97170 english 7-10 syllabus - assessment resource centre · bruce dawe acknowledgement ‘easy does...

English

Years 7–10

Syllabus

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au

© Board of Studies NSW 1997

Published byBoard of Studies NSWGPO Box 5300Sydney NSW 2001Australia

Tel: (02) 9367 8111

ISBN 0 7310 9962 1

August 1997

97174

Contents

Introduction 5

A. Rationale 6

B. Aim 8

C. Objectives, Course Requirements and Evaluation 9

Objectives 9

Course Requirements 10

Evaluation 13

C1. Talking and Listening 14

C2. Reading 21

C3. Writing 27

C4. Literature 37

C5. Mass Media 44

D. Assessment and Reporting 51

Easy Does It

I have to be careful with my boy.When he says tree it comes out hazyVery green and friendly and before I’ve gotthe meaning straight he’s up there laughing in it,or working on the word for aeroplanewhich is also a little above his headso that he has to stand on tiptoe to touch it— for him it does Immelmanns to order,but when I try it becomes suddenlyonly a model in a museum with props that slowly turnwhen the button is pushed and a cutaway sectionto show the engine in action …

I have to be careful with my boy,that I don’t crumple his immediate-delivery-genuine-fold-up-and-extensible world intocorrect English forever, petrify its wonderwith a stone gaze of grammar, or turn him intoa sort of Sunday visitor at the lakesidewho brings bags of specially-prepared bread-cruststo feed to swans who arch their necks and hiss.

Bruce Dawe

Acknowledgement

‘Easy Does It’ from Sometimes Gladness, by Bruce Dawe. Reprinted with thepermission of Addison Wesley Longman Australia.

Introduction

This syllabus is presented under the following headings:

A. Rationale, explaining the active, student-centred nature of the syllabus andoutlining the implications of this for syllabus implementation;

B. Aim, the core of the syllabus;

C. Objectives, Course Requirements and Evaluation, which, together, givedirection to the teaching and learning required by the syllabus;

The Objectives are specified and then elaborated as Assumptionsand Implications for the Classroom under the following headings:

Talking and Listening

Reading

Writing

Literature

Mass Media.

These objectives, though presented separately, are consistent with theprinciple that language learning happens in the same way as languageis used, in an integrated way, involving Personal Expression andEveryday Communication.

D. Assessment and Reporting, explaining how student progress can bedescribed in keeping with the spirit and intent of the syllabus.

5

English Years 7–10 Syllabus

A. Rationale

A1. This syllabus is based on the following principles:1. Growth in language is integral to students’ personal growth as thinking,

feeling people. 2. It is mainly through language that human beings explore their public and

private worlds, organise their experience and form their values. 3. Language is best developed by having all students engage in an

abundance of purposeful language activities that are appropriate to theirneeds, interests and capacities.

4. The contexts in which students should engage in language learningactivities are everyday communication and personal expression, bothformal and informal, literature and the mass media.

5. While students do learn in other ways, learning for the most part occursas students use language, as they talk, listen, read, write, observe andreflect upon the processes of their own learning. Hence English is centralto the achievement of the aims of the total curriculum.

A2. From these principles it follows that:1. Language learning needs to be a student-centred activity in which

students are called upon to take an active part in and responsibility fortheir own learning.

2. Students’ individual differences need to be recognised and catered for. 2.1 These differences can be the product of varying mother-tongue

backgrounds, age, social maturation and social and culturalexperiences from home and community. These, in turn, produce awide variety of language usages including differences in dialect.

DIALECT, as used throughout this syllabus, is the variationin language arising from the social class or the regionallocation of the user. This variation is characterised by distinctpatterns in accent, syntax and vocabulary.

STANDARD DIALECT is defined as the prestige form of anational language.

2.2 Each student’s language should be the starting point for furtherlanguage learning. It is a valuable resource when deliberately andsensitively incorporated into language learning activities, in studentgroupings that provide a rich and varied environment.

6

3. Language learning occurs during the process of students using language,not simply through their consideration of finished language products orby their accumulating abstract theoretical knowledge about language. 3.1 The quality of students’ language is demonstrated by their ability to

use the register appropriate to a particular situation. Their growth asusers of language can be seen as they broaden and refine their rangeof registers.

REGISTER, as used throughout this syllabus, is the variationby a writer or speaker in the use of language for a particulartask so that the language selected is appropriate for thepurpose, the situation and the intended audience.

3.2 English lessons are concerned with a wide variety of languagecontexts. This syllabus does not attempt to provide an exhaustive listof all the contexts of language use that teachers and students ofEnglish may profitably investigate.

3.3 English as a subject focuses not merely on finished language productsbut also on the language processes that are used in developing thoseproducts.

7


B. Aim

The aim of English in Years 7–10 is to enable students to strive towards personalexcellence in using language.

In so doing, students will grow in their ability to make meaning in a wideningrange of language situations.

Meaning involves:

• what is said,

• how it is said,

• why it is said,

• the worth of what is said,

and is the outcome of an interaction between what is said or written and theperson who is listening, reading, or observing.

Language competence grows as students listen to, talk, write and read about andobserve matters that are of significance to them in the contexts of:

• everyday communication and personal expression,

• literature,

• mass media.

The skills students require can neither be achieved nor demonstrated in situationsisolated from their use of language in context.

8


C. Objectives, Course Requirements and Evaluation

Objectives

Teachers should provide all students with purposeful learning activities intalking, listening, reading and writing in contexts that are of significance tothem.

1. Specifically, students are to have opportunities to develop their personalcompetence in:• recognising, enjoying, broadening and exercising control over their oral

language repertoire;• understanding, enjoying and responding perceptively to what they read in

a wide range of contexts;• writing with pleasure, confidence and competence over a wide range of

registers;• experiencing, enjoying and responding sensitively and perceptively to a

wide range of literature;• experiencing, enjoying and responding sensitively and perceptively to the

mass media.

2. All of these objectives are interrelated. The teacher’s task is to plan andshape integrated learning experiences:• in the various language modes of talking, listening, reading and writing;• in the contexts of everyday communication, personal expression,

literature and the mass media.

9


Course Requirements

This syllabus requires that:

• the teaching of English in Years 7 to 10 be based on the principles oflanguage-learning stated in the syllabus;

• students experience a wide range of language in use so that they develop andprogress towards personal excellence in using language.

In particular, the minimum language experience in each year will include:

Planning in English should be based on students’ identified languagecompetence, and should seek to build on and extend that competence.

10


Talking

• for a variety of purposes• to real, assumed and imagined

audiences• in a range of formal and

informal situations• in a variety of roles and

relationships

Listening

• for a variety of purposes• to a range of spoken language• in many different situations

Reading

• for a variety of purposes• of a range of literary and non-

literary material• in a range of contexts

Writing

• for a variety of purposes• for real, assumed and

imagined audiences• in a range of forms and

situations

Everyday Communication andPersonal Expression

Literature

• short story

• novel

• poetry

• non-fiction

• drama

• film

Mass Media

• films, television and video

• radio

• print

Range of ContextsAll Language Modes in a

so that

By the end of Year 10, it is expected that students will have developed a facilitywith language which will enhance their present and future lives.

In broad terms, it is expected that students will have achieved:

• confidence in conversational exchange;

• access to the thought of others as presented in oral, written and visual forms;

• a capacity for listening and observing critically;

• control over personal writing;

• the ability to organise personal thought with a view to its clear, fluent andaccurate expression in language;

• sensitivity and perceptiveness to what is read, heard and seen.

The precise nature and number of planned language experiences within theEnglish programs, at both school and class levels, should reflect the personal,social, intellectual and linguistic readiness of students.

The ‘Implications for the Classroom’ sections of the syllabus demonstrate ways inwhich teaching programs can translate syllabus objectives into effective strategiesand learning activities. Strategies such as having students work in pairs, in smallgroups, in mixed-ability groupings, with older and younger students or withinterested adults from the school or the community will complement theexperience students gain from working on their own or as one of a whole class.

There is no single fixed order in which students best learn to increase theirpersonal competence as users of language. The integrated nature of language usemeans that students will continue to grow as language users by engaging inintegrated language activities in the oral and written forms of language.

each student’s range of language registers is continually extended.

11


The various facets of English can be successfully integrated by providing studentswith planned units of work.

A UNIT OF WORK is defined as a series of lessons that involvestudents in the activities of talking, listening, reading and writingaround a focus of interest.

The focus of interest might be:

• a workshop in drama or short story writing;

• a core literary text, a film, or a television program or series;

• a theme or topic;

• a feature of a particular language context — for example, advertising;

• a project, such as an excursion, a survey or the production of a play.

While maintaining a sense of purpose and direction, teachers should be ready tovary units of work in response to student needs. They could also negotiate withstudents a unit’s content and direction.

The role of the English teacher is therefore a flexible one. The teacher will bevariously an initiator, a facilitator, a respondent to students’ work, an instructor, acoordinator, but always one who enjoys students’ trust and shares with them theirlanguage learning experiences.

12


Evaluation

1. When an English program is being evaluated, the following aspects areimportant:• the rationale of the English Syllabus;• the goals of the teaching program;• the impact of the program on students, as revealed in a variety of ways,

including formal and informal assessment;• the effectiveness of the materials and resources used;• the effectiveness of the teaching strategies used.

2. Evaluation should occur both during the program and at its conclusion.

3. Some useful sources of information for evaluators are:• anecdotal evidence (from discussion with students);• the responses of people from outside the class, such as students and teachers

of other classes and subjects, parents and members of the wider community;• comparisons between earlier and later performances of similar tasks;• responses to surveys;• interviews;• teachers’ analysis of recordings of their own lessons;• work samples.

Questions evaluators should ask themselves are:

• Are all the objectives of the syllabus being pursued?• Are talking, listening, reading and writing integrated or linked in

purposeful ways?• Is there balance in the program?• Is there continuity in the program?• Are materials always chosen to suit the needs, interests and capacities of

the particular class or student?• Does the program begin at the point of student need?• Is provision made for individual differences within the class?• Is there a balance of individual, paired, small-group and large group

activities?• Is there a balance in the various roles assumed by the teacher or is there

an undue emphasis on the resource of authority role?

It is important always that evaluation shapes decision-making and providesdirection for the future.

13


C1. Talking and Listening

This involves students talking and listening:

• in a wide range of situations;

• for a wide range of audiences;

• for a wide range of purposes;

• in a wide variety of roles and relationships.

The objective is that students recognise, enjoy, broadenand exercise control over their oral language repertoire.

14


15


1. Talking and listeningare primary humanmeans of orderingexperience,conveying feelingand making meaning.By talking andlistening, studentsshape and revealtheir emotional,social and intellectualidentity.

1.1 Teachers should value the language and thelanguage experiences the students bring to theclassroom.

1.2 Students should have every opportunity, inwhole-class and small-group situations, to:• talk about and reflect upon their

experiences and feelings;• explore ideas aloud;• speculate and hypothesise;• talk their way into understanding;• engage in sustained discussion;• use talk to solve problems, modify opinions

and develop arguments;• ask, respond and observe response;• observe how others interpret and cope with

problems and challenges;• share possible solutions, ideas and

questions;• collaborate with others in exploring literary

and non-literary material.

1.3 Students should be given every opportunity todevelop and appreciate humour, flair andartistry in spoken English. Pleasure in talkingand listening should be encouraged.

1.4 Oral traditions such as nursery rhymes,Dreamtime stories, bush yarns, tall stories andplayground rhymes should be valued for theirown sake, not just as a means of learning.

Assumption Implications for the Classroom

16


2. Talking and listeningare primary meansby which languagedevelopment occursand through whichstudents come toterms with newexperiences.

3. Students developtheir languagecompetence andconfidence by usinglanguage for realpurposes, for realaudiences, in realsituations.

2.1 Experiences in oral English form the basis forreading and writing.

2.2 Students will benefit from sharing responses toliterature through talk.

2.3 Talk enables students to clarify their thoughts,modify their responses and alter their point ofview before writing.

2.4 Whole-class discussion should be balanced bysmall-group talk.

2.5 Students should be helped to listen criticallyand offer constructive response to others.

2.6 Students should know why talk is consideredsuch an important element in English studies.

2.7 Talking and listening activities are integral to allunits of work in English.

3.1 Students should be encouraged to be involvedin experiences that urge them towards thewidest range of language use.

3.2 Some activities that contribute to developingstudents’ oral competence and confidenceinclude:• small-group discussion;• interviews;• role-plays and simulation games;• following and giving oral directions and

instructions;• using the telephone;• prepared talks;• listening comprehension;• gathering oral history;• debates;• audio- and video-taping of rehearsed and

unrehearsed talk;• mock trials.


17


4. Non-standard dialectis not sub-standardlanguage. Theconcept of languagedeficit is misleadingand negative.

4.1 Talking and listening activities should beginwith the language the student brings to theclassroom.

4.2 All students have oral language experience andskills that differ in terms of dialect and register.The appropriateness of the language selectedby speakers is determined not by any absolutemeasure of correctness taken in isolation but bythe extent to which such language effectivelydeals with the purpose, audience and situationfor which it is used.

4.3 Teachers should ensure that all students,including students of non-English-speakingbackgrounds and speakers of non-standarddialect, extend their language options and gainaccess to as wide a range of registers aspossible, including those of standard dialect.

4.4 Clarity and accuracy of oral expression areimportant for all students. Students of non-English-speaking backgrounds, in particular,may need help with making meaning in oralEnglish. Sensitive intervention at the point ofneed will assist in developing fluency withoutdamaging confidence as users of English.

4.5 Students’ oral language repertoire should beused as a resource in the classroom.

4.6 Students could explore, discuss and record thevarious register and dialects used by differentstudents in their schools and communities.

4.7 Students could be encouraged to investigate thelanguage or languages used by class membersin different contexts and to investigate throughexcursions the language or languages used intheir communities.


18


5. The effectiveness oftalking and listeningis determined by useof the appropriateregister.

5.1 Students should have experience in shiftingregister to extend their control over English.

5.2 Students of non-English-speaking backgrounds,in particular, should be given the opportunity toextend the range of contexts in which they useEnglish.

5.3 Students should have experience in using theappropriate register through role-play andimprovisation activities which re-create formaland informal oral language situations.

5.4 Students should have the opportunity throughrole-play, pair and small-group work to extendthe range of registers to which they have access.

5.5 While not devaluing the language of theindividual and the home, teachers shouldensure that students are given access to andbecome as competent as possible in formalregisters.

5.6 All students need to develop the ability to listensensitively for the subtleties and nuances ofspoken English.


19


6. Oral language ischaracterised by itsown conventions.

6.1 Students need to recognise, understand and usethe conventions of formal and informal speechsituations.

6.2 Students should engage in planned activitiesthat allow them to use particular conventions ofverbal and non-verbal communication intalking and listening, so that they will developskills in the use of:• pause and hesitation• stress and intonation• diction• speech rhythms and enunciation• gestures and stance• eye-movements and other features of body

language.

6.3 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto use and reflect upon the ways in whichlanguage is used to achieve particular purposes.

Some examples are:• the language of praise, commiseration,

conciliation, condemnation, negotiation …;• the language of story-telling, theorising,

word play and other creative uses oflanguage;

• the language of non-communication andexclusion, such as obfuscation and silence;

• the use of dialect, slang, secret languages,code and jargon to exclude outsiders.


20


7. Spoken language isshaped by a complexinteraction of theverbal and non-verbal.

7.1 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto:• experiment with the various factors that

shape oral communication, such as bodylanguage, dialect, fluency, phrasing,vocabulary, volume, pitch and tone;

• listen to and observe the differences betweenspoken and written language;

• recognise and use, where appropriate, thewide repertoire of verbal and non-verballanguage resources available to users ofEnglish;

• play with language: jokes, puns, nonsenseverse, limericks, tall stories, innuendo,tongue-twisters, riddles …


C2. Reading

This involves students in:

• reading for pleasure;

• understanding and evaluating what they read in a wide range of contexts;

• reading aloud interpretively;

• using reading in study and learning.

The assumptions that follow are to be read in conjunction with the Reading K–12Curriculum Policy Statement and support statements, and with the LiteratureSection of this syllabus.

The objective is that students understand, enjoy and respondperceptively to what they read in a wide range of contexts.

21


22


1. Reading is part ofstudents’ totallanguagedevelopment.

2. Students learn toread mainly byreading. Developingreading competenceis a lifelongexperience; readingis not something thatis learnt once and forall.

1.1 Teachers should plan activities involving theinteraction of talking, listening, writing andreading. Students can be encouraged to exploreand experience reading more fully by engagingin small-group talk, discussion, role-play,debate, imaginative re-creation and video orfilm-making.

1.2 Teachers should plan units or work that allowstudents to integrate their reading and writingactivities.

2.1 Students should engage in a wide range ofreading activities.

2.2 Students’ own reading choices and experiencesshould be valued and, where appropriate,incorporated into language learning activities.

2.3 Teachers should provide time for students toread in class. As well as being involved insustained, silent individual reading, studentsshould be encouraged to read to otherindividuals, to small groups or, with properpreparation, to the entire class.

2.4 Teachers should read aloud to students toprovide enjoyment and deepen understanding.Teachers should be confident and fluent readerswho enjoy reading and encourage students toenjoy reading.

2.5 Teachers should read widely in the field ofcurrent children’s and adolescent literature.Relevant articles and lists of suitable reading areto be found in Scan, Reading Time, Signal, TheHorn Book and Children’s Literature in Education.


23


3. Competence inreading grows asstudents continue tobroaden theirlanguage experiencesthrough reading.

3.1 Students need to be able to choose from a widerange of reading materials, includingimaginative and informative writing, their ownand their peers’ writing.

3.2 Teachers need to build on the successes ofstudents rather than focusing on deficiencies.

3.3 Students should be encouraged to read asskilled readers normally do, that is, by engagingwith the whole text and sampling cues to bringmeaning to what they read. Practising wordsout of context or using an approach that relieson grapho-phonic information only is notnormally appropriate.

3.4 Students who continue to have difficulty withreading will benefit from the languageexperience approach:• students tell the story of their own

experiences to someone who writes the storydown;

• students listen to ‘their’ story being read;• students ‘read’ these same writings to and

with others;• students ‘write’ and ‘read’ about experiences

of a similar nature.

3.5 As they read, students should observe the effectof particular print, handwriting, layout,headings, sub-headings and illustrations.


4. An understanding ofhow students obtainmeaning from printis essential for allteachers.

4.1 Guided, frequent reading experience will assiststudents to grasp the interaction of the threefundamental cuing systems:• Grapho-phonic cues that enable prediction of

meaning from the processing of visual andsound information from the printed symbols;

• Semantic cues that enable prediction ofmeaning from knowledge, ideas and pastexperiences brought to the printed word;

• Syntactic cues that enable prediction ofmeaning from previous knowledge ofsentence patterns and word arrangements.

4.2 Effective readers exploit all three areas; manyineffective readers rely too heavily on grapho-phonic cues. Teachers should be aware thatmany remedial reading resources have anunbalanced emphasis on the grapho-phoniccues of the reading process and may not assistindividual students to improve their reading.

4.3 Reading aloud by teachers or skilled orprepared readers is the sharing with others ofthe meaning of the printed word. Studentsrequired to read aloud must be given adequateopportunity for preparation and rehearsal.Extempore ‘reading around the class’ isgenerally unproductive and can beembarrassing.

4.4 All readers make surface errors (miscues).Teachers should concentrate on studentachievement of meaning, ignoring such miscuesas do not hinder reading.

4.5 Teachers of students of non-English-speakingbackgrounds will need to be aware of theimportance of meaning cues for thedevelopment of fluency in reading. Studentsneed to be made familiar with predictablesentence patterns. The meaning and purpose ofthe whole work is an important element inassisting these students to read fluently.


24


SemanticCues

SyntacticCuesMeaning

Grapho-phonicCues

25


5. Comprehension isconcerned withmeaning in thefullest sense. Readingis not merelydecoding;comprehensioncannot be confinedto the merely literal.

5.1 Teachers should devise activities that extend thecomprehension of students beyond the literal tothe inferential, critical and creative, but notnecessarily in a mutually exclusive orhierarchical way.

5.2 Some students, especially those whose mothertongue is not English, may experience difficultywith idiomatic English and will need help incomprehending beyond the literal.

5.3 To understand a piece of writing fully, studentsneed to master its content and assumptions,and form conclusions as to its worth.

5.4 Comprehension tasks based on out-of-contextpassages or extracts inhibit a student’s capacityto obtain meaning in the fullest sense.

5.5 Ability in comprehending is best developedwhen students have a real reason for searchingout the meaning, when they are givenopportunities to share their perceptions, modifytheir viewpoints and grapple with the printuntil they understand what it means in a totalsense.

5.6 Teaching students to gain meaning from print isbest done in a shared situation, in pairs or smallgroups and through a real ‘read’ — a real set ofinstructions or a book — rather than an isolatedcomprehension exercise. Suitable activitiesmight include:• resequencing jumbled sets of prose

paragraphs or poetry stanzas;• substituting one’s own words or phrases for

those deleted from a passage;• predicting the next episode in a narrative.


26


6. Students developreading skills atdifferent rates. Nosingle method ofteaching reading willbe suitable for allstudents at all stagesof their development.

6.1 Classroom organisation should be flexibleenough to provide for the wide range of studentreading competence in any class.

6.2 Any class reading program should providestudents with the opportunity to read:• materials they have personally chosen;• materials from a variety of sources

recommended and provided by the teacheron the basis of teaching experience withother students;

• materials chosen by the teacher and thestudents, read by the entire class and sharedin whole class and small-group activities.

6.3 Reading material should be constantlyevaluated for its relevance to individual studentexperience through such considerations as:• its appropriateness to different levels of

understanding and interest;• its qualities of interest or challenge which

will override an apparent difficulty orsimplicity.

6.4 Teachers should ensure that the readingmaterial is of sufficient value and interest toreluctant readers to encourage them to read.

6.5 A supportive, non-threatening atmosphereconducive to reading should be created in theclassroom and school, complemented by timespent in the library, with reading also beingencouraged at home.

6.6 Students should consider the various purposesof reading — for information, for data, for in-depth consideration of a specific area, forpleasure.

6.7 Students should develop competence in thevarious approaches to reading, and understandtheir purposes, for example, scanning, carefuljudgement of the text, browsing, skimming.


C3. Writing

This involves students in:

• having something to say, the ability to express observation, thought, feelingand imagination;

• writing frequently;

• having a sense of the appropriate register for the situation– ability to write to a purpose: to describe, narrate, reflect, inform,

persuade, argue, make an exposition … – ability to write to an audience: the class, the teacher, other persons,

imagined persons or groups, the general reader, oneself … – ability to write in various forms: personal records, stories, novels, poems,

plays, articles, letters, news items, items for use in various media … – ability to assess one’s own writing, and from this grow in confidence and

competence as a writer;

• developing an awareness in their own writing of those technical conventionswhich promote clarity of meaning;

• writing with flair, expertise and artistry.

Writing is taken to be the processes whereby a person selects, develops, arranges and expressesideas in units of discourse.

The objective is that students write with pleasure, confidenceand competence over a wide range of registers.

27


28


1. Writing is both aprocess and aproduct.

CONFERENCINGis the discussionthat takes placebetween a studentand a teacher orpeers about a pieceof writing completedor being undertakenby that student.

1.1 The process of writing includes all the activitiesengaged in by a writer between the initial ideafor a specific piece of writing and receipt of aresponse to it: thinking, talking, drafting,listening, editing, reading, researching,polishing, publishing, rehearsing andresponding to the works of others.

1.2 The product of writing is the completedmaterial available for an intended audience.

1.3 Conferencing during the process of a student’swriting enables guidance, support andinteraction to occur at the point of need.

1.4 A supportive, non-threatening atmosphere forwriting should be created in the classroom andthroughout the school.


29


2. Writing cannot bedivorced frommeaning andpurpose.

2.1 Students increase their skill as writers whenthey are given opportunity and encouragementto write regularly in a widening range ofregisters.

2.2 Teachers should help student writers to developflexibility in writing over a wide range ofregisters, formal and informal, personal andimpersonal.

2.3 Students need the opportunity to develop skillsin identifying and writing appropriately forparticular audiences. Possible audiencesinclude:• self;• peer;• a younger person;• trusted adult;• teacher as assessor;• wider audience, known and unknown, real

and imagined.

2.4 Teachers need to write and publish with theirclass on appropriate occasions. Students aremore likely to see writing as a purposeful andenjoyable activity if they have an adult model —a teacher who writes with them.

2.5 Writing activities should be set in a context thatis part of a planned unit of work.


30


3. Students learn towrite mainly bywriting

3.1 Students develop as writers when they are giventhe opportunity and encouragement to practisewriting regularly.

3.2 Writing activities should form a significantcomponent of most units of work.

3.3 It is the responsibility of teachers to structurelearning activities that assist students to broadentheir range of registers in writing.

3.4 Students will be motivated to write if given theopportunity to choose their topic and to assumeresponsibility for editing their writing, with theprofessional guidance of the teacher, asnecessary.

3.5 Experience of the writing process develops astudent’s ability to produce a polished piece ofwriting, when required, at first attempt.

3.6 Journal writing allows students to write atlength, experimentally and personally in a non-judgemental climate. It requires freedom fromcensorship and respect for the writer’s privacy.

3.7 Teachers and students could negotiate theguidelines for journal writing.

3.8 Members of the school community, includingparents, should be familiarised with the purposeand process of journal writing.

3.9 Using a word processor can help students towrite by facilitating drafting and revising andproviding immediate printouts. The speed andconvenience of the computer can assistindividual or small group writing.


31


4. The starting point ofa writing program isthe students’ existinglevels of oral andwritten language,and the students’experience of reallife, gained directlyor vicariously.

4.1 Teachers should recognise non-standardlanguage as one form of usage and workgradually towards widening the languageregisters of the student by showing howappropriate language varies according to thewriter, the purpose and audience.

4.2 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto master the conventions of language use; forexample, appropriate expression andgrammatical structures, punctuation andspelling. This is best done at the point of needand in the context of the appropriate register.


32


5. Writing generallyinvolves theinteraction of talking,listening and reading.

5.1 Students should be helped to clarify their ideasthrough exploratory activities based on:• everyday communication;• media;• literature;• personal expression.

5.2 Exploratory activities involving the interactionof writing, talking, listening and reading mightinclude responding to:• experiences (personal and other);• literature;• visual art forms;• music;• an object or word;• a speech;• sound cassettes;

or engaging in:• role-play;• discussion;• debate;• imaginative re-creation of literature;• individual research;• film-making;• excursions;• investigation and discussion of an object;• group discussion;• interviews;

in:• formal or informal registers;• standard or non-standard dialects;• poetic, transactional or expressive modes.


33


6. Teaching particulargrammaticalconcepts canimprove students’writing if undertakenin context and at thetime of need.Teaching an isolatedcourse in grammardoes not necessarilyimprove students’ability to write.

6.1 Particular grammatical concepts that can assiststudents at the revision stage of writing includesequence of tense, agreement of verb andsubject, and pronoun agreement.

6.2 Concern for accuracy is important. However,undue emphasis on accuracy during somestages of the process of writing can distractstudents. It may interfere with fluency or thesustaining of tone or atmosphere while studentsare attempting to formulate their meanings. Itcan inhibit the process of composition.

6.3 Teachers should respond to individual languageneed in students’ writing. Lessons should begiven to individuals, to groups in need, or to awhole class as appropriate, to assist students toimprove the quality of their writing.

6.4 Students will need to demonstrate theircompetence in writing tasks across a wide rangeof registers. Fill-in-the-blank exercises anddummy runs with phrases and sentences takenout of context are not good indicators of suchcompetence because they cannot demonstratestudents’ ability to sustain a register.

6.5 Students should be encouraged, in early draftstages of writing, to compose primarily formeaning and effect. Invented spelling may behelpful to some students at this stage. Carefulproofreading, with attention to spelling,punctuation and grammatical structures shouldtake place during the later draft stages.

6.6 Students should be trained in editing andproofreading skills. Strategies may include:• reading their draft writing aloud;• using the word processor;• working in pairs.


34


7. Writing serves anumber of purposesfor the writer.

7.1 Writing is not only a means of communicationbut can also serve as a valuable instrument oflearning.

7.2 Teachers should create situations where studentsuse writing for purposes of:• exploring their personality and developing

their self-concept;• exploring their world and relationships;• tentatively formulating ideas for self and

others;• learning to share their thoughts in pre-

writing activities;• assimilating and conveying information;• logical thinking, analysis and the

development of ideas;• generalising and hypothesising;• reflecting on learning experiences;• deriving pleasure from the manipulation of

sound, symbol and structure.

7.3 Students might keep a writing folder fromwhich pieces selected by the student aresubmitted to the teacher for periodic assessmentor used by the student for self-assessment.


35


8. Publication ofstudents’ writingshould occur asfrequently aspossible.

9. Wide reading by thewriter complementsthe process oflearning to write.

PUBLICATION isthe presentationof a finishedpiece of writingto an audience.

8.1 Students need a response after publication oftheir writing.

8.2 Students learn about writing throughresponding to all published work of the class.Students also learn about writing by reflectingupon others’ responses to their own work.

8.3 Publication should be for a variety of audiences,including the teacher, friends, a peer group, theclass or wider audiences within and beyond theschool.

8.4 Students’ writing can be displayed in the homeroom or classroom and other suitable referencepoints around the school, as well as beingpresented for class or school publication inpapers or magazines.

8.5 Teachers’ own writing should be published onoccasions with that of the class.

8.6 Writers need readers who are a realisticaudience and who provide a genuine response.

9.1 An individual wide-reading program is neededin English classes and in the library.

9.2 Teachers should read to classes to assiststudents to internalise the rhythms andstructures of continuous prose and of poetry.


36


10. Assessment ofwriting acknowledgesand develops astudent’s increasingcompetence inwriting.

10.1 Responses received by students to their writingare integral to the development of their writtenexpression.

10.2 Students can recognise progress by comparingfirst draft and final product.

10.3 Students should be given frequent opportunitiesto respond to and assess each other’s writing.

10.4 Positive attitudes in students and significantimprovement in the quality of their work can beachieved if the teacher responds first to themeaning of the writing and:• provides constructive advice in reviewing a

student’s work;• praises as many aspects as possible of a

student’s written work;• selects only significant areas for correction

and follow-up;• observes strengths and weaknesses in

students’ writing and, in terms of these, plansappropriate activities;

• encourages students to write frequently.


C4. Literature

Literature provides a unique context for language growth through expansion of thestudent’s individual world.

The objective is that students experience, enjoy and respond sensitivelyand perceptively to a wide range of literature, especially Australianliterature and the literature created by students themselves.

37


38


1. Literature provides arich context for thedevelopment ofstudents’ abilities inthe various languagemodes.

2. The literature chosenshould always berelated to thestudents’ own needs,interests andcapabilities.

1.1 Literature provides further opportunities fortalking, listening and writing as well as forreading.

1.2 A unit of work based on a novel or play willusually involve discussion (both small-groupand whole-class), various forms of writing, andfurther reading of related literature in variousgenres.

2.1 Relevance will be determined by a work’sreading difficulty, interest and worth. Universalhuman experiences, thoughts, feelings andaspirations may be found in literature of allperiods and all cultures.

2.2 From the wide, readily available range ofexcellent children’s literature and adolescentliterature, teachers should choose books that arerelevant to students’ interests and levels ofmaturity.

2.3 Literature chosen should provide opportunitiesfor students’ exploration and expansion of theirreal and imagined worlds.


39


3. Students shouldencounter a widerange of literature.

4. Individual readingcatering for differentinterests andcapabilities is anessential part ofEnglish in Years 7 to10.

3.1 Literature is broadly defined in this syllabus toinclude the traditionally studied forms — novels,short stories, essays, plays and poetry, as well asfilms, tales, songs, writings based on oraltraditions, memoirs, biographies and otherforms of non-fiction.

3.2 It is important that students experience a rangeof literature of the many cultural groups thatmake up Australian society.

3.3 Literature includes students’ own writing, thestories, poems and plays that they themselvescreate.

3.4 Teachers should help students enter the worldof books by reading aloud to them.

4.1 As well as participating in the whole-classtreatment of a book, students should also begiven the opportunity of engaging in individualreading.

4.2 Students and teachers should regularly sharethe pleasures of their individual reading.

4.3 A class library can supplement the schoollibrary’s program of involving students invaried reading. It is also a useful resource inclasses of wide-ranging ability where groups ofstudents may complete set tasks at differenttimes.


40


5. Students should beencouraged torespond in personaland sensitive ways toliterature and toexpress theirresponses in a varietyof forms.

5.1 Students’ ability to respond to literature will bedeveloped through experience and activity.

5.2 Small-group discussion is particularly valuableas it allows the sharing of tentative thoughts andfeelings. Personal involvement in literaturethrough exploratory writing techniques, such asa reader’s journal, also encourages a wide rangeof responses.

5.3 Deeper and more subtle understandings can beencouraged by using the technique known as‘imaginative re-creation of literature’, for example:

• rewriting scenes from a different point ofview;

• scripting episodes from a novel for radio ortelevision;

• writing an alternative ending to a novel, playor short story;

• rewriting an incident as a newspaper report;• making models, collages, comic strips;• writing the diary entries of a character in a

novel or play;• responding in prose or verse to the emotions

aroused by a work of literature;• improvising scenes from literature for live

performance;• using film as an alternative means of

experiencing a piece of literature.

5.4 Students of non-English-speaking backgroundscould be encouraged to re-create a scene orstory in their first language.

5.5 While all individual responses deserverecognition and respect, students should beencouraged to refine their responses by constantreference to the text. Teachers should guardagainst imposing a particular interpretation of atext on students.


41


6. The reading ofpoetry should bewide and varied withemphasis onenjoyment.

5.6 Although background knowledge about worksof literature may be useful in helping studentsclarify responses to a particular work, thissyllabus does not require formal knowledge ofliterary history, information about lives ofauthors or elaborate literary theory.

5.7 Literary terms should be explained as the needfor their use arises. An effective workingvocabulary will arise naturally when literature isdiscussed and responded to within the spirit ofthis syllabus.

6.1 Students should be encouraged to write theirown poetry and to choose poems for class andgroup discussion.

6.2 Class and school libraries should include arange of attractive poetry books. Students couldbe encouraged to make their own anthologies.

6.3 Many more poems, including songs, should beread and experienced than are discussed atlength. A more sustained and refined responseshould be attempted only where appropriatefor particular students.

6.4 There are many ways of helping studentsunderstand a poem. For example:• dramatic reading or;• comparing two poems on a similar theme or

by the same author (in small groups or inwhole-class discussion);

• writing a prose version of a poem anddiscussing what is gained or lost in theprocess;

• presenting a poem with some words omittedand having the students, in groups, selectwords that best fit the context;

• presenting a ‘scrambled’ poem and havingthe students, in groups, determine thecorrect order of stanzas and/or lines;


42


• preparing a taped reading with appropriatebackground music and sound effects toreflect students’ perceptions of the mood ofthe poem;

• considering the poem in various draftsbefore publication.

6.5 The experience of poetry could be integratedwith other aspects of English. For example, aplanned unit of work could integrate poemsabout school and novels with school settings.


43


7. Plays should betreated as plays.

8. All forms of dramacome within the scopeof the syllabus.

9. Film offers multi-dimensional languageexperiences,appropriate to bothliterature and mediastudy.

7.1 All students should have opportunities to beinvolved in the performance of drama. Thismay range from performance following thebriefest preparation to the polished productionbefore an invited audience.

7.2 A play script, whether for stage, film or radio, canonly be fully realised in performance. Studentstherefore must be actively engaged in thedramatic exploration of the text. In responding tothe text through workshop and improvisation,they will be exploring the motivation ofcharacters both from the viewpoint of actor andof producer/director and will also consider suchmatters as groupings, movement, stage-lighting,set design, background music and sound effects.

8.1 Unscripted improvisation, role play and mimeare of value throughout Years 7 to 10.

8.2 The introduction of scripted plays will dependon the teacher’s judgement of the needs,interest and capacities of the students.

8.3 Students’ experience of drama should includefilm, television and radio drama.

9.1 Students should be encouraged to view, discussand write about their personal responses tofilm, including the videos and films made bystudents themselves.

9.2 Where appropriate, students can drawcomparisons between scenes from film scriptsand the novels or plays from which they havebeen adapted.

9.3 An awareness of editing, lighting, sound effects,background music and setting can be providedthrough both class discussion and small-groupactivity.

9.4 Through workshop activities students can bemade aware of how film explores humanexperience, visually and emotionally.


C5. Mass Media

The mass media provide a stimulating context for language growth. Activeengagement with the mass media allows students to use language in relevant andinteresting contexts and, in turn, to develop their abilities as users of English.

The objective is that students experience, enjoy andrespond sensitively and perceptively to mass media.

44


45


1. The mass mediaprovide a context forinteresting andrelevant reading,listening, talking,writing andobserving activities.

1.1 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto write and read within the media context. Forexample, students could:• read and write headlines, captions for

advertising scripts, dramatic dialogue,documentary scripts, media surveys, lettersto the editor, classified advertisements,public notices, reviews, special features (suchas restaurant guides, community servicenotices), cartoons;

• observe and evaluate the varying ways inwhich such writing and graphics areexpressed and used in the media.

1.2 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto talk, listen and observe in a media context.For example, students could:• discuss and enact their own literary and

dramatic experiences within the variousforms of media;

• listen to and discuss talk-back radioprograms, observe and comment ontelevision interview shows, documentaries,newspaper editorials;

• produce their own serious and/or satiricalversions of television and radio programsand magazines.


46


2. ‘Media language’ is aparticular andrecognisable form oflanguage. Itcombines visual andaural, verbal andnon-verbal languagein a unique anddeliberate way.Media language hasgrown out of, and isstrongly influencedby, mediatechnology.

2.1 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto deconstruct media products in order toidentify the visual and aural, verbal and non-verbal language used and to consider how theparticular combination of these forms oflanguage shapes meaning.

2.2 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto combine in a similar way visual and aural,verbal and non-verbal language in their ownwriting and talking. For example, they could:• design dust-jackets for their own and others’

literary works;• prepare a front, editorial or feature page for

a newspaper, magazine or other publication;• construct radio and television commercials;• undertake community-based projects, such as

compiling a local history based on interviewswith older members of the community ordesigning and publicising community-helpprojects.

2.3 Students should critically examine how andwhy meaning is shaped by particularcombinations of the visual, verbal and aurallanguage of the media, and evaluate themeanings thereby conveyed. For example,students could:• video-tape and tape-record dialogue,

speeches, advertisements, talk-back radio,and then review the material thoroughly,using pause buttons, freeze-framing, fast-forward and reverse controls;

• in similar ways closely review their ownmedia productions to discuss and evaluatethe processes that have been used to conveymeaning.


47


3. Students need broadexperience of themass media so thatthey can respond tothe meaning of themass media withincreasing sensitivityand perceptiveness.

3.1 Students should have the range of their mediaexperiences extended in English lessons.

3.2 Students should write and talk about theseexperiences in directed classroom activities. Forexample, they could:• engage in small-group discussion of and

writing about media music, treatment ofminority groups, sexist and racist language;

• make comparisons within and between eachof the media — for example, betweendaytime and night-time newspapers,television and radio programs, localmetropolitan and national newspapers,magazines of many varieties, commercialand national radio and television programs,community and commercial radio.

3.3 Students should develop soundly based,personal value-judgements about the media.For example, they could:• be involved in debates, forums, action-research

projects that arise from media observation;• record program information in log-books;• study and critically review various official

statements of media ethics — for example,the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal’sguidelines, codes of advertising ethics andregulations.

3.4 Students should discover the effects onmeaning of stereotyping, bias, choice of detail,allocation of space and time to programs.

3.5 Students should learn through directobservation to recognise the ways in which themedia shape reality. For example, they could:• compare and contrast the differing techniques

of news presentation in the various media;• discuss the effects of such decisions as the

positioning of news stories, editing, principlesof acceptance and rejection of material.


48


4. In the mass media,language is used witha constant awarenessof register.

4.1 Language choice is determined by:• Purpose — to entertain, to inform, to

persuade;• Audience — age, sex, ethnicity, cultural and

educational background;• Situation — time of day, community values,

commercial profit.

4.2 Students should be provided with opportunitiesto identify the particular ways in which themedia are shaped by purpose, audience andsituation. For example, students could:• observe and discuss the particular

characteristics of journalism as a media form;• observe and discuss specific appeals to sex,

nationalism, community norms, prejudice,particular cultural, ethnic and interest groups;

• discuss the difficulties of distinguishingsubjectivity and objectivity in mediareporting.

4.3 Students should create media products to suitparticular purposes, audiences and situations.

4.4 Students should test the efficacy of suchlanguage use by publishing their work, wherepossible, with real audiences. For example, theycould:• write to local newspapers;• prepare and distribute press releases on

issues they consider to be important;• make films and show them to peers, parents

the local community;• design information bulletins for distribution

throughout the school;• prepare radio programs for broadcast within

the school or on the local AM or FM station;• prepare video-taped programs for

interchange with other schools at local, state,national or international levels.


49


4.5 Students should explore whether ownershipand intended audience affect the point of viewand mode of discourse adopted by the variousmedia. For example, they could:• discuss and write about the treatment of

news and other features as presented bycommercial compared with nationalbroadcasters; television compared with radiocompared with the press; local comparedwith metropolitan, national and internationalnetworks;

• interview management representatives todiscuss company policies on news,entertainment, advertising, communityservice;

• compare the different uses made ofnewspapers, magazines, radio, television andbill boards by an advertising agency in anadvertising campaign.


50


5. The mass mediapromote changes inEnglish usage.

5.1 Teachers should encourage students to observethe creation of new words, changes in themeaning of current words, changes in spellingconventions, punctuation and expression in themedia.

5.2 Students should engage in structured languageactivities based on observed usage peculiar tothe media, for example, jargon in sport, news,advertising.

5.3 Students could relate media formats to literaryforms and engage in language activities drawingconnections between them. For example, theycould:• compare the differing conventions within the

media by contrasting:– single episode drama with serials;– conventions of opera with conventional

theatre;– ‘Dorothy Dix’ type solutions to personal

problems with leading articles innewspapers exploring the same issues;

– conventions of fictional films withdocumentaries and ‘docudramas’;

• transpose the contexts themselves, forexample, by transforming a short story intoradio or television drama, by transforming amyth into a cartoon …

Assumption Implications for the ClassroomAssumption

D. Assessment and Reporting

Assessment is a process through which student achievement is identified in termsof the aim and objectives of this syllabus. The process consists, broadly, ofgathering information about student achievement and making judgements basedon that information.

Reporting is a process through which judgements arising from the assessmentprocess are conveyed to an identified audience in an appropriate form.

51


52


1. The purpose ofassessment in Englishis to provide accurateinformation aboutwhat students can dowith language.

1.1 Every assessment activity should be consistentwith the aim and objectives of the syllabus.

Some indicator of global achievement inEnglish may at times be required. Indetermining this indicator, teachers shouldensure that it represents achievement in all thelanguage modes as used in a range of contexts,and that it reflects the emphases and balance ofthe English course.

1.2 Assessment should identify students’ ability touse all the language modes in a range ofcontexts. It should not be restricted to thoseaspects of language which are easily measurableor observable.

1.3 To identify student development as languageusers, assessment should compare their presentand previous work. Relevant information canbe gathered through such means as collatedfolders of written work, cassettes of oral workand progressive records of reading and viewing.

1.4 Information about what students can do withlanguage can be used for such purposes as:• assisting teachers to plan learning

experiences that will build on and extendexisting language competence;

• providing information on which to base suchadministrative and organisational decisionsas selecting courses for further study, rankingstudents for grading purposes and forminglearning groups within the school and class;

• reporting to students themselves, theirparents and the wider community.


53


2. The most commontypes of assessmentare formative andsummative; eachserves differentpurposes.

2.1 Formative assessment is that which takes placeat any time during the learning process. Itspurpose is to assist the students in their currentlearning. Its audience is most commonly thestudents themselves.

Formative assessment may occur during suchlearning activities as:• writing conferences;• formal or informal group discussions;• play rehearsals;• rehearsed readings;• scripting and producing media

presentations.

Formative assessment should not be used forplacing students in order of merit.

2.2 Summative assessment is that which takes placeat the conclusion of an activity, a unit of workor an assessment period. Its function is tosummarise judgements about studentachievement. Its audience may be the studentsthemselves, their parents or the widercommunity.

2.3 Both types of assessment are useful inpromoting students’ language development.


54


3. The assessmentprocess contributesto students’ learning.

3.1 Teachers should identify each student’s presentcapabilities so that they can plan units of workwhich build on and extend those capabilities.

3.2 Assessment of student achievement is anintegral part of program and unit evaluationand should suggest directions for future work.

3.3 Assessment can be used to motivate students tofurther learning by:• ensuring that students know what they are

achieving• helping students identify directions for

further learning.

3.4 Involvement in the assessment process can itselfbe a valuable learning experience. Whenappropriate, students could be involved in:• clarification of criteria for assessment;• clarification of methods of assessment;• self-assessment;• peer assessment;• contractual agreements in which language-

learning goals are clarified with teachers andparents.

3.5 Involvement in the processes of self and peerassessment reinforces learning and encouragesstudents to assume responsibility for their ownlearning.

Students might:• keep progressive records for themselves on

their learning under such headings as:‘Can Do …’‘Need to Learn How to …’;

• write reports for their parents;• write reports for the teacher on what they

have achieved in journal writing.


55


4. Assessment shouldidentify students’ability to useappropriately a widerange of registers,both formal andinformal.

5. Teachers shouldchoose the methodof assessment with aclear view of thepurpose of theassessment.

4.1 Activities for assessment that require students touse language with an awareness of purpose,situation and audience might include:• listening to a sustained oral presentation to

gather fact or opinion;• a formal talk to a class or group assembly;• telephone conversations to seek or convey

information;• oral presentations as ‘experts’ to

‘uninformed’ audiences;• letters to pen-friends;• reviews of television programs for class

magazines;• reading newspaper editorials with an

appreciation of their register;• an imaginative re-creation in the suitable

register of an aspect of a literary text;• a major piece of student writing, such as a

play, a short story or an anthology of poetryfor wide publication.

5.1 Assessment strategies should be an integral partof course planning and units of work.

5.2 Teachers should ensure that assessment taskswill provide accurate information about studentachievement in those aspects of language usewhich are the basis of the unit.


56


6. The method ofreporting the resultsof assessment shouldbe suited to bothpurpose andaudience.

6.1 No one method of reporting studentachievement is suitable for all situations andaudiences. A report to parents may be quitedifferent from a report to the student or to thecommunity at large.

6.2 The reporting processes developed shouldensure that:• accurate information is conveyed;• students retain their own self-respect and a

sense of their own worth.

6.3 When a summative report of studentachievement is required, that report shouldreflect the diversity of language learningachieved by the students and the emphasesgiven by the course to the various aspects oflanguage learning.

6.4 Oral reporting with the help of an interpretermay be helpful for some parents.

6.5 Reporting in words is a valuable method ofreporting in English as it can provide a detailedpicture of the wide range of studentachievement in language.

Assumption Implications

97170 english 7-10 syllabus - assessment resource centre · bruce dawe acknowledgement ‘easy does...

Documents