Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Pupil Assessment Tasks Teacher notes: By the River

Task 7

Curriculum references: Years 5–6 Programme of Study – Reading Comprehension Children should maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by:

• learning a wider range of poetry by heart • preparing poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience Children should discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader Children should participate in discussions about books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously Children should provide reasoned justifications for their views

Running the task This task assesses children’s ability to make inferences from the text and justify these with evidence (2MI1 and 2MI2), as well as their understanding of the writer’s use of language and its impact on the reader at word, sentence and text level (2LfE1 and 2LfE2).

• Explain that children will be looking at a poem called ‘By the River’. Can they predict what the poem will be about from the title? Ask for suggestions (2MI3).

• Read out the poem aloud. In pairs, children talk about whether their predictions were right. Check their understanding of the terms used, e.g. ‘jenny wren’.

• Ask children to close their eyes and imagine the scene while you re-read the poem. Allow time to discuss what they think it was like by the river.

• Briefly discuss whether they enjoyed listening to the poem being read aloud, and ask them to explain why they felt the way they did. Did closing their eyes help? What is it about the poem that appeals to them, or not?

• Allow children time to learn the poem and perform it when they have finished the task. Discuss what helps them to learn it, and what strategies they used.

Assessment guidance Use the grid below to identify the assessable elements children are working on in this area.

2LfE1 and 2LfE2

2MI1, 2MI2 and 2MI3

Typically children working at the expected standard will: • identify and/or comment on the writers’ use of specific words or phrases e.g. ‘mumbling ‘ and ‘fumbling’ remind you of the sort of noise bees make • discuss and evaluate how writers use words, phrases and language features to have an impact on the reader, at word, sentence and text level

Typically children working at the expected standard will: • m  ake straightforward inferences from the text, e.g. he closes his eyes to go to sleep because he has made a pillow out of his coat •m  ake inferences based on the evidence from different points and justify with evidence from the text, e.g. it’s summer because there are bees and grasshoppers •p  redict what might happen from details stated and implied (above)

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Pupil Assessment Tasks Teacher notes: By the River

Task 7

What to expect 1. In which season is the poem set? Give two examples from the poem to support your answer.

Children should understand that it is summer. The most obvious clues are probably the insects. Children may also refer to the strawberries and cream as a summer treat and the fact that he is lying outside near a river also indicates warm weather. More able children will be able to give more than one indication of the season, while others may refer to one idea only.

2. Why do you think the narrator closes his eyes?

(2Ml1)

Most children should be able to identify that it is the tea. More able readers may repeat the poet’s exact words to support their answer.

7. How would you describe the overall effect of the poem? Give examples to show what you mean.

(2LfE2)

Less able readers may give a general answer that they make you imagine the sound or sight even more vividly. More able readers should be more specific, e.g. the sawing makes you think how the pigeon’s cooing goes on and on for ever and starts to get on the writer’s nerves, while the comb running through hair helps you imagine how the wind looks as it sweeps through the grass.

6. Out of all the things the poet describes, what one thing is most important to him?

(2LfE2)

Most children will explain that these words echo the noise the creatures make. More able readers may identify the repeated ’ch’ and refer to onomatopoeia and how poets use this to create specific effects.

5. The poet uses two similes in the poem. What are they and why does he use them?

(2LfE1)

Children may explain that these words echo the sounds. More able readers may be able to refer to onomatopoeia and how poets use this to create specific effects.

4. Explain why you think the poet uses the words ‘branches’, ‘twitching’, ‘scratching’ and ‘itchy’ in verse 3?

(2Ml2)

Less able readers may suggest that he is going to go to sleep. More able readers may suggest that he wants to concentrate on enjoying the moment – the sounds and the sensations of summer.

3. Choose five words which describe sounds in the poem and say why they help you to imagine the sound and the thing making it.

(2Ml2)

(2LfE2)

Most children will be able to describe the poem’s overall impact. More able readers may explain how the poet has achieved that effect by language which describes soothing and dreamy sounds and sights.

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Pupil Assessment Tasks Task 7

By the River Matt Simpson Lying on the river bank beneath the trailing willow, my anorak behind my head folded as a pillow, I close my eyes and listen to the many sounds around me, lapping water near my feet, a mumbling, fumbling brown bee, a jenny wren in the branches twitching among the twigs, a grasshopper not far away scratching itchy legs, a coo-coo-cooing pigeon high up in an old oak tree, like someone sawing a plank of wood – and sawing endlessly! A breeze is whiffling through the grass like a comb running through your hair, and little-globs-of-amber-ants are scuttering here and there. The river’s sliding gently, dreaming of the sea, and I am thinking of only one thing: strawberries and cream for tea!

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Cracking Comprehension Year 4 © Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Pupil Assessment Tasks

Task 7

Name:

Date:

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1. In which season is the poem set? Give two examples from the poem to support your answer. 2. Why do you think the narrator closes his eyes? 3. Choose five words which describe sounds in the poem and say why they help you to imagine the sound and the thing making it.

4. Explain why you think the poet uses the words ‘branches’, ‘twitching’, ‘scratching’ and ‘itchy’ in verse 3. 5. The poet uses two similes in the poem. What are they and why does he use them? 6. Out of all the things the poet describes, what one thing is most important to him? 7. How would you describe the overall effect of the poem? Give examples to show what you mean.

You may photocopy this page

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Cracking Comprehension Year 4 © Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide

Unit 3 Childhood: You Can’t Be That/The Colour of My Dreams Key text features These two poems are about the thoughts of two different children. • The Teaching text, ‘You Can’t Be That’, is by Brian Patten and is a child’s response to adults’ aspirations for him. • The Practice text, ‘The Colour of My Dreams’ by Peter Dixon, is a first-person poem written from the point of view of a dyslexic learner.

Reading the Teaching text: You Can’t Be That • Do any of the children know what they want to be when they grow up? Invite them to share thoughts with the class. Or make a list of aspirational jobs together and ask the children to match their classmates to the jobs. • Tell them at least some of the things you thought you wanted to be when you were younger. Did you become one of those? • Read the poem together. Ask the children for their immediate responses to the poem.

Reading the Practice text: The Colour of My Dreams • Read and discuss the poem. Invite any dyslexic children in the class to comment before asking the more fluent readers. • Remind the children that they are now going to work independently to practise the strategies introduced during the teaching session.

Extending reading ‘Growing’ from Plum – Tony Mitton (9781903015855, Barn Owl 2010) ‘Childhood Tracks’ from Only One of Me – James Berry (9780330418317, Macmillan 2004) ‘Chimney Boy’s Story’ from Boneyard Rap – Wes Magee (9780750228602, Hodder 2001) ‘Why’ from First Poems for Thinking – Robert Fisher (9781898255307, Nash Pollock 2000)

Moving into writing • Reread the poems. Ask the children to use ideas to make predictions about the careers that the narrator of either of the poems might follow: which is more likely to be a lawyer, an artist, an architect, a DJ, a magician. Ask them to find evidence in the poems to support their ideas. • Challenge the children to insert another verse or two in the style of their chosen poem, explaining what happened when the narrator grew up.

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide Teaching text: You Can’t Be That

Listening comprehension



Q1: Which three things did the narrator say he wanted to be?



A1: Tree, ocean, range of mountains.

Strategy:  Listen to the text again. Make notes.



Q2: Why does he want to be a range of mountains?

A2: So streams will flow through him and he’ll be ‘the home of eagles’ (verse 5)/He’ll be ‘full of nooks, crannies, valleys and fountains’ (verse 5). Strategy: Listen to the text again. Make notes.

Q3: Why was it important to ‘them’ that the child says something that they understand? A3: Because they say that ‘children always become/At least one of the things/We want them to be’ (verse 7). Strategy:  Consider where in the text you’re most likely to find this information. Listen to that part again.

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Someone else speaking

Capitals

It looks good on the page.

Poems need verses.

E ach verse is a maximum of six lines long.

L onger verses introduce new ideas.









• • • • • •

‘TV’/’me’ (verse 1). ‘MC’/’me’ (verse 3). ‘musician’/’beautician’ (verse 5). ‘fountains’/’mountains’ (verse 5). ‘hay’/’play’ (verse 7). ‘ambition’/’magician’ (verse 8).

© Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

4. W  rite two sets of rhyming words from the poem.

A different person is speaking.



• A different person is speaking. • Longer verses introduce new ideas.

Narrator speaking

Italics

3. T he poem is divided into verses. Choose two reasons why the poet starts a new verse.

What the narrator wants to do

Normal

• Because he thinks it’s obvious in the context. • Because the narrator knows who ‘they’ are and we’re reading the narrator’s thoughts. • Because it doesn’t really matter – because ‘they’ can be anyone who doesn’t understand.

Function

Presentation

Answer

2. W  hy do you think the narrator doesn’t name ‘them’ or say who ‘they’ are?

1. M  atch the way the text is presented to its function. (See boxes right).

Question

Teaching text: You Can’t Be That

2C6 1 mark

2C7 2 marks

2LfE2 1 mark

2C6 1 mark

CD / Mark

Question focus: identify language features of the text. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the text for rhyming words.

Award 1 mark for each correct answer.

Award 1 mark for three correctly drawn lines.

Additional information

Cracking Comprehension Year 5

Question focus: explain how presentational features contribute to meaning. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Summarise each verse as you read it. • R  eread the list of options in the question and consider each one against your understanding of the poem.

Question focus: discuss how writers use words to impact on the reader. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the poem for references to ‘they’ and ‘them’. • Think about who ‘they’ might be. • Think about how the poem would change if ‘they’ were named.

Question focus: identify presentational issues. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • S kim the poem, noting different text presentations and considering their function.

Useful strategies

Cracking the questions

Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide

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© Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

E xplain your answer, using quotations from the poem.

6. What do you think of the poem?

• I think it’s silly because people can’t be trees and say that ‘a million birds will fly through me’ (verse 1). • I think it’s magical because it says that he is a magician and he can be ‘a lost glade in which unicorns still play’ (verse 7). • I think it’s inspirational because it tells children that they don’t have to be what ‘they’ say they have to be because ‘They do not understand’ (verse 7). You can be whatever you want to be.

2MI2 2 marks

2C4 2 marks

•P  arents don’t understand you: ‘They do not understand me’ (verse 7). • You should be whatever you want to be: ‘They do not realize I can fulfil any ambition’ (verse 8). • Being a poet is the best job because you are a magician and so you ‘can fulfil any ambition’ (verse 8).

5. W  hat do you think is Brian Patten’s message to children in this poem?

 E xplain your answer, using quotations from the poem.

CD / Mark

Answer

Question

Teaching text: You Can’t Be That

Award 1 mark for a personal response with a brief explanation and a second mark for a supporting quotation.

Question focus: explain inferences and justify with evidence from the text. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Skim the text whilst considering your response. • L ook for words and phrases from the poem you can use in your answer.

Cracking Comprehension Year 5

Award 1 mark for an acceptable ‘message’ and another for a supporting quotation.

Additional information

Question focus: summarise main ideas from more than one verse. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Skim the poem while considering the poet’s message. • Scan the text to find relevant quotations.

Useful strategies

Cracking the questions

Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide



The Colour of My Dreams Peter Dixon

1

I’m a really rotten reader



the worst in all the class,



in thick green drippy paint



the sort of rotten reader



that gets all on the carpet –



that makes you want to laugh.



and makes the cleaners faint.



I’m last in all the readin’ tests,

5

I paint these lovely pictures

25

I build great magic forests

29



my score’s not on the page



weave bushes out of string



and when I read to teacher



and paint pink panderellos



she gets in such a rage.



and birds that really sing.

She says I cannot form my words

9

I play my world of real believe

33



she says I can’t build up



I play it every day



and that I don’t know phonics



and teachers stand and watch me



– and don’t know c-a-t from k-u-p.



but don’t know what to say.

They say that I’m dyxlectic

13

They give me diagnostic tests

37



(that’s a word they’ve just found out)



they try out reading schemes,



… but when I get some plasticine



but none of them will ever know



I know what that’s about.



the colour of my dreams.

I make these scary monsters

17



I draw these secret lands



and get my hair all sticky



and paint on all me hands. I make these super models,

21

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I build these smashing towers



that reach up to the ceiling



– and take me hours and hours.

© Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

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Cracking Comprehension Year 5

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Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide Unit 3: The Colour of My Dreams Name:

Practice text questions

Class:

Date:

1. (a) Write two pairs of rhyming words.



2C6

2 marks

(b) Write one pair of words that nearly rhyme.

2. The poem is divided into verses. Tick two reasons why the poet starts a new verse.

A different person is speaking. It looks good on the page.

2C7

2 marks

Poems with this pattern of rhythm and rhyme usually have verses. You can set it to music and sing it. Each verse has one pair of rhyming words. Each verse is about a new topic.

2C1

3. ‘I play my world of real believe’. What do you think the poet means by the words underlined? 1 mark 2C6

4. What is the function of the dashes in ‘k-u-p’?

5. Dyslexic writers often muddle up the sounds in words. How does the poet make a joke about this?

6. The poet uses lots of adjectives in verses 5–8, but many fewer in the other verses. Think about what he is describing in verses 5–8. Why do you think he uses more adjectives here? Include quotations from the poem in your answer.

1 mark 2LfE1

1 mark 2LfE2

2 marks

7. Tick or cross these statements to show what the writer is good at:

reading making models

drawing readin’ tests



painting dreaming





plasticine



sounding out

2C4

1 mark

8. Do you think the poet is trying to be encouraging to children who can’t read well? Yes / No Explain your answer using quotations from the poem.

2MI2

2 marks

9. In this poem and in the poem ‘You can’t be that’, the poet refers to ‘they’. Are ‘they’ the same people in both poems? Explain who ‘they’ might refer to in each.

2C9

2 marks

© Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

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• Poems with this pattern of rhythm and rhyme usually have verses. • Each verse has one pair of rhyming words. • Each verse is about a new topic.

2. T he poem is divided into verses. Tick two reasons why the poet starts a new verse.

A different person is speaking. It looks good on the page. Poems with this pattern of rhythm and rhyme usually have verses. You can set it to music and sing it. Each verse has one pair of rhyming words. Each verse is about a new topic.

2LfE1 1 mark

He writes ‘dyxlectic’ (verse 4) instead of dyslexic.

 yslexic writers often muddle up the 5. D sounds in words.

© Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

 ow does the poet make a joke H about this?

2C6 1 mark

It indicates that the reader should sound out the letters like a beginner reader.

2C1 1 mark

2C7 2 marks

2C6 2 marks

CD / Mark

 hat is the function of the dashes in 4. W ‘k-u-p’?

What do you think the poet means by the underlined words?

3. ‘I play my world of real believe’.













Accept a reasonable answer which recognises that he is making a distinction between make believe and real believe to show that he really believes in dreams.

(a) Accept any pairs of rhyming/half-rhyming words, e.g. ‘page’/’rage’, ‘out’/’about’ (verse 4); ‘lands’/’hands’, ‘towers’/’hours’ (verse 5); ‘paint’/’faint’ (verse 7); ‘string’/’sing’ (verse 8); ‘day’/’say’ (verse 9); ‘schemes’/’dreams’ (verse 10). (b) ‘class’/’laugh’ (verse 1); ‘up’/’k-u-p’ (verse 3).

1. (a) Write two pairs of rhyming words.

(b) Write one pair of words that nearly rhyme.

Answer

Question

Practice text: The Colour of My Dreams

Question focus: comment on a writer’s use of language. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the text for a reference to being dyslexic. • Look carefully at the word.

Question focus: identify presentational features. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the poem for a word you have to sound out. • Consider how you knew to sound it out.

Question focus: give the meaning of words in context. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the poem for the words in the question and read them in context. • Consider what you think the poet might mean.

Award 1 mark for two pairs of rhyming words. Award the second mark for one pair of near-rhymes.

Additional information

Cracking Comprehension Year 5

Question focus: explain how the structural features link to the meaning. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Summarise each verse as you read it. • R  eread the list of options in the question and consider each one against your understanding of the poem.

Question focus: identify structural features of the text. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the text for rhyming words.

Useful strategies

Cracking the questions

Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide

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• I n this poem ‘they’ refers to teachers and experts who come in to find out what the poet can’t read. • In ‘You can’t do that’, ‘they’ refers to adults in general, including teachers, parents and ‘experts’.

9. In this poem and in the poem ‘You can’t be that’ the poet refers to ‘they’. Are ‘they’ the same people in both poems? Explain who ‘they’ might refer to in each poem.

© Rising Stars UK Ltd 2014.

Explain your answer using quotations from the poem.

Yes / No

Yes • He says that you can be good at other things even if you’re not good at reading: ‘when I get some plasticine, I know what that’s about’ (verse 4). • He’s happy, even if he’s not good at reading: ‘I play my world of real believe/I play it every day’ (verse 9). • He’s very creative: ‘I make these super models/I build these smashing towers’ (verse 6). No • H  e says that no one knows what he’s good at: ‘none of them will ever know, the colour of my dreams’ (verse 10). • He keeps making people cross: ‘When I read to teacher she gets in such a rage/ it gets all on the carpet and makes the cleaners faint’ (verse 2). • He says that no one understands him: ‘teachers stand and watch me/but don’t know what to say’ (verse 9).

reading drawing making models readin’ tests painting sounding out plasticine dreaming

8. D  o you think the poet is trying to be encouraging to children who can’t read well?

















7. Tick or cross these statements to show what the writer is good at:

Include quotations from the poem in your answer.

N - reading Y - drawing Y - making models N - readin’ tests Y - painting N - sounding out Y - plasticine Y - dreaming

2C9 2 marks

2MI2 2 marks

2C4 1 mark

2LfE2 2 marks

 erses 5–8 describe the imaginative world that the •V poet can create. He makes ’scary monsters’ and ‘magic forests’ and weaves ‘bushes out of string’. • The other verses tell about the things that the poet can’t do, so he uses less imaginative language.

6. T he poet uses lots of adjectives in verses 5–8, but many fewer in the other verses.

T hink about what he is describing in verses 5–8. Why do you think he uses more adjectives here?

CD / Mark

Answer

Question

Practice text: The Colour of My Dreams

Award 1 mark for recognition of who ‘they’ is in each poem.

Cracking Comprehension Year 5

Question focus: make comparisons between poems. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Skim the poems whilst considering the question. • Read one poem at a time more carefully, considering the identity of ‘they’.

Question focus: explain inferences and justify them. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Skim the poem while considering the poet’s message. • Scan the text to find relevant quotations

Award 1 mark for an acceptable ‘message’ and another for a supporting quotation.

Award 1 mark for recognition that the poet uses more adjectives when describing his ‘creative self’. Award another mark for the inclusion of appropriate words or phrases from the poem.

Question focus: discuss and evaluate how the poet uses language to impact on the reader. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • Scan the poem for adjectives. Underline them. • S kim verses 5–8, thinking about why the poet uses such interesting language in these verses.

Question focus: summarise ideas from more than one verse. Strategies: • Carefully read the question, marking key words. • read through the poem ticking or crossing each items as it is mentioned.

Additional information

Useful strategies

Cracking the questions

Sample from Cracking Comprehension Year 5 Teacher's Guide

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