English (Version 8.4)

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Rationale

The study of English is central to the learning and development of all young Australians. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them.

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Aims

The Australian Curriculum: English aims to ensure that students:

learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose.

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Key ideas

Texts

Texts provide the means for communication. They can be written, spoken, visual, multimodal, and in print or digital/online forms. Multimodal texts combine language with other means of communication such as visual images, soundtrack or spoken words, as in film or computer presentation media.

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Structure

Strands, sub-strands and threads
The Australian Curriculum: English Foundation to Year 10 is organised into three interrelated strands that support students' growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English (English). Each strand interacts with and enriches the other strands in creative and flexible ways, the fabric of the curriculum being strengthened by the threads within each sub-strand.

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PDF documents

Resources and support materials for the Australian Curriculum: English are available as PDF documents. 
English: Sequence of content
English: Sequence of achievement 

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Glossary

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Year 9

Year 9 Level Description

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.

In Years 9 and 10, students interact with peers, teachers, individuals, groups and community members in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments. They experience learning in familiar and unfamiliar contexts, including local community, vocational and global contexts.

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They interpret, create, evaluate, discuss and perform a wide range of literary 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, film and digital texts, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, dramatic performances and multimodal texts, with themes and issues involving levels of abstraction, higher order reasoning and intertextual references. Students develop a critical understanding of the contemporary media and the differences between media texts.

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.

Literary texts that support and extend students in Years 9 and 10 as independent readers are drawn from a range of genres and involve complex, challenging and unpredictable plot sequences and hybrid structures that may serve multiple purposes. These texts explore themes of human experience and cultural significance, interpersonal relationships, and ethical and global dilemmas within real-world and fictional settings and represent a variety of perspectives. Informative texts represent a synthesis of technical and abstract information (from credible/verifiable sources) about a wide range of specialised topics. Text structures are more complex and include chapters, headings and subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and glossaries. Language features include successive complex sentences with embedded clauses, a high proportion of unfamiliar and technical vocabulary, figurative and rhetorical language, and dense information supported by various types of graphics presented in visual form.

Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts including narratives, procedures, performances, reports, discussions, literary analyses, transformations of texts and reviews.


Year 9 Content Descriptions

Language variation and change

Understand that Standard Australian English is a living language within which the creation and loss of words and the evolution of usage is ongoing (ACELA1550 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Literacy

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Comprehend texts

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

  • identifying some of the changes in the grammar of English over time, for example from ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ to ‘you’
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Reflecting on thinking and processes
    • Reflect on processes

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Organise and process information
    • Identify and clarify information and ideas

    Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
    • Apply logic and reasoning

    Generating ideas, possibilities and actions
    • Consider alternatives

    Literacy

    Grammar knowledge
    • Use knowledge of words and word groups

  • exploring examples of ‘Globish’ English
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Identify and clarify information and ideas

    Literacy

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

Language for interaction

Understand that roles and relationships are developed and challenged through language and interpersonal skills (ACELA1551 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Literacy

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Listen and respond to learning area texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Comprehend texts

Personal and Social Capability

Social awareness
  • Understand relationships

Social management
  • Communicate effectively

Self-management
  • Express emotions appropriately

  • identifying the various communities to which students belong and how language reinforces membership of these communities (the intimate language of family members, the jargon of teenage groups, the technicality of some online communities, the language specific to recreational groups, the interaction patterns of the classroom, the commonalities in migrant and cultural groups)
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Identify and clarify information and ideas

    Literacy

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

    Intercultural Understanding

    Interacting and empathising with others
    • Communicate across cultures

    Recognising culture and developing respect
    • Investigate culture and cultural identity

Investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, for example allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor (ACELA1552 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Critical and Creative Thinking

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
  • Identify and clarify information and ideas
  • Organise and process information

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
  • Apply logic and reasoning
  • Evaluate procedures and outcomes

Reflecting on thinking and processes
  • Reflect on processes

Literacy

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Comprehend texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

  • comparing texts that use evaluative language in different ways – print advertisements, editorials, talkback radio and poetry – and identifying wordings that appraise things indirectly, through evocative language, similes and metaphors that direct the views of the readers in particular ways
    Literacy

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Navigate, read and view learning area texts
    • Listen and respond to learning area texts

    Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
    • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

Text structure and organisation

Understand that authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects (ACELA1553 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Literacy

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Comprehend texts

Text knowledge
  • Use knowledge of text structures
  • Use knowledge of text cohesion

Grammar knowledge
  • Use knowledge of sentence structures
  • Use knowledge of words and word groups

  • experimenting with ways to present personal viewpoints through innovating with texts
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Generating ideas, possibilities and actions
    • Consider alternatives

    Reflecting on thinking and processes
    • Transfer knowledge into new contexts

    Literacy

    Grammar knowledge
    • Express opinion and point of view

    Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
    • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

    Text knowledge
    • Use knowledge of text structures

    Personal and Social Capability

    Social awareness
    • Appreciate diverse perspectives

Compare and contrast the use of cohesive devices in texts, focusing on how they serve to signpost ideas, to make connections and to build semantic associations between ideas (ACELA1770 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Critical and Creative Thinking

Generating ideas, possibilities and actions
  • Consider alternatives

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
  • Organise and process information
  • Identify and clarify information and ideas

Reflecting on thinking and processes
  • Reflect on processes

Literacy

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Comprehend texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

Text knowledge
  • Use knowledge of text cohesion

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

  • sequencing and developing an argument using basic language structures that suggest conclusions (‘therefore’, ‘thus’ and ‘so’) or give reasons (‘since’, ‘because’) or suggest conditionals (‘if’… ‘then’)
    Literacy

    Text knowledge
    • Use knowledge of text cohesion

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Navigate, read and view learning area texts
    • Listen and respond to learning area texts

    Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
    • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

Understand how punctuation is used along with layout and font variations in constructing texts for different audiences and purposes (ACELA1556 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Reading
Literacy

Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
  • Compose texts
  • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Comprehend texts

Text knowledge
  • Use knowledge of text cohesion
  • Use knowledge of text structures

  • experimenting with the use of colons and semicolons in expositions and other extended writing to improve precision and clarity of expression
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Organise and process information
    • Identify and clarify information and ideas

    Generating ideas, possibilities and actions
    • Consider alternatives

    Reflecting on thinking and processes
    • Transfer knowledge into new contexts

    Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
    • Apply logic and reasoning

    Literacy

    Grammar knowledge
    • Use knowledge of sentence structures

    Text knowledge
    • Use knowledge of text cohesion

    Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
    • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

  • investigating instances of colons and semicolons in expository texts and discuss their uses in elaborating on and clarifying ideas in complex sentences
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
    • Evaluate procedures and outcomes
    • Apply logic and reasoning

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Identify and clarify information and ideas
    • Organise and process information

    Reflecting on thinking and processes
    • Reflect on processes

    Literacy

    Grammar knowledge
    • Use knowledge of sentence structures

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
    • Navigate, read and view learning area texts

    Text knowledge
    • Use knowledge of text cohesion

    Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
    • Use language to interact with others

Expressing and developing ideas

Explain how authors creatively use the structures of sentences and clauses for particular effects (ACELA1557 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Critical and Creative Thinking

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
  • Identify and clarify information and ideas
  • Organise and process information

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
  • Evaluate procedures and outcomes

Reflecting on thinking and processes
  • Reflect on processes

Literacy

Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
  • Use language to interact with others

Grammar knowledge
  • Use knowledge of sentence structures

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Comprehend texts

  • identifying and analysing aspects of rhetoric in speeches drawn from contemporary and earlier contexts and students creating speeches of their own
    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Organise and process information
    • Identify and clarify information and ideas

    Literacy

    Text knowledge
    • Use knowledge of text structures

    Word Knowledge
    • Understand learning area vocabulary

Understand how certain abstract nouns can be used to summarise preceding or subsequent stretches of text (ACELA1559 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Literacy

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

Grammar knowledge
  • Use knowledge of words and word groups

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Comprehend texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

  • exploring sections of academic and technical texts and analysing the use of abstract nouns to compact and distil information, structure argument and summarise preceding explanations
    Literacy

    Grammar knowledge
    • Use knowledge of sentence structures
    • Use knowledge of words and word groups

    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Organise and process information

    Generating ideas, possibilities and actions
    • Imagine possibilities and connect ideas

Analyse and explain the use of symbols, icons and myth in still and moving images and how these augment meaning (ACELA1560 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Literacy

Visual Knowledge
  • Understand how visual elements create meaning

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Comprehend texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

Text knowledge
  • Use knowledge of text structures

Grammar knowledge
  • Express opinion and point of view

Critical and Creative Thinking

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
  • Identify and clarify information and ideas
  • Organise and process information

Reflecting on thinking and processes
  • Reflect on processes

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
  • Apply logic and reasoning

  • investigating the use of symbols, for example the flag, the digger’s hat and the Southern Cross in images, films and picture books, and evaluating their contribution to viewers’ understanding of issues, for example national identity, recognising that visual and verbal symbols have different meanings for different groups
    Literacy

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

    Visual Knowledge
    • Understand how visual elements create meaning

    Text knowledge
    • Use knowledge of text structures

    Critical and Creative Thinking

    Generating ideas, possibilities and actions
    • Consider alternatives

    Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures
    • Apply logic and reasoning

    Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
    • Organise and process information

    Reflecting on thinking and processes
    • Reflect on processes

    Intercultural Understanding

    Recognising culture and developing respect
    • Investigate culture and cultural identity

Identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effectiveness (ACELA1561 - Scootle )
  • Speaking
Literacy

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Comprehend texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts

Text knowledge
  • Use knowledge of text cohesion

Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

Critical and Creative Thinking

Reflecting on thinking and processes
  • Reflect on processes

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
  • Identify and clarify information and ideas
  • Organise and process information

  • comparing and contrasting vocabulary choices in informative and narrative texts, considering how they are used to create precise information, abstract ideas and/or stylistic interpretations of texts
    Literacy

    Grammar knowledge
    • Use knowledge of sentence structures

  • identifying examples of acronyms, abbreviations and proprietary words which are used creatively in texts
    Literacy

    Word Knowledge
    • Understand learning area vocabulary

    Grammar knowledge
    • Use knowledge of words and word groups

    Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
    • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
    • Navigate, read and view learning area texts

Understand how spelling is used creatively in texts for particular effects, for example characterisation and humour and to represent accents and styles of speech (ACELA1562 - Scootle )
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
Literacy

Word Knowledge
  • Use spelling knowledge

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Comprehend texts
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts


Year 9 Achievement Standards

Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)

By the end of Year 9, students analyse the ways that text structures can be manipulated for effect. They analyse and explain how images, vocabulary choices and language features distinguish the work of individual authors.

They evaluate and integrate ideas and information from texts to form their own interpretations. They select evidence from texts to analyse and explain how language choices and conventions are used to influence an audience. They listen for ways texts position an audience.

Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)

Students understand how to use a variety of language features to create different levels of meaning. They understand how interpretations can vary by comparing their responses to texts to the responses of others. In creating texts, students demonstrate how manipulating language features and images can create innovative texts.

Students create texts that respond to issues, interpreting and integrating ideas from other texts. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, comparing and evaluating responses to ideas and issues. They edit for effect, selecting vocabulary and grammar that contribute to the precision and persuasiveness of texts and using accurate spelling and punctuation.


Year 9 Work Sample Portfolios