English
In Year 3 & 4, English comprises approximately 55 hours of dedicated teaching and learning time per term. This equates to approximately 20% of the total teaching time. Continued literacy development is considered paramount and the general capability of Literacy is developed through all other aspects of the curriculum, in addition to this dedicated teaching time.
Term 1 |
Term 2 |
Term 3 |
Term 4 |
Year 3
Australian LIterature
Students learn the purpose of an authors work - to persuade, to inform or to entertain. They become familiar with the typical structural stages and language features of basic text types, including persuasive, informative and narrative texts through writing activities inspired by Australian themed picture books and the novel Bungawitta by Emily Rodda. They examine how evaluative language can be varied to be more or less forceful and learn technical vocabulary used to persuade. They focus on the use of paragraphs in their writing. |
Spinning in Space
Linking with the Science unit, students engage in a literature study of Dreaming stories and folktales from different cultures related to the theme of Night & Day. They write an information report and a simple narrative to demonstrate their growing understanding of these text types. They construct a group presentation showing how the Earth, Moon and Sun revolve around each other to create night and day. |
Who lived here first?
Through an historical inquiry, students focus on developing listening, reading and viewing skills to decipher literal and inferred information from a range of sources. They use software including word processing programs with growing speed and efficiency to construct and edit a text featuring visual, print and audio elements in response to the inquiry question. |
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/George's Marvellous Medicine
Students discuss the nature and effects of language devices used to enhance meaning and shape the reader’s reaction, including rhythm and onomatopoeia in poetry and prose through the novel study. They create texts that adapt language features and patterns encountered in the text, for example characterisation, rhyme, rhythm, mood, music, sound effects and dialogue. They present a book report on a novel of their choice. |
Year 4
Whodunnit?
Students investigate narrative texts and the strategies that effective readers use to infer information from contextual clues. They explore and compare a number of books in the "Mystery" genre and discuss personal opinions about the texts. They experiment with the language and textual features they had encountered to produce their own short stories. |
Nim’s Island
Through shared reading of a class novel, students continue to develop specific comprehension skills, including distinguishing between fact and opinion. Through reading non-fiction texts about sustainability issues in Africa and South America, students extend their vocabulary for speaking and writing, and apply this in written persuasive texts. |
Banjo’s Bush Buddies
Students read factual and literary texts to learn about the lives and work of four Australian Poets – Patterson, Lawson, Kendall, and Wright. |
1788 - Was life the same for everyone?
Students explore and create multimodal texts as part of their inquiry into the contact between Australia’s first people and the early settlers. They read and create both informative and narrative texts. |