Learner Resource
School Name
Worongary State School
Subject
English
Topic
Close reading of an
extract/
Year
3
written imaginary text
Description
Sample pre-assessment task Unit 2, Year3
Task designed
Dallas Werder
Contact
Janelle Dickman 0467 777 965
by
Teaching Guiding Notes
10 lessons
Examination of characters
10 lessons
Comprehension of a narrative PART A -Pre-Assessment
5 lessons
Monitoring task PART B- Pre-Assessment
South East Region
Learner Resource template
V1 – Aug 2013
Learner Resource
Student Name
Class
Date
PART A
Read the extract from George’s Marvellous Medicine and answer the questions.
George sat himself down at the table in the kitchen. He was shaking a little. Oh, how he hated
Grandma! He really hated that horrid old witchy woman. And all of a sudden he had a tremendous
urge to do something about her. Something whooping. Something absolutely terrific. A real shocker.
A sort of explosion. He wanted to blow away the witchy smell that hung about her in the next room.
He may have been only eight years old but he was a brave little boy. He was ready to take this old
woman on.
'I'm not going to be frightened by her,' he said softly to himself. But he was frightened. And that's
why he wanted suddenly to explode her away.
Well…not quite away. But he did want to shake the old woman up a bit. Very well, then. What
should it be, this whooping terrific exploding shocker for Grandma?
He would have liked to put a firework banger under her chair but he didn't have one.
He would have liked to put a long green snake down the back of her dress but he didn't have a long
green snake.
He would have liked to put six big black rats in the room with her and lock the door but he didn't
have six black rats.
As George sat there pondering this interesting problem, his eye fell upon the bottle of Grandma's
brown medicine standing on the sideboard. Rotten stuff it seemed to be. Four times a day a large
spoonful of it shoveled into her mouth and it didn't do her the slightest bit of good. She was always
just as horrid after she'd had it as she'd been before. The whole point of medicine, surely, was to
make a person better. If it didn't do that, then it was quite useless.
1. Where in the kitchen did George sit down? ___________________________________________________
2. Why did George want to do “Something whooping. Something absolutely terrific” to his Grandma?
______________________________________________________________________________________
3. How did George know that Grandma’s medicine wasn’t working? _________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
4. Do you think it was okay that George wanted to “shake the old woman up a bit?” Why? ______________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
South East Region
Learner Resource template
V1 – Aug 2013
Learner Resource
5. Using language found in the text, describe George’s Grandma. ____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
6. Highlight any noun groups in the text blue and any verb groups in the text red.
7. Through language features and vocabulary choices, how did the author make you feel about George’s
Grandma? ____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
8. Identify verbs from the text
Doing verbs
Thinking and feeling
verbs
Saying verbs
Relating verbs
9. Reread the first paragraph. Explain how the author used short sentences such as “A real shocker” and “A
sort of explosion”, nouns groups such as “brave little boy” and verbs such as “blow away” to create an
understanding of George’s character.
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Your Turn
Now
South East Region
Can you write your own
short imaginary story?
What amazing
characters can you create?
What setting will you
choose?
Learner Resource template
V1 – Aug 2013
Learner Resource
Year 3 English Unit 2 Investigating characters-Monitoring checklist
Student name: _______________________________________________
Imaginative narrative
Receptive mode
Competent
Satisfactory
Emerging
Not evident
Aspects of English Year 3 Achievement
standard (and related concepts)
Comments
Understands how language features, and
vocabulary choices are used for different
effects
(Grammatical function — Verbs
representing processes: doing, thinking,
saying, relating)
(Grammatical function — Verb tense
indicating time)
(Use of vocabulary — Extended and
technical vocabulary)
Understands how language can be used
to express feelings and opinions on topics
(Evaluative language — Graduation)
Productive mode
Includes writing to express and develop in
some detail experiences, events,
information , ideas and characters
(Creating literary texts — Imaginative
texts based on characters, setting and
events from students’ own and other
cultures)
(Text structures and language features
that create texts — Planning, drafting and
publishing texts)
Demonstrates understanding of grammar
and chooses vocabulary and punctuation
appropriate to the purposes and context
of their writing
(Editing texts — Grammatical choices)
South East Region
Learner Resource template
V1 – Aug 2013