Future Directions — Literacy and
Numeracy Checkpoints
Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints
Future Directions
Contents
Future directions ........................................................................... 1
Literacy .......................................................................................... 1
Viewing and Reading ......................................................................................... 1
Text knowledge.............................................................................................................. 1
Comprehension ............................................................................................................. 1
Grammar knowledge ..................................................................................................... 2
Word knowledge ............................................................................................................ 2
Writing and Creating ........................................................................................... 3
Text knowledge.............................................................................................................. 3
Grammar knowledge ..................................................................................................... 4
Word knowledge ............................................................................................................ 6
Numeracy ....................................................................................... 7
Calculating and estimating ................................................................................. 7
Recognising and using patterns and relationships ............................................. 8
Using fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and rates ................................... 8
Using spatial reasoning ...................................................................................... 9
Using measurement ........................................................................................... 9
Future directions
This document suggests some explicit teaching and learning opportunities for the indicators
in the Checkpoint assessments. Teachers analyse the evidence and make judgments
about each child’s literacy and numeracy learning. Teachers identify indicators that require
explicit teaching for the whole class, small groups or individuals, and use the tables below
to identify learning opportunities to strengthen children’s literacy and numeracy knowledge,
skills and understandings.
Literacy
Viewing and Reading
Text knowledge
VR 1 i
Suggested teaching and learning
Identify personal, social or
learning purposes for
viewing and reading
learning area texts
 Have regular conversations about personal and class text
selections, e.g. before library visits, when selecting home
reading from the class library, before and after shared and
guided reading.
 Describe the purposes of texts using explicit language, e.g. to
find things out, or for fun and enjoyment.
Comprehension
VR 1 iii
Suggested teaching and learning
Use text-processing
strategies before, during
and after viewing and
reading, including:
 predicting and
confirming the topic,
visual features and
structure
 using knowledge of
word order in simple
sentences
 reading on and
re-reading to make
meaning
 Collaboratively develop a class checklist of text processing
question prompts to use before, during and after reading,
e.g. on a white board — We think this book is about….we can
tell this because….
 Confirm predictions after reading by revisiting the text and
visual features.
 Predict the text type and structure by connecting to prior
knowledge about similar texts, e.g. pre-reading drawing,
think–pair–share discussions, KWL charts (Know, Want to
know, Learnt), Y charts (3-part graphic organiser), roleplays.
 Develop knowledge of word order in simple sentences by
highlighting key words, and through construction and
deconstruction activities.
 Model and explicitly name the strategies of reading on, and
re-reading when using big books and other shared texts,
e.g. I don’t know this word … I am going to read on to see if I
can get some clues from the rest of the sentence … Now I will
re-read the sentence to see if I can work it out.
Queensland Studies Authority June 2012 | 1
VR 1 iv
Suggested teaching and learning
Show understanding of
independently viewed and
read supportive texts (texts
which have logical
connections, relate to
personal experiences, use
natural or first language
and are engaging) by:
 using page numbering,
tables of contents,
headings and titles,
navigation buttons, bars
and links
 recalling and locating
literal information and
key ideas
 retelling events in
appropriate sequence to
summarise
 making inferences from
visual, print and audio
features
 Model the use of page numbering, tables of contents,
headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links to
review and retrieve information.
 Use questions to prompt recall of key ideas.
 Use verbal cues to guide children to locate and highlight literal
and inferred information, e.g. right there — directly stated,
think and search — inference, think, search and explain.
 Orally retell what has been read, sequence events and
summarise texts after reading use role play,
think–pair–share, drawing, writing or talking to orally retell,
sequence and summarise information.
 Identify the key ideas in discussions and activities,
e.g. using concept maps, mind maps.
 Model how to relate texts to personal experiences, e.g. I think
that … because I know that …
 Talk about how and why visual, print and audio features are
used, e.g. bold text to show important information, headings
and titles, red text to warn of danger.
Grammar knowledge
VR 1 vi
Suggested teaching and learning
Track pronoun to the noun
it refers to where they are
located in the same or next
sentence
 Model how to track pronoun to the noun it refers to, e.g. “Sally
chased the dog. She could not catch it.” She means Sally.
 Check for understanding, e.g. “Caleb was running fast. He
was puffing. Who is he?”
Word knowledge
VR 1 vii
Suggested teaching and learning
Independently read and
understand, to develop
fluency:
 supportive learning area
texts with increasing
demonstrations of
phrasing
 a range of highfrequency sight words
with automaticity
 words of personal
significance in school
and other contexts
 Model reading with phrasing, then read together with
appropriate phrasing in whole class , small group and one-toone settings.
 Use games to identify, match and say high-frequency sight
words, e.g. Bingo, Memory, Snap, Tic Tac Toe, locating
games, dice.
 Highlight the function of high-frequency sight words in texts
using sentence construction and de-construction.
 Collaboratively create class texts which include highfrequency sight words and new vocabulary.
 Add new vocabulary and words of personal significance to a
Word Wall or personal dictionary.
 Play online word-sorting and spelling games with the highfrequency sight words and familiar words.
 Model ways to use words of personal significance in school
and other contexts.
2 | Future Directions - Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints
VR 1 viii
Suggested teaching and learning
Decode words using:
 semantic cues, including
sentences and visual
features, drawing on
prior knowledge of oral
and written language
 grammatical cues,
including word order,
language patterns and
punctuation
 phonic cues, including
blended and segmented
individual sounds in
words, sound–letter
relationships for initial,
medial (middle) and final
sounds and words
within words
 Decoding unfamiliar words in shared and guided viewing and
reading by explicitly talking about phonic, grammatical and
meaning cues, e.g. I can predict this word using the
beginning, middle and end sounds … the picture helps me to
decode this word … what word would make sense here?
 Demonstrate the use of semantic cues by:
– pausing when reading aloud to make and discuss
predictions
– explicitly talking about the links to prior knowledge,
e.g. I knew that word or those words because …
 Demonstrate the use of grammatical cues by:
– highlighting the relationships between words, language
patterns and how punctuation is used
– talking about particular words and language patterns used
in different texts, e.g. time-sequence words in recounts.
 Demonstrate the use of phonic cues by:
– modelling syllabification to break up simple words
– identifying initial, medial and final sounds and sound–letter
relationships to make meaning.
 Demonstrate using more than one cue to predict and confirm
words, e.g. I think the word is … I can tell because its
beginning sound is … and then I looked at the picture.
 Talk about punctuation and how it is used to organise words
and groups of words to help understand the text.
Writing and Creating
For further detail, refer to QSA teaching resources for writing at:
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/1443.html
Text knowledge
WC 1 ii
Suggested teaching and learning
Write and create modelled
texts to:
 describe, recount,
instruct and respond to
topic information
 express feelings and
ideas
 Model and collaboratively create texts including:
– descriptions, using noun groups, descriptive words and
learning area vocabulary
– recounts, using time-sequencing words
– instructions, by drawing attention to order and verbs
(actions).
 Respond to topic information by:
– creating concept webs, brainstorming and writing word lists
– creating a “picture” by drawing and discussing key
information.
 Talking about and highlighting words within texts that express
feelings and ideas.
Queensland Studies Authority June 2012 | 3
Grammar knowledge
WC 1 v
Suggested teaching and learning
Compose modelled texts
demonstrating:
 knowledge of familiar
structures and features
of texts, using mostly
spoken language
 editing for spelling,
sentence boundaries
and capital letters,
including for proper
nouns
 Make connections between spoken language and written
language in collaborative writing, e.g. We say it like this when
we are speaking, but when we are writing we have to …
 Demonstrate editing for spelling, sentence boundaries and
capital letters, including for proper nouns, by:
– punctuating and reading back familiar texts as a small or
whole group
– highlighting punctuation in familiar texts and discussing its
purpose
– developing editing checklists with visual cues.
WC 1 vi
Suggested teaching and learning
Write sentences, including
statements, questions and
commands, using correct
structure
 Model and write statements, questions and commands.
 Practise questions and statements in Who/What am I? games.
 Write commands to give instructions.
WC 1 viii
Suggested teaching and learning
Use conjunctions to join
simple sentences, e.g. and,
but
 Develop understanding that conjunctions link ideas in two
parts of a sentence by finding examples in texts.
 Collaboratively write simple sentences that model the correct
use of conjunctions.
 Provide a sentence beginning about a familiar topic and ask
the children to complete it using and then but. Discuss the
difference and how that meaning was represented.
WC 1 ix
Suggested teaching and learning
Use simple noun
groups/phrases, including
common and proper nouns
 Model and talk about how:
– nouns are used to name or label objects, people, places,
concepts and feelings. A noun answers the questions
“What?” or “Who?” There are:
• common nouns, e.g. cat, wombat, thought
• proper nouns, which are capitalised, e.g. Sally,
Brisbane, Queensland, Friday.
– a noun group can be a single noun or pronoun or can be
expanded to include adjectives or adjectival phrases before
or after the noun, e.g. front door knob, a long wailing note
from Brian’s violin.
 Collaboratively create a variety of texts and roleplay situations
that model the use of simple noun groups/ phrases including
common and proper nouns.
 Identify the use of simple noun groups/phrases, including
common and proper nouns in texts, and create similar texts.
4 | Future Directions - Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints
WC 1 x
Suggested teaching and learning
Select pronoun to refer to
the correct noun in a
sentence
 Talk about nouns and pronouns and how they are related:
– pronouns allow repeated reference to a concept without
repeating a noun
– pronouns connect all the ideas associated with a basic
noun.
 Provide visual stimuli, e.g. familiar people, objects and toys to
plan a text making explicit connections between pronouns and
nouns.
WC 1 xi
Suggested teaching and learning
Maintain a topic when
writing, e.g. by using
repeated topic vocabulary
 Discuss the function of words, how they are positioned in
sentences for a particular purpose.
 Identify ways writers repeat words to maintain the topic.
 Play word detective when reading texts and locate vocabulary
that maintains the topic.
WC 1 xii
Suggested teaching and learning
Use:
 capital letters, including
for proper nouns and full
stops
 approximations of
placement for question
and exclamation marks
 Develop understandings about punctuation:
– capitals:
• are required for proper nouns (Sally,
Brisbane); proper adjectives (a Chinese
restaurant); beginnings of sentences; titles
(The Courier-Mail)
• can also be used to give emphasis to the
writing — “NO!” he screamed
– end marks:
• a full stop, e.g. The crocodile chased the
boys.
• a question mark, e.g. How are you going to
get to the other side?
• an exclamation mark, e.g. This piece of
writing is GREAT!
 Collaboratively write and create texts that model the correct
structures and patterns of statements, questions and
commands, e.g. instructions use commands; investigations
use questions.
 Investigate familiar texts to locate the use of capital letters, full
stops, questions and exclamation marks and discuss the ways
symbols are used to represent statements and questions.
 Practise questions and statements in Who/What am I? games.
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Word knowledge
WC 1 xiii
Suggested teaching and learning
Spell:
 high-frequency sight
words and familiar
words correctly
 consonant–vowel–
consonant words
 words containing known
base words and word
endings
 Highlight high-frequency sight words within texts.
 Display high-frequency sight words, familiar words and topicspecific words on a clothesline around the room, adding new
words when encountered in viewing and reading.
 Write consonant–vowel–consonant words, including onset and
rime and changing initial and final sounds.
 Construct and deconstruct words containing known base
words and word endings using letter tiles, highlighters, cutting,
tracing and covering.
WC 1 xiv
Suggested teaching and learning
 Spell unfamiliar words
using:
 phonological knowledge
and sound–symbol
relationships
 short vowels and simple
long-vowel patterns by
listening for rhyming
patterns
 regular spelling
patterns, including
common vowel and
consonant digraphs and
consonant blends
 Use phonological knowledge and sound–symbol relationships
by:
– exploring syllabification to spell words, e.g. clapping,
covering up syllables
– making sounds associated with letters and groups of letters
when spelling and viewing the letter groups.
 Use short vowels and simple long-vowel patterns by:
– innovating on familiar rhymes
– listening for and identifying short vowels and simple longvowel patterns in rhyme when reading poems and
performing raps
– developing games and play resources for word building,
e.g. dominoes, flip books.
 common letter clusters
and morphemes in word
families
 analogies and
connections with known
words
 Use common vowel and consonant digraphs and consonant
blends by developing spelling wheels that create new words
every time you turn them.
 Use common letter clusters and morphemes in word families
by developing word searches, crossword and jumble-word
games.
 Use analogies and connections with known words by:
– writing shared texts and talking aloud about strategies,
e.g. I know how to spell “cake”. It sounds like “make”.
– sorting words into groups and explaining why.
6 | Future Directions - Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints
Numeracy
Calculating and estimating
CE 1 iii
Suggested teaching and learning
Order and position whole
numbers using 0, 50 and
100 as key reference points
 Position and order numbers in relation to other numbers,
e.g. the number before, after and next to key reference points.
 Practise counting from any number without starting the count
from one, e.g. routines and transitions, games.
 Start counting from each decade and make connections to the
patterns in the sequence, e.g. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 … or 51, 52,
53, 54, 55 …
CE 1 iv
Suggested teaching and learning
Identify and compare the
quantity of whole numbers
to at least 100, partitioning
using place value (groups
of 10)
 Explore a variety of ways to make standard groupings of 10,
e.g. organising groups of 10 for activities, manipulating
materials into groups of 10.
 Compare groupings of quantities using place value, e.g. 30 is
10 more than 20; 7 is less than 14 because double 7 makes
14; or 52 is more than 48 because 52 is made of 5 groups of
ten and 2 ones and 48 is only four groups of ten and 8 ones.
CE 1 vi
Suggested teaching and learning
Work out basic facts and
explain the mental
strategies and processes
used to combine, add, take
away and find the
difference in everyday
situations by:
 counting on
 counting back
 partitioning, including
place value, and
rearranging parts
 Develop subtraction problems involving (and using the
language of) comparison or difference using materials,
e.g. What is the difference between what I have in my
collection and what you have in yours?
 Develop a bank of basic facts and mental strategies for
addition and subtraction beginning with manipulation of
materials, moving to drawing and labelling pictures with
numbers, and then moving on to purely numerical
representations.
 Develop the ‘counting on’ and ‘counting back’ strategy.
 Manipulate materials and draw pictures that represent real-life
addition and subtraction problems exploring different ways to
break up numbers to make up to ten to assist the calculation.
 Draw attention to situations that might require either addition
or subtraction using stories, big books and class experiences.
 Investigate and partition whole numbers to 10, e.g. 4 is the
same as 3 + 1 and 2 + 2.
CE 1 vii
Suggested teaching and learning
Represent, solve and sort
problems and visual
images of problems
involving addition and
subtraction using singledigit whole numbers in
number expressions
represented as drawings or
actions, e.g. 2 jumps and 3
 Develop activities where children can investigate and
manipulate a collection, e.g. 4 objects in a collection, making it
2 + 2 or 3 + 1; adding “more” to collections and making
collections “less” by covering some parts of the collection.
 Use number lines to see that a number is less than the next or
one more than the last number identified.
 Develop understandings of cardinality, e.g. focusing on how
many in collections.
Queensland Studies Authority June 2012 | 7
claps makes 5 actions
 Develop games where children practise subitising,
e.g. dominoes, dice games.
 Explore ways of representing the same number in different
ways, e.g. using a five frame or a ten frame.
CE 1 x
Suggested teaching and learning
Describe and order
Australian coins according
to their value
 Make explicit links to the 100 board or number system and the
value of coins and dollars (coins and notes).
 Draw attention to the numbers on the coins and notes.
 Make explicit links to the number line and reference numbers,
e.g. more than 50c and less than $1.
Recognising and using patterns and relationships
PR 1 i
Suggested teaching and learning
Describe, create and
extend increasing or
decreasing patterns using
skip counting and describe
the rules used
 Develop function machine games with real-life contexts, to
show how a rule changes.
 Model making increasing and decreasing patterns and
identifying the rule using skip counting patterns.
 Explore different rules to create patterns that increase and or
decrease.
 Create increasing and decreasing patterns using numbers
based on skip counting patterns and explore the link to
beginning algebra.
 Identify the missing element in patterns.
Using fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and rates
FDPR i
Suggested teaching and learning
Identify and describe a half
as either of the two equal
parts of whole collections or
lengths
 Explore the equality of halves using questioning, e.g. Are
these the same/equal? This half has 5 and this half has 5. Are
they the same/equal?
 Develop language associated with naming halves, e.g. one
half, two halves, one whole.
 Build on the understanding of two equal parts by physically
halving materials and groups, e.g. playdough, fruit, groups of
children.
8 | Future Directions - Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints
Using spatial reasoning
SR 1 i
Suggested teaching and learning
Classify 3-D objects
(pyramids, prisms) using
geometric properties, e.g.
number of faces, vertices
(corners) and edges.
Classify 2-D shapes
embedded in everyday
environments using
geometric properties
 Encourage the correct use of the terms faces, edges and
corners when using a feely box to describe 3-D shapes that
children can feel but cannot see. Play I Spy, draw these
shapes or guess the shape.
 Provide materials to create shapes, e.g. four straws the same
length to make a cube, string loops, elastic loops, playdough,
geoboards, software programs.
 Play online shape games, including searching for matching
shapes and drawing with shapes (triangles and rectangles
including squares).
 Make prints using 3-D shapes and show how 2-D shapes are
representations of a face of a 3-D shape.
 Encourage children to identify shapes in different orientations
in the environment and in images of familiar environments and
construct these environments.
SR 1 ii
Suggested teaching and learning
Use positional language to
describe:
 the position of an object
in two different ways
 two different pathways
to get to a familiar
location using:
clockwise,
anticlockwise, forward,
under and turns
 Explore the environment with the children and take time to
observe objects and their position in relation to those objects.
 Think aloud when moving from one location to another to
practise directed language including right and left turn.
 Interpret directions the child gives by giving explanations of
the meaning, e.g. Turn right — that means I think about the
hand I write with and turn that way.
 Participate in games that employ oral directions, e.g. obstacle
courses, blindfolded games and barrier games. Reflect on the
effectiveness of their directions and use of spatial language.
 Program and direct robots, e.g. BeeBots to program and
direct.
Using measurement
M1i
Suggested teaching and learning
Measure and compare, with
or without technologies:
 lengths, using multiple
repeats of uniform
informal units and
attending to gaps and
overlaps
 capacities of pairs of
objects, using uniform
informal units
 Check when doing concrete manipulative activities that
children recognise the attribute they are comparing.
 Model and encourage children to use the correct
mathematical language to describe attributes when comparing
length and capacity.
 Provide opportunities to physically compare attributes to
reinforce the concepts of length and capacity.
 Match the everyday language that children use to the correct
mathematical language.
Queensland Studies Authority June 2012 | 9
M 1 iii
Suggested teaching and learning
Identify hour and half-hour
times
 Play games where children discuss and sequence events,
using the language of time (hour and half-hour times, days,
weeks and months).
 Talk about hour and half hour time in daily transitions and
routines, e.g. It’s 12 o’clock, so it’s time for …
 Use daily schedules to count duration in hours within the
morning or afternoon sessions and sequence personally
significant routines by hour and half hour times.
M 1 iv
Suggested teaching and learning
Describe durations using
months, weeks, days and
hours
 Use calendars to count durations in days weeks and months.
 Represent events of personal interest on calendars
(emphasising durations in days weeks and months and not by
dates) or create a personal diary for a short period of time
using hour and half hour time, e.g. one week.
10 | Future Directions - Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints
Queensland Studies Authority
154 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane
PO Box 307 Spring Hill
QLD 4004 Australia
T +61 7 3864 0299
F +61 7 3221 2553
www.qsa.qld.edu.au