English
English
The Australian Curriculum: English is organized into three interrelated strands that support students’ growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English (English).
Together the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking and writing.
The three strands are:
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- Language: knowing about the English language
- Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding to, analyzing and creating literature
- Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage.
The language modes
Listening and Speaking
This fosters student’s ability to use spoken language effectively: to recount events, describe and explain ideas, participate in discussions, develop audience skills, follow directions, explain, persuade, narrate and report. Debates, topic talks and assembly presentations are some of the ways this skill can be integrated.
Reading
A range of skills are explicitly taught (decoding, blending, using context clues, fluency, expression), fostering an enjoyment of reading and the ability to read to gain information or cater to an audience. We also develop in students the ability to comprehend texts and critically analyse literature.
Guided Reading is the program used to provide opportunities for students to develop reading skills. Students are placed in small groups of similar needs and abilities where each member reads and analyses the same text. They read at their own pace, with support from the group and teacher to develop skills and identify literary features.
Premiers Reading Challenge – all students are encouraged to participate in the Premiers Reading Challenge. This challenge encourages student to read 12 books between January and September with 8 books to be selected from the challenge booklist. Students are rewarded with certificates and medals as they progress through the challenge from year to year.
Writing
This includes all aspects of written language – Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, Handwriting (correct formation of letters, development of a practical and legible style) as well as the study and development of different Genres – Exposition, Explanation, Narrative (prose and poetry), Recount, Report and Procedure writing.
In the Early Years, the Jolly Phonics Program is a key component of the literacy program to assist students with developing systematic letter/sound knowledge and reading and writing.
The Multi-Lit program is also used in the middle and upper primary years to support students’ language development.
Texts
Texts provide the means for communication. They can be written, spoken or multimodal, and in print or digital/online forms. Multimodal texts combine language with other means of communication such as visual images, soundtrack or spoken word, as in film or computer presentation media. Many of the tasks that students undertake involve understanding and producing imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, media texts, everyday texts and workplace texts.
The term ‘literature’ refers to past and present texts across a range of cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognized as having enduring or artistic value. Literature includes a broad range of forms such as novels, poetry, short stories and plays; fiction for young adults and children, multimodal texts such as film, and a variety of non-fiction modes.