NAPLAN Year 3 Teaching Resources

Getting ready for NAPLAN Year 3? Curriculum-aligned resources are at your fingertips to help students get ready for NAPLAN testing, including editing practice, narrative and persuasive PowerPoints, NAPLAN assessment rubrics for persuasive writing and narrative writing, and more.

Students will be facing these tests in March this year, and we understand that creates even more need to save your lesson planning time so you can work directly with your students.

Is this your first year encountering NAPLAN in Year 3? Read on for a guide from our teacher team.

What's On the NAPLAN Year 3 Test?

Of course, the specific content of the NAPLAN Year 3 test is not publicly disclosed by the Australian government, and it varies from year to year. After all, it is intended to be a standardised test that is fair to all students.

However, the test typically includes a range of questions designed to assess a student's reading, writing, language convention knowledge (such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation), and numeracy skills.

For example, the Year 3 NAPLAN test includes reading comprehension questions that assess a student's ability to understand and interpret texts, as well as writing tasks that require students to use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Numeracy questions on the Year 3 test may cover topics such as number sense, measurement, geometry, and data handling.

NAPLAN Preparation for Year 3 — Tips for Teachers

That's a lot to cover, so how do you possibly prepare your students for testing?

We do not advocate focusing solely on testing in the classroom — the goal of any primary teacher is to create a supportive and engaging learning environment for their students throughout the year. But NAPLAN is a national requirement, so we would like to offer a few tips to ensure your students feel like they're ready for testing week and for you to go into the week feeling confident that you've done your best for your class.

1. Get to know the format and content of the test: If this is your first year teaching Year 3, it is helpful to make yourself familiar with the format and content of the NAPLAN test. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) provides detailed information about the test on its website, and you can look at practice tests to get a sense of what tests have looked like in past years.
2. Incorporate NAPLAN-style questions into classroom activities: Help your students become familiar with the types of questions they will encounter on the NAPLAN test by incorporating NAPLAN-style questions into the every day. While this should not be the primary method of teaching, sprinkling these in will help to build the students' confidence and familiarity with the test format.
3. Work on test-taking skills: Students need to develop good test-taking skills, such as time management, careful reading, and checking their work — this is not just for NAPLAN, but for any test! This can be done through specific teaching of test-taking strategies.
4. Identify areas for improvement: Are your students taking practice tests? You can review the results to identify areas where individual students or the whole class may need additional support or instruction (as well as using your regular classroom assessments). This can help you target your teaching and ensure that students are well-prepared for the test.
5. Communicate with parents: Keeping open lines of communication with parents is always crucial, and this time of year is no different. Let parents know the NAPLAN test schedule and share guidance on how they can support their child's learning. This can include providing study materials, practice tests, and tips for test-taking success.