters and information sheets which are ideal for classroom use and a good visual aid.
- Provides a wide variety of exercises dealing with each topic.
- An accompanying CD is linked to the relevant exercises.
- Designed to make students more confident speaking to a group or one-on-one, able to listen more effectively, become better analytical thinkers, and able to put their point of view convincingly.
| Primary Speaking & Listening Resource Book | 978-1-876580-54-4 | |
| $49.95 |
My Horrible Cousins
and other stories
by Goldie Alexander
available March 2009
A collection of eleven short stories of particular interest to girl readers aged 9–13, with accompanying notes for teachers.
Features
- Particularly timely, as it balances the recent interest given to encouraging boys to read, at the risk of neglecting writing for girls.
- Features girls as the main characters — girls who are strong and resourceful, girls overcoming adversity, solving problems, being determined, being passionate about causes.
- The stories are diverse: written in first person/third person, with real characters and varied settings.
Goldie Alexander is one of Australia’s most prolific and awarded children’s authors.
| My Horrible Cousins — | |
|||||
| combined anthology and | ||||||
| teachers’ notes | ||||||
| (Years 4-7) | 978-1-921454-71-4 | $36.95 | ||||
| My Horrible Cousins — | ||||||
| anthology | ||||||
| (Years 4-7) | 978-1-921454-71-4 | $17.95 | ||||
