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Task Summary
The student was asked to read a fiction text at their independent reading level. The fiction text was Dash the Meerkat by Beverley Randell.
Duration: 7 minutes 55 seconds
Dash the Meerkat transcript (docx - 50.55kb)
Level 2 English, Reading and Viewing achievement standard (extract only)
This fiction text example provides evidence of student achievement for:
... understand how similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features used to describe characters, settings and events ... They recognise all Standard Australian English phonemes, and most letter–sound matches. They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and images that provide additional information. They monitor meaning and self-correct using context, prior knowledge, punctuation, language and phonic knowledge. They identify literal and implied meaning ... Students make connections between texts by comparing content.
For more information, please see: Victorian Curriculum F–10: English - Level 2 - Reading and Viewing
Video segments with annotations against achievement standard extracts
Some text within annotations is taken directly from the book: Dash the Meerkat, Beverley Randell, Nelson Publishers, 2002
The student:
Provides a clear and detailed description of prior knowledge and elaborates on this when prompted.
Provides examples of predators when asked to further clarify the statements about meerkats.
Looks at the cover text and images to work out the topic of the book.
Duration: 1 minute 48 seconds
The student:
Self-corrects when words are omitted or mispronounced, for example ‘des...’ self-corrects to ‘dry desert’ and ‘soft little chirp’ self-corrects to ‘soft little chirps’.
Rereads the text with the corrections applied as part of the monitoring strategy.
Pauses slightly when faced with unknown words to decode while continuing to monitor comprehension.
Scans each page and considers if the images add or modify the meaning of the text.
The student:
Responds to both literal and inferential questions about the text.
Provides multiple responses to the inferential questions, for example when answering why Sandy ran after Dash, ‘Maybe she saw a predator or maybe she just wanted to look after him’ as either could be plausible within the context of the text, demonstrating full comprehension.
The student:
Self-corrects when stumbling over words and adjusts reading pace to ensure each word can be pronounced fully.
Attempts to apply expression to the text, demonstrating an understanding of contextual knowledge, for example ‘After that Dash stayed next to Sandy all the time’.
Duration: 1 minute 34 seconds
The student:
Begins to use finger tracking to follow text but stops after glancing at the teacher.
Pauses slightly at some words to ensure correct decoding of the word and with consideration of the meaning of the text.
Responds to the teacher’s evaluative comments about the story briefly but in agreement to indicate that the dramatic action had been understood.
Continues to self-correct and re-read when required, continues to monitor sentence accuracy and meaning.
Duration: 1 minute 4 seconds
The student:
Responds to inferential questions about the author’s intent.
Provides multiple responses to the inferential question about why the meerkats are away from danger for a while, listing threats encountered in the book such as eagles, jackals and scorpions.
Planning the next stage of student learning
When planning the next stage of the teaching and learning program to progress this student’s learning, focus on the following skills and knowledge:
- Understand how different types of texts vary in use of language choices, depending on their purpose, audience and context, including tense and types of sentences (VCELA246)
- Understand how to apply knowledge of letter–sound relationships, and blending and segmenting to read and use more complex words with less common consonant and vowel clusters (VCELA249)
- Recognise most high-frequency words, know how to use common prefixes and suffixes, and know some homophones and generalisations for adding a suffix to a base word (VCELA250)
- Draw connections between personal experiences and the worlds of texts, and share responses with others (VCELT251)
- Read an increasing range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts by combining phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge, using text processing strategies, including confirming, rereading and cross-checking (VCELY256)
- Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (VCELY257)
- Discuss texts in which characters, events and settings are portrayed in different ways, and speculate on the authors' reasons (VCELT274)