Activity: NAPLAN language revision practice paper – Years 7 & 8

Quick summary: Students will develop and extend their vocabulary and understanding of the four main parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. This will allow them to engage more confidently in written and verbal discourse on sustainability in relation to hydroelectricity and water and energy resources. 

Activity developed in partnership with  

Hydro Tasmania has been at the forefront of clean energy innovation for one hundred years. It is Australia’s largest producer of clean energy – generating hydro and wind power – and the largest water manager. Hydro Tasmania has 55 major dams, operates 30 hydropower stations and has built some of Australia’s largest wind farms.

Hydro Tasmania also sells energy in the National Electricity Market through its retail business Momentum Energy, and sells its expertise internationally through its consulting business Entura. Visit the Hydro Tasmania website to learn how the business is working towards Australia’s clean energy future.

Learning goals: This lesson is designed to provide valuable practice for NAPLAN*, the national literacy test held in Years 7 and 9. It features reading and visual texts with comprehension and language questions that require students to find facts, interpret meaning and apply text-processing strategies. Students in Year 8 can use this activity as a preparatory resource.

General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.8.

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 7 English

• Investigate vocabulary typical of extended and more academic texts and the role of abstract nouns, classification, description and generalisation in building specialised knowledge through language (ACELA1537).
• Understand how to use spelling rules and word origins, for example Greek and Latin roots, base words, suffixes, prefixes, spelling patterns and generalisations to learn new words and how to spell them (ACELA1539).

Year 8 English

• Recognise that vocabulary choices contribute to the specificity, abstraction and style of texts (ACELA1547).
• Understand how to apply learned knowledge consistently in order to spell accurately and to learn new words including nominalisations (ACELA1549).
• Apply increasing knowledge of vocabulary, text structures and language features to understand the content of texts (ACELY1733).

Syllabus Outcomes: EN4-1A, EN4-3B. 

Topic: NAPLAN Preparation, Hydro Tasmania, Energy.

Time required: 60 mins.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – oversee activity.

Resources required: Copies of the Student Worksheet (one copy per student), dictionaries.

Digital technology opportunities: Digital sharing capabilities.

Homework and extension opportunities: Includes opportunities for homework and extension.

Keywords: NAPLAN preparation, renewable energy, energy resources, water, hydroelectricity, Hydro Tasmania.

* This lesson plan is not an officially endorsed publication of NAPLAN’s creators and administrators – the ACARA body – but is designed to provide practice for the Australian Curriculum’s compulsory NAPLAN testing scheme.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.