Chapter Graphic
 : Trend Task: Wallabies in New Zealand
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Approach: Independent Level: 4 & 8 
Focus:   Comprehension 
Resources: Story in recording book; red pencil
668kb

Questions/instructions:
In this activity everyone works on their own, and does their best without getting help from others.

I’m going to give each of you a story about wallabies.

The instructions in your answer book tell you what to do with the story about wallabies. When you have finished, check your work then bring it to me.

DO NOT help students with reading the instructions.

Note that there is no time limit on this task.

Wallabies were introduced to New Zealand over a hundred years ago. Like deer, rabbits, and possums, they are a threat to farming and native forest because they eat young
plants.
A newborn wallaby (called a joey) is very tiny and weighs less than a gram. When a joey is born, it finds its way through its mother’s fur to her pouch. It stays in her pouch, drinking milk from her nipple, for about eight months.
Anyone who finds a joey needs to get a permit from the Department of Conservation before deciding to keep it as a pet. Wallabies cannot be released back into the wild, but they can be kept in zoos and wildlife parks.

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% responses
2004 ('00)
y4
y8
1. Put a ring around the name of a newborn wallaby.
Ring around:
“a joey”
73 (75)
88 (95)
2. Put a dotted line under the time a joey stays in its mother’s pouch.
Dotted line under:
“about 8 months”
6 (13)
19 (16)
 
“8 months”
40 (40)
46 (55)
3. Put ticks above the places where wallabies can be kept.
Tick above:
“zoos”
61 (75)
80 (82)
 
“wildlife parks”
57 (61)
79 (82)
“pouch”
14 (13)
16 (13)
no tick above anything else
72 (73)
83 (82)
4. Put crosses X above all the threats to farming and native forests.
 
Cross above: “deer”
30 (24)
44 (47)
“rabbits”
31 (25)
45 (49)
“possums”
31 (26)
45 (50)
“wallabies” (also “wallaby”, “joey”)
4 (3)
8 (20)
no cross above anything else
50 (54)
51 (52)
5. A wallaby is not a New Zealand native animal. Underline where it tells you this.
first sentence, or at least word “introduced”, underlined
39 (40)
69 (64)
 
Total score:          10–13
1 (1)
4 (7)
8–9
14 (15)
30 (30)
6–7
23 (22)
32 (34)
4–5
32 (29)
22 (20)
2–3
19 (26)
9 (8)
0–1
11 (7)
3 (1)
Commentary:
About 20 percent more year 8 than year 4 students demonstrated a high level of comprehension (total score of eight or more) through their responses to the instructions. There was no meaningful change in performance, for year 4 or year 8 students, between 2000 and 2004.
 
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