Ideas and tools for using in the English classroom
Software for learning
This enabling e-Learning section contains Snapshots of Learning; these snapshots are classroom examples demonstrating the effective integration of digital technologies in learning and teaching to raise student learning outcomes.
Noodle Tools
This site will guide you on how to conduct academic research on the Internet. Fill in the short form, and you will be provided with a research strategy. For every question, you can check any number of boxes (or none)
Online Newspapers
The online newspaper directory for the world, this site features thousands of international newspapers.
Tearaway Online
News, music, gaming, arts, videos, youth issues, sport, technology, travel, opportunities and mad giveaways... all created for NZ youth, by NZ youth.
12 Taonga
From the NZ Electronic Poetry Centre, biographies and a poetry reading from Julia Allen, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Lynda Chanwai-Earle, Riemke Ensing, Janet Frame, Rob Jackaman, Olivia Macassey, Jenny Powell-Chalmers, L E Scott, Bill Sewell, Apirana Taylor, and Richard von Sturmer. Levels 5–8
Daily life in Elizabethan England
This Encyclopedia.com entry includes information on food and drink, education, occupations, family structures, and more.
Teaching Shakespeare
From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this site has a bulletin board for teachers and a large archive of Shakespeare lesson plans, including introductions to Shakespeare, film lessons, interactive media lessons, and lessons on individual plays.
Writers in Schools
Organised by Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, this explains how to get writers to visit your school.
BBC Skillwise – Planning Your Writing
This site has a range of fact sheets on how to help students plan and organise their ideas for writing, including printable organisers. Students can also be a virtual traveller and listen to an audio and then choose a method to plan a travel diary.
ReadWriteThink
ReadWriteThink is an online resource that contains lessons, interactive activities, printables, and an app to help kids improve their reading and writing skills
Arts Online - Drama Resources
The Arts Online website provides a glossary, achievement objectives, resources, and a glossary for drama.
New Zealand Schools Debating
From the New Zealand Schools Debating Council, this site contains details and contacts for regional and national competitions, along with resources to support debating.
Arts Online - Drama Resources
The Arts Online website provides a glossary, achievement objectives, resources, and a glossary for drama.
Exploring Visual Language
A framework for exploring visual language in your classroom from the Exploring Language.
Audio Visual Archives
The audio visual section of Archives New Zealand. Here you are able to search through the core National Film Unit (NFU) collection as well as find out about preservation work and the history and life of the film unit.
Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision is the New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero. As well as archival footage, Ngā Taonga also houses Education resources.
NZ On Screen
A catalogue of New Zealand film, television and documentaries, some grouped thematically, along with biographies of some of New Zealand's screen talent.
The Fundamentals of Critical Reading and Effective Writing
This site shows how to recognise what a text says, what a text does, and what a text means by analysing choices of content, language, and structure. It shows what to look for and how to think about what you find.
New Zealand research relevant to the English classroom.
NMSSA English 2019: Writing for an audience (published June 2021)
This report is designed to support the teaching of English in primary and intermediate classrooms, focusing on writing for different purposes within the creating meaning strand of the English learning area. It draws on insights from the assessment of the English learning area by the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) in 2019.
NMSSA 2019 English: Multimodal texts and critical literacy (published June 2021)
This report is designed to support the teaching of English in primary and intermediate classrooms, focusing on critical literacy and working with multimodal texts within the making meaning strand of the English learning area. It draws on insights generated from the assessment of the English learning area by NMSSA in 2019.
PISA 2018: Reading in New Zealand – Reading achievement and experiences of 15-year-olds (December 2019)
This report summarises the PISA 2018 reading achievement story in NZ and explores major contributors to student success in reading literacy, such as students’ reading habits and reading strategies, instructional methods and opportunities students are given to develop as readers, as well as digital reading practices.
He Whakaaro: How can teachers and whānau effectively teach and support reading? (December 2019)
This report is mainly based on major meta-analyses that have been conducted on how to teach reading, as well as some literature reviews and individual studies.
Reading literacy instruction in English-language countries: similarities and differences (published August 2019)
Using data from PIRLS 2016, this paper presents a comparison of the instructional practices used by teachers in English-language countries and jurisdictions when teaching reading comprehension, drawing attention to the similarities and differences across them.
NCEA Observational Studies (published June 2019)
In 2018 the government initiated Education Conversation - Kōrero Mātauranga to examine the effectiveness of our education system. A review of NCEA was included in that programme. The Ministry partnered with ERO to carry out research on the use of NCEA as an assessment and qualification tool and how its use impacted five particular aspects: curriculum design, pedagogy, assessment strategies, resourcing, and student wellbeing.
Keeping children engaged and achieving in writing (published June 2019)
This report shares some of the strategies and approaches used by schools who had focused on improving achievement in writing. It also shares some simple strategies used in classrooms where achievement in writing had been accelerated.
PIRLS 2016: Schools and School Climate for Learning (published May 2019)
PIRLS is an international research study designed to measure trends in the reading literacy achievement of middle primary school students every five years. PIRLS 2016 was the fourth cycle and was implemented in late 2015 and early 2016.
Massey University Early Literacy Research Project (published February 2018)
The purpose of this longitudinal research project was to improve the literacy outcomes of new entrant children during, and beyond, their first year of school.
Keeping children engaged and achieving through rich curriculum inquiries (published 2018)
This Education Review Office (ERO) report is one of a series of reports on teaching strategies that work. We asked leaders in each school what they saw as the reasons for their school's positive achievement trajectory and then investigated the teaching strategies that had been implemented, and the outcomes. This report shares some of the strategies and approaches used by schools that had focused on improving achievement through rich curriculum inquiries. It also shares some of the simple strategies used in classrooms where the inquiries had positively contributed to raising achievement in literacy and/or mathematics.
Teaching strategies that work – Reading (published 2018)
This resource is the third in a series of reports derived from a national study of teaching approaches and strategies used in schools where there has been a significant increase in the number of students at or above the expected level in the upper primary school years (Years 5 to 8).
Understanding student attainment and progress (published 2018)
This paper describes why it is important for educators to understand and respond to both progress and achievement to enable children to maximise their potential. It summarises results from a new research dataset compiled by the Ministry of Education to illustrate the different insights that can be gained when looking at achievement relative to progress.
Achievement and progress in mathematics, reading and writing in primary schooling (published 2018)
Analysis of e-asTTle assessment data, 2011 to 2016. In order to support student learning it is important to continually improve our understanding of student achievement and progress. This project makes use of existing data to contribute to our current knowledge of student achievement and progress.
Updated on: 12 May 2022
