Junior
secondary
The English
curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language,
literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and
integrate all three strands. Together, the strands focus on developing
students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing,
speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills
and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and
strengthen these as needed.
Students
engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view,
interpret, evaluate and perform a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts
in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform
and persuade. These include various types of media texts including newspapers,
magazines and digital texts, early adolescent novels, non-fiction, poetry and
dramatic performances. Students develop their understanding of how texts,
including media texts, are influenced by context, purpose and audience.
The range of
literary texts for Foundation to Year 10 comprises Australian literature,
including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these
two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature,
including texts from and about Asia.
Years 7 and 8
In Years 7
and 8, students communicate with peers, teachers, individuals, groups and
community members in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments.
They experience learning in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts that relate
to the school curriculum, local community, regional and global contexts.
Literary
texts that support and extend students in Years 7 and 8 as independent readers
are drawn from a range of realistic, fantasy, speculative fiction and
historical genres and involve some challenging and unpredictable
plot sequences and a range of non-stereotypical characters.
These texts explore themes of interpersonal relationships and ethical dilemmas
within real-world and fictional settings and represent a variety of
perspectives. Informative texts present technical and content information from
various sources about specialised topics. Text structures are more complex
including chapters, headings and subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and
glossaries. Language features include successive complex sentences with
embedded clauses, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, figurative and rhetorical
language, and information supported by various types of graphics presented in
visual form.
Students
create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts, for
example narratives, procedures, performances, reports and discussions, and are
beginning to create literary analyses and transformations of texts.