Whole Class School Journal Resource Year 4 – The Great Rat Catching Competition
NZ$8.50
Description
Empower your students’ learning with this comprehensive whole-class teaching reading comprehension resource based on The Great Rat Catching Competition from the Level 2 June 2024 School Journal. Ideal for enhancing structured literacy programs, this resource is built around the Science of Reading principles and promotes comprehension strategies, vocabulary enrichment, grammar, syntax, sentence structure, verbal reasoning, and content knowledge.
What’s Included:
- A 45-slide PowerPoint presentation designed for whole-class instruction.
- Printable support worksheets and graphic organisers to reinforce learning.
- Ready-to-use activities aligned with the New Zealand English Curriculum for Year 4.
How This Resource Works:
Designed for whole-class teaching, this resource makes lesson planning easy. Display the School Journal PDF on your projector or TV screen while students share printed copies in small groups. Use the slideshow in Presenter View to guide each session seamlessly.
The text is divided into three chunks for focused reading across three sessions, ensuring students fully engage with the vocabulary and content. Interactive discussion prompts encourage students to critically analyse and connect with the text.
On days four and five, students extend their learning with:
- GIST summarising activities to create concise 20-word summaries.
- A cause-and-effect graphic organiser to analyse text structure.
- Critical thinking questions that challenge deeper analysis and connections.
Key Features:
- Explicit vocabulary instruction with simple definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and examples.
- Comprehension activities that go beyond recall, fostering analysis and critical thinking.
- Literacy activities that link to key writing skills (sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, descriptive language)
- A GIST summarising activity that enhances retention and understanding.
- A cause-and-effect organiser for exploring text structure.
- Direct alignment with New Zealand’s English Curriculum objectives: comprehension monitoring, summarising, inference-making, and text structure analysis.
Benefits of This Resource:
- Encourages active engagement through reading, discussion, and critical thinking.
- Builds vocabulary and comprehension skills, supporting all learners, including those needing extra help.
- Strengthens connections between the text and students’ personal experiences or knowledge.
- Provides a clear structure for teachers while allowing flexibility for classroom needs.
Curriculum Alignment Highlights:
This resource supports teaching students to:
- Monitor comprehension by rereading, annotating, and visualising text.
- Summarise and conclude, identifying key ideas and supporting details.
- Make inferences by combining prior knowledge with information in the text.
- Analyse text structure using graphic organisers and language-focused discussions.
- Critically assess perspectives, identifying how the text conveys meaning through choices in layout, imagery, and language.
Tips for Using This Resource:
- Present the PowerPoint in slideshow mode for easy navigation.
- Pair the displayed text with printed copies for student reference.
- Use the three-session structure for initial readings and dedicate follow-up days for deeper exploration with included activities.
Why Choose This Resource?
Research highlights the importance of explicitly teaching comprehension skills to improve reading outcomes, especially for vocabulary development and making connections within texts. This resource is tailored to help students thrive, combining structured instruction with opportunities for independent thought and critical analysis.
Elevate your students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary skills—add this resource to your toolkit today!

