The Middle Years English course is based on the Australian Curriculum where the strands of language, literature and literacy are interrelated in the construction of learning experiences for units. Together, these strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. The course provides students with opportunities to engage, both aesthetically and critically, with a wide range of literary and non-literary texts from a variety of historical, cultural and social contexts; and to begin to understand that texts and literary practices influence how people view themselves, their identities and their environments, as well as providing ways to represent these views. Teachers revisit concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and strengthen these as needed.
As part of the English course of study, students are also required to read a range of literature, some presenting unpredictable plot sequences and non- stereotypical characters. Responses to texts may be shared in situations such as reading circles, which focus on ways characterisation, events and setting are combined in narratives, how challenges are depicted, and whether the novel is typical of its type and has fulfilled its purposes. In English, students learn how to tell stories, argue a position, and critique written, visual and multimodal texts. Students identify areas of agreement and difference with others, and justify their points of view. Opinions of the aesthetic and social value of novels may also be explored.
Students will examine how a range of images, poems, and spoken and written narratives can prompt critical and emotional responses from audiences, before writing an imaginative response of their own.
Students will examine a range of current environmental issues in the media, and use persuasive language, structures and devices to prompt their classmates to take action in response to an issue of their choice.
Students will analyse how filmmakers can manipulate aesthetic features and stylistic devices in films to convey important moral messages and influence audiences, before writing an analytical essay in response to an unseen question.
Students will analyse how authors can create representations of fictional characters and events in novels, before creating a response in which they consider how readers may be influenced or affected by fiction novels.
Students will complete a range of written, spoken and/or multimodal assessment tasks across a range of supervised and assignment conditions.
Mr Andrew Street
astreet@mfac.edu.au
