What is NAPLAN
Naplan stands for National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy and it is designed to assess if educational outcomes have been achieved by students across Australia at regular intervals, namely years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Students sit the Naplan assessments in May each year in reading, writing, conventions of language which includes spelling, grammar and punctuation. In addition, students complete a numeracy assessment. These are key skills that are considered important for everyday life such as writing, reading, the use of grammar and numeracy skills. The Naplan assessments aim to shed light on how well students have learned these essential skills. It is not, however, an assessment that measures a pass or fail but informs the school and parents about each participating student’s learning progress. It is actually considered a ‘point-in-time’ assessment where parents and teachers can see where each child is at compared to other students at the same stage across the state, as well as their peers.
Naplan is a useful tool but should not be considered the ‘be all and end all’ as it is just a snapshot of what a student can do at a given point in time. As with all assessments there are a number of factors that come into play on the day of assessment. Some students love assessments of this type, while others feel great anxiety when faced with hours and days of intense testing and their performance is negatively impacted as a result. There is also a bad night sleep, an argument at home before the test, not feeling well on the day, along with any other number of contributing events that can impact on performance. Teachers and parents, therefore, need to look at Naplan realistically as one piece of evidence to indicate a student’s capability.
From a parent’s perspective it is reassuring to know that Naplan is independent of the school system. Each section is written by teams of teachers and then marked by additional separate teams of teachers. Therefore, there is no chance for bias to be brought into the setting or marking of this assessment. As a result, it is considered an objective measurement tool in this regard. There is some impact on location and preparation for the Naplan assessments as some school’s put a great deal of emphasis and time into preparing students prior to the sitting week. Many parents also consult published Naplan tables to give them a gauge on the success or otherwise of a specific school. However, again this is a less than accurate way to judge a school’s performance as each community and cohort of students is different and it’s not useful for school’s to be compared in this way.
The data gained by students completing Naplan is used by government to drive policy, procedures, funding and support to ensure students are reaching educational benchmarks at key intervals in their education journey. As already mentioned the data gained is an indicator of achievement, so when trends arise, measures can be implemented at school and state level to address trends that show negative achievement. For example, a school that does not perform well in the writing section of Naplan, may invest time, in-servicing and resources into improving the writing of their students. This might become a goal listed in the school plan, to be assessed on an annual basis, to see if students as a whole have improved in this particular area.
In terms of the structure of the Naplan assessment, each year has a specific focus in the writing section. In the past years Naplan has assessed Narrative and Persuasive text. Most school’s choose a specific way of teaching these types of texts and it becomes a focus for the school. Such a method is the ‘Oreo’ method of teaching Persuasive writing. Oreo stands for ‘Opinion, Reasons, Explanations and Opinion. This gives students a set structure to stick to as they give each of their points, in their quest to persuade the reader of their point of view about a given topic. It’s an easy way to remember the structure as all children love Oreo biscuits. A school teaching persuasive writing would also go through words and phrases that introduce new thoughts, help to make a point, introduce details and conclude a point. Some of these might include;
I really feel that …
I’m sure…
Others must agree that…
It has to be time that…
Everyone knows that…
The fact is …..
In truth….
I agree with ….
I’m absolutely certain ….
In my opinion ….
Without a doubt …
The time has come ….
As they begin, students might be given a graphic organiser as a tool to get down their thoughts and opinions before they begin to write them in a cohesive piece of writing. Graphic organisers help students to brainstorm key information, visualise, formulate ideas, sequence thoughts and plan what to write. Students who use a set structure such as this will find writing persuasive texts much more achievable, particularly for reluctant writers.
Parent Involvement in preparing for NAPLAN
Parents can help their children prepare by posing a number of questions at the dinner table and asking them on the spot to come up with four reasons for or against the question posed. Questions could include;
What should the punishment for cheating be?
What age should children be allowed to have a mobile phone?
What's the most interesting subject at school?
Should homework be compulsory?
Does your school handle bullying well?
Are school uniforms a good idea for schools?
Should recess and lunch be longer at school?
This can be a great conversation starter at dinner time and encourages each family member to be involved in the discussion.
Once a range of opinions have been discussed, the parent could then ask the children to come up with a counter argument to their original opinion. You could do this in pairs and make it a game.
Parents can also use bedtime as a good time to think about narrative writing. Students will have covered the four main parts of a narrative at school including characters, plot with a complication to be resolved, dialogue, or the communication between characters; along with the literary techniques included that help to create emphasis and meaning. Again, parents can be creative and pick one of these four parts to discuss at the dinner table or at bedtime. Choose a funny made-up character and develop it through discussion. You might make up its’ name, where it lives, what it looks like, how and what it eats, who its’ family and friends are and so on. You might encourage your child to draw a picture of the character you have been developing. Then think of some great adjectives to describe each part of the character. Humour is always a great way to get children involved and interested. So, parents can get involved, but it doesn’t have to be all about pressure and sitting at a desk pushing a pen to paper. Cut out your child’s picture of the character you have come up with and surround it with all the detail about the character you have developed. Celebrate your character and then start building a story about them and something that happens to them, or a complication, and how it might be resolved. This is a really fun and creative way of getting your child into narrative writing, even if they are a reluctant writer.
In terms of preparation for language conventions, spelling and vocabulary, there is no substitute for regular reading. The more you read to a child and have them read to you the greater a child’s understanding of sentence structure and the greater their use and understanding of wide range of vocabulary. With a favourite book series, ask them to point out the nouns and verbs in a passage. Then ask them to locate any adjectives or adverbs in the same passage. Discuss alternatives that could be included or swapped out to create the same or different meaning. Ask lots of questions as you are reading age-appropriate texts to your child such as;
How many capital letters on in this page?
Why are the capital letters in those places?
Why is there a capital letter at the start of those words?
Point out the commas in the next paragraph
Why are they used?
What do we do when we see a comma or full stop when we are reading?
This kind of approach raises awareness of the language conventions and how they are used in the texts that your child enjoys reading.
Parents can also download sight word lists for a range of age groups. Identify which words your child does not know by sight and practice these. You could also choose words from a book they are reading that they are not familiar with and look these up on google. Discuss them, their meaning and then read them again in the text to get a greater understanding of context and meaning. This helps to build vocabulary skills and understanding which will assist in their preparation for Naplan.
The Numeracy sections of Naplan may have non-calculator and calculator sections depending on the age of the children being assessed. Downloading paper copies of past papers is invaluable practice as student’s see the type of questions they may be asked. Practicing how to break down wordy questions is crucial as this is a difficult area for many students. Ask the question, is this an addition question, a subtraction (or take away) question and so on to get them thinking about what the question is asking them to do. Practice writing out the calculation part of the question, this simplifies the question and gets to the grassroots of what the examiners are trying to find out what the student knows.
If a child is finding this section difficult there are numerous publications available with Naplan style numeracy questions. These can be purchased from bookshops, newsagencies and the supermarket. This might be a good investment for a child who feels anxious about dealing with these types of questions. The more practice they get the more confident they will feel at being able break down what is exactly being asked. If money is an issue, most local libraries will have similar resources that can be borrowed at no cost. These can usually be borrowed for up to 6 weeks. You can even do an interlibrary loan where they bring a requested resource from another library for you to borrow. This might incur a small fee, but it is still a lot cheaper than buying the resource yourself.
Central Coast Tutoring for NAPLAN
If you have exhausted your own ability to assist your child to prepare for Naplan, then seeking out an experienced Maths or English tutor may be a useful option for your child. When you engage a tutor from Central Coast Tutoring, you can specify exactly what you want the tutor to cover and for what length of time you engage them. As Naplan is run in May each year, you could engage a tutor for say 10 weeks prior to Naplan, covering the specific areas where your child lacks confidence and hone in on specific skills and practice in those areas only. Regular maths and English tutoring for an hour a week can see skill, understanding and confidence grow quickly. There is no better way to reduce anxiety about Naplan than going in feeling prepared and confident that you can attempt your best on each section. This also gives parent’s confidence knowing they have done everything possible to support their child to be able to demonstrate their best on the day.