Anzac Day Whole Class School Journal Resource Year 7-8 – Underground Soldiers
Description
Enhance Your Students’ Reading Comprehension with Science of Reading Principles. Develop your students’ reading comprehension with this comprehensive resource, focused on the article Underground Soldiers from the Level 4 June 2014 School Journal. Great as an addition to your structured literacy program and for an integrated study of Anzac Day.
This teaching tool engages students in deep comprehension strategies, vocabulary building, grammar, syntax, sentence structure, verbal reasoning, and content knowledge—key elements of the Science of Reading approach.
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“Underground Soldier” reveals the extraordinary bravery and skill of New Zealand tunnellers in World War I. Facing constant danger from explosions, gas, and the enemy, they carved a hidden city beneath Arras, enabling a crucial Allied offensive. This article highlights their vital, often overlooked contribution to the war effort.
How It Works:
This resource is designed for whole-class teaching. You receive a slideshow with 88 slides, additional support worksheets, and graphic organisers.
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Simply display the School Journal PDF on your projector or TV screen and distribute copies of the text between 2-3 students. With the slides in Presenter View, you’ll have everything you need for a successful lesson—just click and go!
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The resource divides the text into three manageable chunks to be read over two sessions, allowing plenty of time to dive deep into the vocabulary and content of the article.
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Along with the text, we’ve included a set of discussion prompts to get your students talking and thinking critically about what they’re reading.
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On days four and five, explore the text further with:
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A GIST summarising activity
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A text structure analysis graphic organiser (sequence text structure)
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Critical thinking questions to encourage deeper connections and inferences.
Key Features:
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Focus on monitoring comprehension, summarising, drawing conclusions, and using evidence.
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Comprehension activities that require students to do more than recall specific information.
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Literacy activities that link to key writing skills
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complex sentences
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sentence expanding using because, but, so
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commas rules
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figurative language
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morphology -ment suffixÂ
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A GIST summarising activity, helping students condense the text into a 20-word summary, improving both their understanding and memory.
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A sequence text structure graphic organiser to analyse the structure of this text.
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Explicit vocabulary instruction with definitions, examples, and semantic activities such as synonyms and antonyms.
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Critical thinking questions to dig deeper and encourage discussion.
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Activities that focus on comprehension, summarising, and using evidence to make inferences.
Benefits of This Resource:
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Promotes active learning and student engagement with a combination of reading, discussion, and critical thinking activities.
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Designed to build vocabulary and improve comprehension strategies, making it ideal for a wide range of learners, including lower-level readers.
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Helps students connect the text and their own experiences, deepening their understanding of the material.
This resource supports teaching students how to:
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Monitor and confirm comprehension by annotating, rereading, asking, answering questions, and visualising.
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Summarise and draw conclusions, identifying key details supporting the text’s main message.
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Make inferences using stated and implied ideas, drawing from prior knowledge.
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Analyse text structure and the language used for effect with a text
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Think critically about a text by analysing perspectives and making connections.
Tips for Use:
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Use the PowerPoint in presentation mode for easy, seamless delivery.
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Display the text on the screen and give students a copy to read together in pairs or small groups.
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Follow the suggested activities over three sessions, with additional follow-up activities on days four and five to extend learning.
Why Choose This Resource?
Research shows that explicitly teaching comprehension skills significantly boosts students’ reading ability, especially regarding vocabulary and making connections between ideas. This resource provides a structured yet flexible approach to help students grow in these areas.
Perfect for educators looking to improve their students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary skills while aligning with curriculum objectives!
