Selective reading practice: a four-week plan across four kinds of text

Quick Answer

Plan three short reading sessions a week and rotate through fiction, poetry, argument and paired extracts, so no kind of text is left until the final month. This planner from Braintree Coaching Australia gives you a four-week grid of twelve sessions, a filled example for a fictional Year 5 child, a rule for rebalancing after week two and a blank copy to print. The weekly time is Braintree's suggestion, not an official figure.

Which kinds of text should my child read?

The NSW Department of Education lists the texts in the Selective Reading test as non-fiction, fiction, poetry, magazine articles and reports. It does not publish how many texts of each kind a sitting has, and no reading list can predict which passages will appear.

For planning, this page groups reading into four kinds. The grouping is Braintree Coaching Australia's teaching structure. It is not the Department's list.

Kind of text	What it covers	Why it gets its own sessions
Fiction	Short stories and extracts from novels	Children read it readily, so it is easy to over-practise and leave the others behind
Poetry	Poems of any length, rhymed or not	Often avoided, and a short poem asks for slow reading that a story does not
Argument	Opinion pieces, letters, persuasive or discussion articles	The reader has to separate the writer's claim from the evidence offered for it
Paired extracts	Two short texts on one subject, read together	The questions ask what the texts share or how they differ

Magazine articles and reports from the Department's list fit under argument or paired extracts, depending on whether the text is pushing a view or just giving information. Do not worry about getting the label exactly right. The aim is variety.

Is poetry really needed? The Department names it, so it earns a place. It does not need a big one. In this plan poetry gets three of the twelve sessions, the same as every other kind.

How much reading practice is enough each week?

This planner uses three sessions of about 20 minutes, roughly one hour a week. That time is Braintree Coaching Australia's guidance for families who want steady practice before the test. It is not a Department figure, and the Department sets no recommended number of hours.

Some context for what children are practising toward. The Department's table for the Selective Reading test shows 17 questions in 45 minutes, multiple-choice. Three of the 17 have several parts. A 20-minute session is shorter than a sitting on purpose. It is long enough for one text and a handful of questions.

Sit a full-length reading practice test only occasionally, and keep it for one sitting. For the rest, short and regular beats long and rare.

The four-week planner

Each session has a text type, a place to find a suitable text, one question habit to practise, and a solved activity to work through with your child.

Finding texts without copying a test: use your school or public library, a children's magazine, a newspaper's opinion page, or the Department's own Selective practice tests. Write down the title so the same text is not used twice.

Solved activities: each activity is a worked example on this site that shows how a skill is applied, with the reasoning written out. Where an activity is marked "coming", it is not published yet. A linked activity is live. Practise the habit on any text of that type in the meantime.

Week 1

Session	Text type	Where to find it	One question habit	Solved activity
1	Fiction	A short story from the school or public library	Ask who is telling the story, and how you know	Two narrators: coming
2	Poetry	A short poem of 8 to 16 lines from a library anthology	Say what the poem is about in one plain sentence before answering anything	Extended metaphor
3	Argument	A letter or opinion piece from a newspaper's children's or opinion page	Underline the writer's claim, then the evidence	Tone shifts: coming

Week 2

Session	Text type	Where to find it	One question habit	Solved activity
4	Paired extracts	Two short articles on one subject from a children's magazine, or the Department's practice test	Write one thing the texts share and one way they differ	Linked extracts and a common theme: coming
5	Fiction	An extract from a novel your child has not read	Find one line where a character says one thing and means another	Implied meaning in dialogue: coming
6	Poetry	A poem in a different style from week 1, rhymed or unrhymed	Circle one image and write what it stands for	Extended metaphor

Week 3

Session	Text type	Where to find it	One question habit	Solved activity
7	Argument	A discussion or persuasive article from a magazine	Ask what the writer wants the reader to do or think by the end	Tone shifts: coming
8	Paired extracts	A story extract and a factual piece on the same subject	Check each answer against a line in both texts, not just the first	Linked extracts and a common theme: coming
9	Fiction	A short story with a change of mood or place	Mark where the mood changes and name the words that show it	Two narrators: coming

Week 4

Session	Text type	Where to find it	One question habit	Solved activity
10	Poetry	A poem from the Department's practice test, or a new library poem	Read it aloud, then answer from the words on the page, not from a feeling	Extended metaphor
11	Argument	A report or opinion article of about a page	Say which sentence is fact and which is opinion	Tone shifts: coming
12	Paired extracts	Two texts from the Department's practice test or the library	Answer in your own words first, then look at the options	Linked extracts and a common theme: coming

What does a filled planner look like?

This example is made up. "Mia" is not a real child, and the notes below are not real results.

Mia is in Year 5. She reads fiction readily and avoids poetry: she skips poems in the anthology and says they are "boring". Her parent used the planner above.

Week	Session	Text type	What Mia read	Habit	Result
1	1	Fiction	A story from the library	Who tells the story	Easy. Got all but one
1	2	Poetry	A 12-line poem about the sea	One plain sentence	Wrote "it's about water". Missed 3 of 4
1	3	Argument	A letter about school canteens	Claim, then evidence	Mixed. Mixed up claim and example
2	4	Paired extracts	Two articles on bees	Share and differ	Got the share, not the differ
2	5	Fiction	Novel extract	Say one thing, mean another	Easy again
2	6	Poetry	A poem about a storm	Circle one image	Gave up after two lines

The week-two adjustment: after session 6, Mia's parent counted the wrong answers by type. Poetry had the most errors, fiction the fewest. The parent moved one session, the week 3 fiction session, to poetry, and made the poetry sessions shorter: one poem of 8 lines, about 15 minutes, read aloud together before any question.

Week	Session	Original plan	Mia's adjusted plan
3	9	Fiction	Poetry: an 8-line poem, read aloud first
4	10	Poetry	Poetry: a 12-line poem, answered alone

Mia kept every other session as planned, so she still read fiction and argument. Poetry came earlier and in smaller pieces, and the plan gave her a second chance at it in week 3 instead of waiting for week 4.

What is the rebalancing rule?

After week two, count wrong or guessed answers for each kind of text across sessions 1 to 6. Then:

1. Find the type with the most errors.
2. Move one session from the type with the fewest errors to that type.
3. Keep every other session as it was.
4. If two types tie, pick the one your child likes less.

Use a different text each time, not the same one a second time. A child who gets a repeated passage right a week later may simply remember the answers.

Do not change more than one session. A plan that is rewritten every few days stops being a plan. For sorting why an answer went wrong, the mock review planner has reason codes you can use here as well.

What if my child avoids one kind of text?

Avoidance usually means the child expects to get it wrong, not that they dislike it. Three things help:

• Make the first session small. One short poem or one short article, 10 to 15 minutes, with no questions. Read it aloud together.
• Pair it with a type they like. A poem about a character from a story they enjoyed is an easier way in than a poem on its own.
• Do not skip it. Moving an avoided type later in the plan only means it arrives in the final month, which is the outcome this planner is trying to prevent.

If one type stays hard after four weeks, that is useful information about what to practise next, not a sign the plan has failed.

What should we do after week four?

• Fill in a new planner using the same grid, with new texts, starting from the type that was weakest at the end of week four.
• Sit one full Reading practice test in one 45-minute sitting, and review it with the mock review planner.
• Read how the Reading section is structured in the NSW Selective test format guide, and see where this fits among other materials in the Selective practice resources.
• For common patterns across Selective mocks, read common practice errors in selective exam mocks. The free mock tests are another starting point and need a free classroom account.
• If you are choosing a course, the exam and year selector lists options by exam and entry year, with the test count, access period and price shown for each.

Blank four-week planner

Print this page, or copy the grid onto paper. It is set out to fit one landscape page. Write the text title in the fourth column so the same text is not used twice.

Week	Session	Text type	Title and where found	Question habit	Wrong or guessed (count)
1	1
1	2
1	3
2	4
2	5
2	6
3	7
3	8
3	9
4	10
4	11
4	12

After week two, the type with the most errors is: ______________________

The session I moved, and from which type: ______________________

Sources and review

About the facts: the list of text types (non-fiction, fiction, poetry, magazine articles and reports) and the Reading test's 17 questions in 45 minutes come from the NSW Department of Education's Selective High School Placement Test practice tests page. The Department does not publish how many texts of each kind a sitting has.

About the method: the four-way grouping of texts, the three sessions a week, the 20-minute length and the rebalancing rule are Braintree Coaching Australia's own planning guidance. They are not official figures, and nothing here predicts a test result or placement.

About the example: "Mia", her sessions and her notes are fictional and written for this page.

Author: James Rush, content writer, Braintree Coaching Australia.

Review status: a named teacher review has not yet been recorded for this planner. If something is unclear, please tell us.

Last updated: 2026-10-15.