32403 Demonstrate Understanding of Ideas and Information in Written Texts Assessment 2026 | NZQA

32403 Assessment 2026

Outcomes and Performance Criteria

Outcome 1

Demonstrate understanding of written texts.

Performance criteria 

1.1  Process information and identify important ideas.

1.2 Make links within texts using text structures and language features.

Range may include but is not limited to – layout, headings, illustrations, cohesive devices.

1.3 Identify the meaning of vocabulary essential to understanding the text.

Range may include but is not limited to – specialised, topic-specific, general, academic.

Outcome 2

Evaluate written texts with critical awareness.

Performance criteria  

2.1 Identify and make links between audience, purpose, and writer point-of-view.

2.2 Evaluate the reliability and credibility of the text and/or the writer.

Range  may include but is not limited to – bias, stereotypes, missing or contradictory information.

Outcome 3

Process written texts for different purposes.

Performance criteria 

3.1 Select and evaluate the relevance of texts according to the reader’s purpose.

3.2 Locate and use information across a range of texts according to the reader’s purpose.

Range  may include but is not limited to – compare, contrast, summarise, link.  

Guidance Information  

1. This unit standard belongs to a package of standards that forms the literacy and numeracy co-requisite to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in English language. Together with unit standard 32405 Write texts to communicate ideas and information and unit standard 32406 Apply mathematics and statistics in a range of everyday situations, this package of standards assesses the foundational literacy and numeracy skills that enable learners to engage in further learning, life, and work.

2. For the purposes of this unit standard, foundational literacy refers to the knowledge and capabilities in reading and writing that enable learners to access further learning opportunities, develop important life skills, and engage in employment and in their communities. This includes an understanding of how to participate in Aotearoa New Zealand as a diverse, bicultural nation and across the wider Pacific region.

3. This unit standard corresponds to the literacy outcomes found in the knowledge and practices of the English Learning Area of the New Zealand Curriculum. It should be read together with at least one of the relevant frameworks below:

• The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) – Phase 3 (Year 8) and Phase 4 (Year 9) of the English Learning Area (equivalent to upper Level 4, lower Level 5 of the New Zealand Curriculum (2007))
• Curriculum Progress Tools, which comprise the Learning Progressions Framework (LPF) and Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT) Reading: The scale descriptors in the range 750 to 850
• The Learning Progressions for Adult Literacy (LPAN) – Step 4
• The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) – upper Stage 3, lower Stage 4
• The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) – upper Level 2, lower Level 3.

4. Learners will be assessed against this unit standard through an external Common Assessment Activity that is set and marked by NZQA. Use of appropriate technology is expected, if required.

5. For this unit standard, the complexity of the texts must allow learners to demonstrate skills as described in one or more of the following documents:

• The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) – Phase 3 (Year 8) and Phase 4 (Year 9) of the English Learning Area; upper Level 4, lower Level 5 of the New Zealand Curriculum (2007).
• Curriculum Progress Tools, which comprise the Learning Progressions
  Framework (LPF) and Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT)
  Reading: The scale descriptors in the range 750 to 850
• The Learning Progressions for Adult Literacy (LPAN) – Step 4
• The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) – upper Stage 3, lower Stage 4.

6. Competence for the performance criteria must be assessed across a range of texts.

7. For this unit standard, assessment must include:

• a minimum of four texts;
• continuous and non-continuous texts of various text types; at least one text of more than 200 words.

8. Definitions

Compare refers to noting the similarities and differences within or between texts. Continuous text consists of sentences organised into paragraphs and often into larger units (for example, essays, chapters, or books), whereas non-continuous text consists of information without such continuous organisation (for example, lists, tables, charts, pānui, graphs, and images supported by a significant element of written information).

• Credibility refers to making a judgement about the trustworthiness of an author/source (cf Reliability).
• Critical awareness refers to the ability to identify who wrote a text, for whom, why and whether it may have purposes that are not immediately apparent.
• Evaluate refers to making a judgment – for example, regarding the usefulness of the text for the reader’s purpose, or the trustworthiness of author/source and text – and writing a brief statement about the main points.
• Language features refers to the use of grammar, tense, vocabulary, sentence structure etc.
• Link refersto making associations between ideas within or between text.
• Locate refersto finding information in a text.
• Process refers to demonstrating an understanding of ideas and information. Reliability refers to making a judgment about the trustworthiness of a text (cf Credibility).
• Summarise refers to giving a brief account of the main ideas.
• Text structures refers to the organisation of a text, including layout found in different text types (for example, letters, reports, pānui, recounts, narratives).