Like it or not, NAPLAN is rolling around for another year. It is a reality for over a million students in Australia every year.
An annual assessment, National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is for Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students in all schools of Australia. The test is based on the Australian Curriculum for schools adopted by all the states and territories. Students are assessed for numeracy, language conventions, reading, and writing. The numeracy part consists of the Mathematical area, whereas literacy tests are based on English learning sections.
NAPLAN’s writing element provides students a writing prompt to produce either a narrative or persuasive piece of writing within 40 minutes. Students may experience stress if they have insufficient writing practice or have little practice thinking and typing out the writing in the NAPLAN tests, which have gone online.
Here, let’s take a look at the difference between narrative and persuasive writing.
Narrative vs. Persuasive
What exactly are narrative and persuasive writing? How are they different?
Narrative writing is basically story writing, whereas persuasive essays are written to convince readers to take an action or to agree with the writer’s opinions.
Narrative genre is a piece of writing with a main character in a setting; a narrative piece must have a conflict and a resolution. A good narrative piece should be full of descriptions, with appropriate use of figurative language and some dialogue.
As for the persuasive genre, the essays are written with logic and reason to show how one idea is better than the other. A good persuasive piece requires students to write in a convincing way to supporta viewpoint or to do something which they believe in. The students need to understand the topic and write in favour of the opinion they advocate for.
Writing Process
As you can see, a difference in writing style is one of the main differences that sets these two genres apart. The elements of characters, setting, conflict and resolution form the basic foundation of a story. Your child should also explore writing in the first person if he/she usually writes in a third person. There are also various ways of starting a story, with a description of the setting or character or dialogue or even action. Reading fictional books will definitely help your child in writing a good, juicy narrative piece.
On the other hand, a persuasive essay starts with an attractive and thesis statement in the introduction. The argument always has to be either for or against the issue to make it debatable. The body of the essay needs to contain facts, statistics, examples, and quotes in support of the writer’s argument. Summary of significant details along with the belief of the student or call to action comes in the concluding paragraph.
NAPLAN Writing Test
For students participating in NAPLAN Online or paper, both will be tested on the same type of writing text. NAPLAN test includes the same writing prompt for Year 3 and Year 5 students, whereas a different writing prompt is set for Year 7 and 9.
As NAPLAN testing goes online, it will include randomised similar writing prompts to ensure the security of the test.
Past papers can be a really helpful resource that helps the students prepare for the NAPLAN test. The previous year’s question paper can familiarise children with the test structure of the tests and recognition of the style.
Moreover, practice tests for NAPLAN for students of all years can also help in boosting their confidence needed to crack the exam. Test Champs provides single and package practice assessments for writing along with numeracy, reading, language and abstract reasoning.
With proper practice, preparation, and familiarization, your child can excel in the NAPLAN Online test.