Level 2
Part 1 No 2 2011
Rugby World Cup
Never Give Up!
by Sue Gibbison
Pt 1 No 2 2011 Reading level: Year 4
What’s the secret of success? This is a recount of a
team learning to play rugby. The article explains how a
range of skills are learned and practised for
improvement.
Reading level Yr 4
Health and Physical Education Goals
Learn why we need to know and practise
skills and qualities in a sport and how
these are linked together when playing a
sport.
Identify risks and use safe practices when
playing sport.
Literacy Goal
To make connections between the text and prior
knowledge in order to interpret what is happening in
the text.
To identify and summarise the main ideas using
knowledge of the text structure.
To make a judgment about why information is
important for sports’ players.
Specialised vocabulary
passing and catching skills, tackling practice, warm-ups,
Interest vocabulary
calves, complicated, concentrate, cool down, diagonally, drill, hamstrings, injured, muscles,
stretches, thighs.
Task purpose.
To find out what is involved in practising for a sport and investigating why each part of the practice is
useful.
Task
Resources
http://www.smallblacks.com/skills/rugbyWhy do people practice sport?
Think about the sport you play: What are some things that 101/
This short video clip is for students who are
you do to practice your sport skills?
unfamiliar with how rugby is played.
The title of this article is “Never Give Up!” what do you
think this means? Jot down your ideas to revisit again
when you have read the article.
1.Preview the text
This article describes what happens during a rugby
practice.
 Look at the pictures and the red-coloured words.
Use these to make a prediction about what
happens during a practice. Jot down your ideas.
 Discuss these with a partner.
2. Confirm your predictions by reading the article, “Never
Give Up!”
The first step has been done for you
Rugby practice
sequence
Caption: The practice starts with warm
up time. We do this so that our muscles
are warmed up and our minds are ready
for the practice.


As you read check whether your predictions were
right
Were there some things that you have added or
needed to change in your notes?
3. Create a flow chart of the skills and activities
undertaken at this rugby practice.
 Photocopy the illustrations and sequence them in
the order of the practice.
 Use the language in the text to help you with the
sequence
when, now it’s time, once the team has that
sorted….

Write captions underneath describing what is
happening and why it is important to follow the
sequence of activities? E.g. Warm-up then
stretching? You could use the flow chart provided.
See Fig 1 for more detail.
 Before we started reading we predicted what the
title of the article “Never Give Up!” meant. Add
any further ideas you have had as a result of
reading this article. Compare these with a
partner’s ideas.
4
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Show three things you have learned from these
readings about improving a skill or quality and
how you stay safe when playing rugby.
Plan and create a comic strip (using stick figures
as rugby players).
Think about the new things you have learned that
are important to building skills in rugby.
Also think about the character attributes you need
to grow to be an effective team member.
Choose three and plan how you will illustrate
these in a comic strip format.
Use speech bubbles or thought bubbles to convey
what you have learnt.
Add a title and include a caption underneath to
ensure the reader is clear about you learnt.
How effective was I in achieving my literacy goal?
http://www.rugbyhow.com/rugby-coreskills.html
This site provides additional information
on skills and character attributes needed
to play rugby. It also discusses the
connections with other sports’ skills.
http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-doathletes-stretch-before-they-work-out/
Reference that explains why we stretch
after a warm up.
Was I able to locate information to
achieve the task purpose?
What did I do well?
Was I able to take notes that helped
me achieve the task purpose?
What do I still need to work on?
Did I use the language in the text to
help me sequence the information?
How effective was I in achieving my health goal?
What did I do well?
What do I still need to work on?
Was I able to identify ways to improve
rugby skills or a character attribute to
be an effective team member?
Could I identify ways of keeping myself
safe in rugby?
Fig 1
What happened in the rugby
practice
Warm up
Why these activities are
included in the practice
to get the blood pumping and
muscles warmed up. Cold
muscles are more likely to
become injured.
An example of what this might look like
What happened in the rugby
practice
Warm up
Stretches
Ball skills
passing and catching
Why these activities in the
practice
To get the blood pumping and
muscles warmed up. Cold
muscles are more likely to
become injured.
Once the muscles are warmed
then they are stretched to help
with flexibility and movement.
Ball players need to build a
number of skills such as
Tackling practice
Six a side game
Cool down stretches
Player of the day
watching the ball, to think and
run at the same time, to pass
and catch.
The team need to know how to
tackle safely
To be able to link all skills and
activities learned together.
To let the body return to its
resting state.
Recognise the players who are
really trying