Double Backflip by Rose Lu is a warm, emotionally rich short story that follows Annie as she navigates change within her family while striving to be seen and celebrated for who she is. Set around Annie’s passion for gymnastics and her determination to master a double backflip, the story gently explores sibling adjustment, shifting family attention, and the quiet feelings that can emerge when a new baby arrives. Through close character perspective, sensory detail, and authentic dialogue, readers gain insight into Annie’s inner world and her need for connection, reassurance, and belonging.

Blending moments of humour, tenderness, and triumph, the text supports students to think deeply about relationships, empathy, and resilience. It invites discussion about how families adapt to change, how emotions are expressed, and how perseverance and support help young people find their place, making it a strong and relatable text for upper primary learners.

 

This Interactive Comprehension Check has been carefully designed to consolidate and deepen students’ understanding of Standing with the Ancestors.

Rather than simply revisiting surface details, the questions intentionally target inference, author purpose, vocabulary in context, and deeper thinking. This resource supports meaningful retrieval practice while maintaining academic rigour and clarity.

The Check can be used:

• As an end-of-text consolidation activity
• As revision prior to assessment
• As a retrieval task in subsequent weeks
• As an engaging formative check for understanding

Each question aligns with key literacy skills, supporting students to think critically, justify ideas, and revisit important language and themes.

 

This pack includes:

• Private access link to the interactive quiz
• Lesson overview slides with learning intention and success criteria
• Reflection / extension task to deepen thinking

This resource is designed to support purposeful teaching, structured discussion, and confident assessment — while reducing preparation time.

 

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2

Year Level: Year 5

English: reading for meaning, analysing character motivation and emotional change, exploring narrative voice and dialogue, inferring themes and messages, summarising key events, and supporting ideas with evidence from the text
Health and Physical Education: emotional wellbeing, managing change, resilience, confidence, perseverance, physical activity and safety
Social Sciences: family structures, relationships across generations, identity and belonging, understanding change within families and communities

Fiction: realistic narrative, short story

Key words include: change, character development, China, emotional wellbeing, empathy, family, grandparents, gymnastics, identity, narrative text, parents, perseverance, realistic fiction, relationships, resilience, siblings, short story, sport, trampoline, wellbeing