Legend of the Kiwi
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Approach:  Station
ACCESS
Level: Year 4 and year 8
Focus: Comprehending literal meaning; making use of word level strategies  
Resources:
Text in work book
FRAME 388Kb
Questions/instructions:  


Write one word from the boxes in each space, so that the story makes good sense. Use words from the boxes only once.

cheerful
harsh
walked
useless
night
insects
bright
forest
disapproval
floor
brown
fly





Legend of the Kiwi

Täne, the God of the _________________ taught the birds to sing so that the forest would be filled with ________________ song. In those days the kiwi could sing and __________________ but he liked to feast on all the worms and _________________ and soon grew too fat and lazy to fly with the other birds. He grew so heavy his wings were __________________ and his joyful song changed to a ________________call. The kiwi felt the growing ____________________ of the other birds. Soon he was spending all his time on the forest ____________________, eating and sleeping. Time passed. The kiwi became a bird of the ______________, hiding in the dark places where the other birds could not see him. To this day, the kiwi lives in the dark and sleeps during the __________________ light of day.


 
% responses
2008 ('04)
y4
y8
Space 1:
forest
75 (77)
94 (94)
Space 2:
cheerful
62 (63)
92 (92)
Space 3:
fly
66 (71)
93 (91)
Space 4:
insects
73 (80)
94 (94)
Space 5:
useless
48 (53)
84 (86)
Space 6:
harsh
44 (45)
82 (79)
Space 7:
disapproval
28 (32)
80 (76)
Space 8:
floor
49 (69)
89 (87)
Space 9:
night
42 (49)
81 (84)
Space 10:
bright
55 (60)
89 (89)

Total score:
10
12 (18)
63 (59)
8–9
19 (17)
17 (20)
6–7
19 (25)
12 (13)
4–5
22 (16)
3 (4)
0–3
28 (24)
5 (4)
Subgroup Analysis [Click on charts to enlarge] :
Year 4


Year 8


Commentary:
This reading task, using a cloze procedure, had particularly large performance differences between year 4 and year 8 students. Looking at all of the words available and making an appropriate choice seems to have been hard for many year 4 students. The similar performance of Pakeha and Mäori year 8 students is noteworthy.