English

Current Programs

Linking English to the KLAs

Our stage 3 teachers have been involved in a program which encourages them to reflect on their teaching of English and to improve their practice even further. The teachers have shared ideas and resources and are well supported by departmental personnel. The teachers and students have focused on the use of imagery, which helps students with reading appreciation and writing.

Debating

Senior students learn about debating as part of the English curriculum. Our generous P & C Association funds a specialist teacher for one term to support students with public speaking and debating. We have two senior debating teams which compete in the local competition. Last year our debating team (Team A) remained undefeated throughout the three rounds of the district debating competition, while our B team won all debates apart from when they debated against Manly Village Team A.

For the first time in 2007, debating students participated in The Great Debates which were held at State Parliament House. The students prepared a parliamentary debate as the opposition. The topic was, That all Australians value fairness and social justice. Most impressive was the fact that our students grasped the high level concepts contained in this topic and prepared and presented their arguments with intellectual rigour and enthusiasm. The students also answered questions from the floor during a ten minute question time. We were very proud of our team who won the debate against a well regarded private school.

Rationale

Language is central to students’ intellectual, social and emotional development and has an essential role in all key learning areas. The learning experiences provided in this syllabus will assist students to become competent in English and to use language effectively in a range of contexts.

Through programs based on this syllabus, students will develop knowledge, skills and understandingabout the English language and literature. They will also learn to create and interpret a range of literary and factual texts. They will learn about the structure and grammar of these texts.

Competence in English will enable students to learn about the role of language in their own lives, and in their own and other cultures. They will then be able to communicate their thoughts and feelings, to participate in society, to make informed decisions about personal and social issues, to analyse information and viewpoints, to use their imaginations and to think about the influence of culture on the meanings made with language.

The approach taken in this syllabus is based on the three main interrelated uses of language:

• to interact with others;
• to create and interpret texts;
• to develop understandings about the world and ourselves.

This approach places emphasis on both spoken and written language and provides a comprehensive description of how language works. This is a useful approach for the classroom because it allows for the diversity of language backgrounds within a multicultural society.

English is a compulsory subject in all years of schooling. The English K–6 Syllabus provides students with the foundation for learning English in their secondary education. It also provides students with the opportunity to develop an appreciation of language and literature throughout their lives.

Aim

The aim of the English K–6 Syllabus is to encourage positive attitudes towards learning English, to develop students’ ability in using language effectively and to enable critical reflection on how language works.

Objectives

Early Stage 1

• Students who have achieved Early Stage 1 show a growing awareness of the many purposes for using spoken and written texts in and outside the classroom and school.
• Students use spoken language to mix informally with teachers, peers and known adults in the classroom.
• Using their home variety of English, they ask and respond to questions and contribute to class or group discussions. Students try to express themselves clearly using various forms of communication to understand others, and correct themselves or indicate when they cannot understand.
• Students demonstrate a growing understanding of the reading process, which involves integrating a range of skills and strategies while independently reading and viewing texts.
• Students recognise literary and factual texts. In responding to and discussing texts read aloud by the teacher, they relate what they know about the world and their own experiences to the ideas, events and information in texts.
• Students show an emerging awareness of the nature, purposes and conventions of written language. They know the letters of the alphabet and most of the sounds these letters represent. They produce texts of one or more sentences, using most upper-case and lower-case letters appropriately. They recognise some common
  computer icons and use these to perform elementary tasks.

Stage 1

• Students who have achieved Stage 1 use English in ways that reflect their foundational competence in spoken and written texts.
• Through their familiarity with using spoken English for school purposes, students mix with others in more complex ways. They are developing some awareness of how they and other people adjust their talking and listening to suit their purposes and audience.
• Students draw on what they are learning about language to experiment with their own talking and listening. They also adopt new ways to improve their communication with others.
  
• Students read short literary and factual texts. They recognise the structure and grammar of several types of texts. Students can now interpret and discuss the meanings they find in written and visual texts. They understand that texts are produced by people for different purposes and different audiences and that texts
  represent real and imaginary experiences in different ways.
• Students produce brief written texts that are understood by others and that include related ideas and information.
• They are aware that writing can be planned, reviewed and changed, and can discuss these processes.
• Students use computer technology to construct texts.
• They understand that texts constructed in this way can be manipulated to cater for additions and alterations in style. They spell correctly many frequently used words and use what they know about letter–sound correspondences to help them spell. They write legibly in NSW Foundation Style. They attempt to use correct punctuation (capital letters, full stops).

Stage 2

• Students who have achieved Stage 2 interpret and communicate proficiently ideas and information for different purposes and audiences. They explore the features of different types of spoken, written and visual texts and experiment with ways of shaping their ideas to suit topics, purposes and audiences.
  
• Students use spoken language to interact confidently and effectively in a variety of contexts (home, class, school, community) and with a range of audiences (familiar, less familiar, small group of peers, whole class).
• Students listen attentively for both general ideas and specific detail. They can give a short prepared oral presentation on a familiar topic.
• Students can read independently a wide range of texts on challenging topics.
• They recognise and discuss relationships between ideas, information and events in these texts. They have a grasp of simple symbolic meanings and stereotypes and of the purposes and characteristics of different types of texts. They can discuss different interpretations of visual texts.
• Students produce longer texts with well-developed stages, using ideas and information about a range of topics. They recognise, discuss and can use many of the structures and grammar of a range of text types.
• Students experiment with ways of planning, reviewing and proofreading their writing as demonstrated by the teacher, and usually spell familiar words correctly. They can use the edit functions of word processors to alter, format and organise their texts. They use joined letters when writing in NSW Foundation Style. They usually use correct punctuation (capital letters, full stops, quotation marks, commas).

Stage 3

• Students who have achieved Stage 3 have a sound basic knowledge of how to use English. This enables them to experiment with their talking, listening, reading and writing on different topics for an increasing range of purposes and a variety of audiences.
• Students are aware of the ways in which the considered use of spoken language can entertain, inform and influence others. They plan, rehearse and reflect on the ways they listen and speak.
• Students read independently a wide range of texts with increasing complexity.
• Students try to understand written and visual texts containing unfamiliar concepts
  and topics, and texts that use language in relatively complex ways. They recognise points of view. They justify their own interpretations by referring to the text and to their own knowledge and experience.
• Students structure their written texts coherently according to the social purpose of the text type. They write well-structured sentences and use a variety of grammatical features effectively. They try to adjust their writing to meet readers’ needs and plan, review and proofread their writing. They can construct texts for different purposes and audiences, using computer technology. They spell most common words accurately and use a variety of strategies to spell less common words. They consistently use correct punctuation and write in a fluent, legible style.
  

HOW TO HELP AT HOME

Reading

Reading should be enjoyable for you and your child. If your child becomes distressed or loses interest when reading at home,take a break from reading and try again later. All children,regardless of age,like to be read to. Make a special time whenever possible for reading with your child away from interruptions.

How can I help my child with reading?

• Show your child that you value reading by reading whenever you can.
• Encourage a positive attitude to books.
• Provide a variety of texts for your child to read to you,e.g. stories,comics.poems.plays,cartoons,reference books,magazines,children's recipe books.
• Encourage your child to borrow books from the library.
• Point out words on street signs,packets and labels.
• Encourage your child to predict what a book is about from the cover and illustrations.
• Talk about illustrations and diagrams in books and discuss how they add meaning to text.
• Reread favourite books.
• Talk about the different purposes for reading a picture book,a novel,a television guide,a newspaper,a telephone directory,a recipe book,an encyclopedia.
• Point out the different size and shape of words.
• Point out the first sound of a word and encouraged your child to think of other words that begin with the same sound.
• Encourage your child to read books for enjoyment as well as for information.
• Encourage your child to talk about characters and events in texts.
• Encourage you child to make sound effects for the characters and events.
• Ask your child to think of possible beginnings and endings for stories read and heard.
• "Sound Out" difficult words and/or give clues to the meaning of difficult words.
• Praise you child when they are reading, e.g. 'well done - that was s difficult word'.
• Encourage your child to have a go at reading words that are unfamiliar.
• Ask your child to read on past the unknown word to gain clues from the rest of the sentence.
• Show your child how to find meanings of unfamiliar words in dictionaries.
• Encourage your child to watch films and videos of books they have read.
• Talk about the ways in which a film version of a book compares with the print version

Writing

When children begin to write they enjoy making marks and scribbles on paper. After a while they start to write some of the letter and sounds of the alphabet. They learn to write words. Eventually they learn to write sentences and are able to create a variety of texts.

How can I help my child's writing at home?

• Make writing experiences at home fun for you and your child.
• Write in font of your child and discuss what you are writing, e.g. shopping list,cards,letters and notes.
• Talk about the different purposes and audiences for writing.
• Encourage your child to use a variety of paper types for drawing and writing.
• Encourage your child to use pens,pencils,crayons,chalk and textas for writing.
• Praise you child for 'having a go' at writing words that are new to them.
• Encourage your child to write messages for you and other family members.
• Help your child to find little words in big words and to write them, e.g. carpet:car,are,pet,care,tar.
• Encourage your child to write cards and invitations,and letter to friends,relatives,neighbours,school teachers.
• Encourage your child to write signs,poems,favourite recipes and instructions.
• Encourage your child to label things that they design and make.
• Play word games such as 'I Spy','Scrabble','Boggle',Scattegories','Junior Pictionary'.
• Encourage your child to use a word processing program.
• Display paintings,drawings and writing that your child brings home from school.
• Encourage your child to develop their own photo album and encourage them to write label for their photos.
• Encourage your child to keep a scrap book or photo album, for putting in pictures and writing.
• Encourage your child to keep a diary and to write in it whenever possible.
• Encourage your child in the NSW Foundation Style handwriting.

Spelling

How can I support my child in learning to spell?

• Say speech rhymes and tongue twisters together.
• Play 'detective' games with words. Ask your child to be a detective and find: words that rhyme,words that begin with the same sound,words that end with the same sound,little words in big words,words that sound the same but are spelt differently.
• Play word games that focus on the sounds of words
• Encourage your child to write words that start with a particular sound.
• Encourage your child to write words with three letters,five letters and so on.
• Try to make spelling activities enjoyable.
• Encourage your child to 'have a go' at spelling words.
• Encourage your child to 'sound out' words.
• Ask your child to write words that are not easily 'sounded out'.
• Encourage your child to develop memory tricks such as 'piece of pie',hear with your ear'.
• Encourage your child to use the 'look, say, cover, write, check' method to spell a variety of words.
• Show your child how to use the dictionary,encyclopedia and thesaurus.
• Provide positive feedback when your child attempts to spell a word or spells a word correctly.

Talking and Listening

Your child has learned to talk and listen with your help and encouragement. You can continue to support your child's language development at school by doing some of the following.

• Actively listen and respond to your child's talk.
• Encourage your child to talk about their interests,friends,pets,favourite books and favourite movies.
• Show your child ways of talking for different purposes, eg using a telephone.
• Encourage your child to talk about television,video and radio programs.
• Give your child a series of instructions to follow.
• Encourage your child to give messages to other family members.
• Encourage your child to play a variety of games to assist memory.
• Encourage your child to talk about things they have made using blocks,plasticine,cardboard or junk materials.

Links to other sites about English

• The Reading Room
• Primary Games.com
• Reading games for young kids
• Games
• K-8 KIDS PLACE
• READING GAMES