Australian Curriculum English

Deciphering The JargonWhat The Australian Curriculum Means For The English

Classroom

AusVels

• From 2013 AusVels is the mandated curriculum for Victorian Government and Catholic Schools and the recommended curriculum guideline for independent schools

AusVels

• AusVels for English is identical to The Australian Curriculum

• Why call it AusVels then?

AusVels

• AusVels takes the Australian Curriculum word for word and houses it within the Vels Domain Framework

• Physical Personal and Social Learning

• Discipline Based Learning

• Interdisciplinary Learning

What the....

• But I just worked out what VELs was all about - I have to start again....????

Assessment

?

Not Quite

• Pick a year level between 7-10

• Consider the units you currently do at that year level

• Which descriptors do these units meet?

But I’m Not Doing Everything

• The American Education Researcher estimated it would take the typical student 23 academic years to master state standards (What Works In Schools 2003)

It’s less means more

• The Australian Curriculum is an opportunity to do fewer things - and to do those things better

What to do?

• How can I do this efficiently?

• What skills in particular do students need to ‘master’?

• How can I meet curriculum priorities

Five Types of Units

• Context

• Creative

• Critical

• Communication

• Comprehension

Context Unit

• Big idea: What does this idea or topic mean?

• Explore: What are different examples and ideas on this topic? What do texts on the same topic or in the same genre do similarly or differently?

• Do: Create a text on a topic that represents a personal view on that theme. Or, create a text in a specific type of genre that utilises the features of that genre.

Different Context Units

Theme Units Genre Units

•Identity (Australian / Teen)•Community•Family•Heroes•Justice•Globalisation•The Environment

•Science Fiction•Fantasy•Horror•Fairytales•True Stories•Detective / Mystery Stories•Teen Texts

Hero Context

• What does it mean to be a hero in the movies?

• What does it mean to be a hero in sport?

• What does it mean to be a ‘real-life’ or ‘everyday’ hero?

• Who is a personal hero?

Hero Context

• Compare and contrast two different types of heroes

Horror Context

• At Year 9, a Horror Context Unit might cover...

December

SpectreCompare the ways that language and images are used to create character, and to influence emotions and opinions in different types of texts - LI - 7 - 14

Horror Context

• Create a text that uses or satirises horror conventions with an accompanying commentary

• Compare or contrast the horror conventions in two or more texts

Creative

• Big idea: How can we use different texts as models for creating our own texts?

• Explore: Look at three or more texts that are examples of the same text type to compare different features and style of the that text type.

• Do: Create our own example of the text type using features of the examples we looked at or innovating and modifying those features for our own purposes.

For example

• A unit on fairytales could include these descriptors

• Which ones would you want students to ‘master’? Which ones would you want to assess students on?

In particular

• Creative units that allow us to model use of language

• Creative units that link to comprehension units

Inanimate Alice

Context + Creative

• A context unit might have both a creative and analytical outcome

Critical Unit

• Big idea: What is my opinion about the worth, merit, accuracy or fairness of this text or perspective?

• Explore: How do others express their critical opinion effectively?

• Do: How can I express my critical opinion effectively?

Critical Unit

• How am I being asked to think or feel about something?

• Do I accept this?

Critical Unit

• Presentation of issues / media bias

• Embedded messages in texts - particularly teen films

• Critical evaluation of advertising

• Critical evaluation of webpages

Critical Unit

• At Year 10: Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts = What do I think about what this text has to say?

Critical Unit

• What is a text that you teach with a message that you don’t necessarily agree with?

Critical Unit

• At Year 9 - Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse texts, comparing and evaluating representations of an event, issue, situation or character in different texts = How do two different news reports present the same issue? Which is fairer?

Funny?In reality, the girl was standing on a ledge beneath her or had climbed into a safe position. But the cleverly-staged -- and hilarious -- photo, which made its way to the front page of Reddit last weekend, looks shocking enough to fool many viewers.

- Huffington Post

Smug: Despite almost giving her mother Rebecca, left, a heart attack, Samantha Busch, right, insisted the prank wouldn't be her last

- Daily Mail

Critical UnitEvaluate the impact on audiences of different choices in the representation of still and moving imagesLA - 10 - 8

Understand and explain how combinations of words and images in texts are used to represent particular groups in society, and how texts position readers in relation to those groups LI - 8 - 16

Critical Unit

• At Year 8 - Identify and evaluate devices that create tone, for example humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody in poetry, humorous prose, drama or visual texts = which is the more effective ad? Why?

Critical Unit

Critical Unit

Communication Unit

•How do we use language to represent who we are?

•How is language used to communicate formally and informally?

•How is language used to communicate functional ideas and abstract ideas?

•How have we changed the way we communicate formally and informally, functionally and abstractly?

Communication Unit

• Changing English

• Power of English / English & Identity

• Formal / Informal Language Conventions

Communication Unit

Communication Unit

• What unit are you doing at the moment where there is an opportunity for students to consider the changing nature, the power or formality/informality of English?

Comprehension Unit

•Big idea: What is a key message of a text?

•Explore: What are a range of things an author does to show us what this text is about?

•Do: What are they key things I need to refer to to represent my understanding of what this text is about?

Comprehension UnitDifferent Texts

•Identify and explore ideas and viewpoints about events, issues and characters represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts - LI - 7 - 12

Techniques

•Compare the ways that language and images are used to create character, and to influence emotions and opinions in different types of texts - LI - 7 - 14

Break Time

Types of texts

• Multimodal Texts

• Digital Texts

• Satirical Texts

• Graphic Novels

• Texts From Other Cultures

• Asian and Indigenous Texts

A basic guide

• At Years 7, 8 & 9:

• 1 traditional multimodal text (i.e a film)

• 1 non-traditional multimodal text

• 1 text from a different cultural context

• 1 novel

• 1 satirical text

Multimodal Texts

• The Australian Curriculum’s Glossary defines a multimodal text as a “combination of two or more communication modes (for example, print, image and spoken text, as in film or computer presentations).” According to this definition texts that we already traditionally study, such as film, tv shows or advertisements, qualify as a multimodal text.

Multimodal TextsTraditional Multimodal Texts

(Traditional Literacies)New Multimodal Texts

(New Literacies)

•Feature films•Documentaries•Picture books•Magazines•Print Advertisements•TV Advertisements•TV Shows

•Multimodal Short Films•Interactive digital non-fiction•Interactive digital fiction•Animated digital picture books•Web pages•Web advertising (including viral advertising)•Web shows•Mash up texts

Multimodal Texts

Multimodal TextsExplain how authors creatively use the structures of sentences and clauses for particular effects

-LA - 9 - 7

Web Pages

Satirical

Graphic Novels

Texts From Different Cultural Contexts

The Sapphires

Asian & Indigenous Texts

Satire

Plot Device

Quick text audit

• Technique

• Ideas

• Genre

• Satire

• Other Cultures

• Traditional

• Non traditional

What can you take out?

• What do students need to master?

• How much time is spent on core skills?

Year Planner

• Different Types of Units

• Links between units

Unit Planner

• Measurable learning targets

Unit Planner

• There are three parts to a well written skill statement: measurable verb, target and descriptor:

• Compare in writing 3 elements, line, stanza, meter, using traditional / non traditional forms of poetry

• From: A Guide To Curriculum Mapping by Janet A. Hale

Focus on a unit

• What is a measurable learning objective?

• What elements of The Australian Curriculum can be used?

Planning for effective feedback

• Three stages for input:

• Planning

• Producing / Revising

• Reflecting


• Describe language features used in the created text taken from a modeled text and explain their purpose.


• 1 thing I’m doing well

• 1 thing I’m uncertain of

• 1 thing I know I need to improve

Break Time

• Think Christmas

• Write a sentence with a dash, colon or set of brackets in it

Core skills

• What are the core skills in English?

Maximise learning

• Write a sentence about the anaphylaxis training this morning

Maximise learning

• Write once = assessment

• Write twice = learning opportunity

Maximise Learning

• Add more detail - by adding parentheses

• Add more detail - by adding a relative clause (who, which, that)

• Add more detail - by adding an adverbial clause - (while, although, even though, despite)

Linking Grammar / Writing

• Adverbs - poetry

• Adverbs - instructional writing

• Prepositions - narrative writing

• Colons / dashes - text response writing

• Commas - persuasive writing

Five Elements of Grammar

• Vocabulary

• Spelling

• Parts of Speech

• Sentence structures

• Punctuation

Grammar Lesson Phases

• Students explore grammar concept (read material, look at examples, reciprocal summarisation)

• Think about grammar concepts (what do they have in common, compare/contrast, group, associate)

• Apply

• Explain back

Explore

Punctuation Example• Explore: Look at punctuation video /

punctuation picture book / punctuation examples

• Think: Put these punctuation marks into two or more groups (. , : “ “ () ? ! - )

• Apply: Punctuation Edit 1-2-3 (delete one punctuation mark, add two new punctuation marks, change three punctuation marks)

• Explain back: This punctuation mark is like...

Handout 1

Parts of Speech / Vocabulary

Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

Friend befriend/s friendly friendlily

Danger endanger/s dangerous dangerously

Protection protect/s protective protectively

Instinct - Instinctive instinctively

Opposite oppose/s - -

Action act active actively

Transformation transform transformative -

Friendsheep

Happiness,Happily,Happy

FindAction,

Act

Opposite,Oppose

Friend, Friendly, Befriend

Danger,Dangerous, Endanger

Protection,Protect

Instinct, Instinctively

Change,Changes

Grammar Focus

• What is your grammar focus for each unit?

• How will students demonstrate their mastery of this?

Recognising Effort

• High: All words spelt with the correct number of syllables

• Medium: Most words spelt with the correct number of syllables

• Low: Some words spelt with the correct number of syllables

Grammar Assessment

• Used at least four different ways to start a sentence

• Used at least two different types of internal punctuation and two different types of terminal punctuation

• Revised the structure of at least five sentences during the drafting stage

In a nutshell

• What unit type?

• What text types?

• What core reading and writing skills?

Thank you