English Year 6
English 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 5 and 6, students communicate with peers and teachers from other classes and schools, community members, and individuals and groups, in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view, interpret and evaluate spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These include various types of media texts including newspapers, film and digital texts, junior and early adolescent novels, poetry, non-fiction and dramatic performances. Students develop their understanding of how texts, including media texts, are influenced by context, purpose and audience.
The range of literary texts for Foundation to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia.
Literary texts that support and extend students in Years 5 and 6 as independent readers describe complex sequences, a range of non-stereotypical characters and elaborated events including flashbacks and shifts in time. These texts explore themes of interpersonal relationships and ethical dilemmas within real-world and fantasy settings. Informative texts supply technical and content information about a wide range of topics of interest as well as topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. Text structures include chapters, headings and subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and glossaries. Language features include complex sentences, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, figurative language, and information presented in various types of graphics.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts such as narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, explanations and discussions.
English Content Descriptions
Language
Language variation and change
• Understand that different social and geographical dialects or accents are used in Australia in addition to Standard Australian English (ACELA1515)
TUTORIALS
WORKSHEETS
VIDEOS
Language for interaction
• Understand that strategies for interaction become more complex and demanding as levels of formality and social distance increase (ACELA1516)
TUTORIALS
WORKSHEETS/INTERACTIVES
- An interactive website that allows students to select answers on topics from informality and formality in sentences, cohesion of concepts, grammar structures, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling and sentence structure (plus activities against other content descriptors).
VIDEOS
• Understand the uses of objective and subjective language and bias (ACELA1517)
TUTORIALS
WORKSHEETS/INTERACTIVES
- Interactive website for students to pick the correct answer.
VIDEOS
Text structure and organisation
• Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (ACELA1518)
TUTORIALS
WORKSHEETS
VIDEOS
• Understand that cohesive links can be made in texts by omitting or replacing words (ACELA1520)
TUTORIALS
WORKSHEETS
VIDEOS
• Understand the uses of commas to separate clauses (ACELA1521)
TUTORIALS
WORKSHEETS
VIDEOS
Expressing and developing ideas
• Investigate how complex sentences can be used in a variety of ways to elaborate, extend and explain ideas (ACELA1522)
• Understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaborated tenses and a range of adverb groups/phrases (ACELA1523)
• Identify and explain how analytical images like figures, tables, diagrams, maps and graphs contribute to our understanding of verbal information in factual and persuasive texts (ACELA1524)
• Investigate how vocabulary choices, including evaluative language can express shades of meaning, feeling and opinion (ACELA1525)
Phonics and word knowledge
• Understand how to use knowledge of known words, word origins including some Latin and Greek roots, base words, prefixes, suffixes, letter patterns and spelling generalisations to spell new words including technical words (ACELA1526)
• Understand how to use phonic knowledge and accumulated understandings about blending, letter-sound relationships, common and uncommon letter patterns and phonic generalisations to read and write increasingly complex words (ACELA1830)
Literature
Literature and context
• Make connections between students’ own experiences and those of characters and events represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1613)
TUTORIALS/LESSON PLANS
- Jealous Sally – Analysis of the play – Lesson Plan – Students are required to read a play called ‘Jealous Sally’ and identify the sequence of events, broaden vocabulary, character comprehension, understanding theme and setting and some activities at the end (e.g. crossword). This activity actually relates to a number of content descriptors for the Australian Curriculum for grades six through to eight.
WORKSHEETS
VIDEOS
Responding to literature
• Analyse and evaluate similarities and differences in texts on similar topics, themes or plots (ACELT1614)
• Identify and explain how choices in language, for example modality, emphasis, repetition and metaphor, influence personal response to different texts (ACELT1615)
Examining literature
• Identify, describe, and discuss similarities and differences between texts, including those by the same author or illustrator, and evaluate characteristics that define an author’s individual style (ACELT1616)
• Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads, limericks and free verse (ACELT1617)
Creating literature
• Create literary texts that adapt or combine aspects of texts students have experienced in innovative ways (ACELT1618)
• Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts, for example, using imagery, sentence variation, metaphor and word choice (ACELT1800)
Literacy
Texts in context
• Compare texts including media texts that represent ideas and events in different ways, explaining the effects of the different approaches (ACELY1708)
Interacting with others
• Participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions (ACELY1709)
• Use interaction skills, varying conventions of spoken interactions such as voice volume, tone, pitch and pace, according to group size, formality of interaction and needs and expertise of the audience (ACELY1816)
• Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for defined audiences and purposes, making appropriate choices for modality and emphasis (ACELY1710)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
• Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text (ACELY1711)
• Select, navigate and read texts for a range of purposes, applying appropriate text processing strategies and interpreting structural features, for example table of contents, glossary, chapters, headings and subheadings (ACELY1712)
• Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse information and ideas, comparing content from a variety of textual sources including media and digital texts (ACELY1713)
• Analyse strategies authors use to influence readers (ACELY1801)
Creating texts
• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)
• Re-read and edit students’ own and others’ work using agreed criteria and explaining editing choices (ACELY1715)
• Develop a handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic and varies according to audience and purpose (ACELY1716)
• Use a range of software, including word processing programs, learning new functions as required to create texts (ACELY1717)
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