Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

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Example of Yes/No exercise.
Read the information on page 7 and then read the sentences.
If the sentences are correct write ‘Yes’. If the sentences are not correct write ‘No’.
1. There are five seasons in a year. No_
2. There are three months in each season. Yes_
3. The months of autumn are July, August and September. _____
4. November, December and January are the months of spring. _____
5. The months of spring are February, March and April. _____
6. December 21 st , which is the shortest day of the year, is in winter. _____
7. June 21 st , which is the longest day of the year, is in autumn. _____
8. Christmas Day is in winter.
9. My favourite season is _________.
_____
Example of exercise requiring pupils to tick the correct answer.
Read the information on page 7 and then read the sentences.
Tick (✓) the correct sentence
1. There are four seasons in a year.
There are five seasons in a year.
2. There are three months in each season.
There are two months in each season.
3. The months of autumn are August, September and October.
The months of autumn are July, August and September.
Example of gap fill exercise.
Read the information on page 7 and complete these sentences.
1. There are ________________ seasons in a year.
2. There are ________________ months in each season.
3. The months of autumn are ________________ ________________ ________________.
4. November, December and January are the months of ________________.
5. The months of spring are ________________ ________________ ________________.
6. December 21 st is the shortest day of the year. It is in ________________.
7. June 21 st is the longest day of the year. It is in ________________.
8. Christmas Day is in ________________.
9. My favourite season is ________________.
Notes
Using such tasks allows pupils to see that they have successfully understood the reading text.
This is not to suggest that all reading exercises in the language support classroom should be based on
the above examples. Pupils at a higher level of proficiency need more challenging exercises, such as
open-ended questions. The key is to grade the task so that the level of difficulty is appropriate to the
pupils’ learning needs. In this way the same text can be used with a range of (graded) exercises suitable
for groups at different levels of proficiency.