Friday, April 1, 2016

ACARA has provided this information about the 2016 May NAPLAN Tests.

 http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/australian-curriculum.html

NAPLAN 2016 aligned with the Australian Curriculum
This year, NAPLAN has been aligned to the Australian Curriculum: English and the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.
The best preparation for NAPLAN is to continue focusing on teaching the curriculum. The Australian Curriculum for English and mathematics has been implemented in all states and territories. It incorporates the essential learning described in the Statements of learning and provides a broader common curriculum for teaching and learning in English and mathematics for all Australian students.
While most items in the NAPLAN 2016 test will be similar to past tests, there will be some important but subtle differences in some tests.
Across the language conventions, numeracy and reading tests
Items in the tests will be based primarily on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year. As in previous NAPLAN tests, a small percentage of additional content from the year of testing and following year of testing will be included. This is to ensure the range of items in the test allows all students to demonstrate their capability.
The wording of the item descriptors (these describe the skills and knowledge tested in NAPLAN) that schools will receive with their students’ results in August 2016 will be directly linked to a content description in the Australian Curriculum: English and the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.
Language conventions test
In the NAPLAN language conventions test, the way information is presented to students will reflect how it is presented in the Australian Curriculum. This means there will be slightly more metalanguage included in items.
For example, in the past, when the NAPLAN test for Years 3 and 5 used words such as ‘noun’, ‘verb’ and ‘adjective’, there was an explanation of the word in brackets; that is, noun’ was followed by ‘naming word’. This year, the words ‘noun’, ‘verb’ and ‘adjective’ will appear in the NAPLAN test with no explaining words.
Numeracy test  
In the NAPLAN numeracy test, the proportion of items in the test from each sub-strand will match the proportion of the sub-stand content in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. As a result, there will be slightly fewer ‘space items’ (for example, features of 2D shapes and 3D objects) and more number, statistics and probability items than in past tests. The space items are now known as ‘geometry items’.
Reading
The NAPLAN reading tests will continue to focus on the reading content of the Australian Curriculum: English, with the range of text complexity similar to previous NAPLAN texts. The wording of the item descriptors that schools will receive with their students’ results in August 2016 will reflect the language of the Australian Curriculum, rather than that of the Statements of learning.
Writing
There will be no substantive changes to the NAPLAN writing test or the marking guides. As in past years, students will be asked to write a narrative or persuasive response to a writing prompt. 
There will be one writing prompt for Years 3 and 5, and one writing prompt for Years 7 and 9; the genre of the writing test will not be disclosed prior to the test. Students’ responses will be marked using the existing marking guides. 


The 2016 Kilbaha NAPLAN Trial Tests are aligned to the Australian Curriculum

http://kilbaha.com.au/order_forms/Kilbaha_NAPLAN.pdf