Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Year 3-4 curriculum include:

• identifying and using common structures in texts; for example, headings and paragraphs
• understanding that word choice is shaped by the purpose of a text; for example, choosing words to capture attention
• understanding that a writer’s point of view influences how they present information.

It’s easy to help your child practise these skills as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Discuss

Your child will be learning about different styles of writing, including news reports. You can help them by talking together about news articles from newspapers, magazines, television and online sources. Good questions to discuss include:

• how does the headline catch your attention?
• what is the article about?
• does the headline match the article?
• is it a news article or an opinion piece?
• what are the key facts?
• are there different sources and points of view?
• is the article balanced?
• how does the article compare to reports in other sources?

When there is an ongoing issue, or a major event that unfolds over several days, you can also talk about:

• has the reporting changed over time?
• have any of the facts changed?
• if so, why?

Go online

For online reinforcement, Point of view: newspaper report will give your child practice at:

• analysing the different parts of a newspaper article
• identifying different points of view.

^{_{[3-4Learning]}}