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Level A (Towards Foundation)

Level A Description

In Level A, students begin to engage, participate and receive communication with known adults, teachers and peers. Opportunities are provided for students to explore English knowledge, understanding, skills and processes through everyday experiences, personal interests and significant events. Students are exposed to various alternative and augmentative communication systems because adults model...

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Level A Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Encounter various forms of texts and respond to sounds, text, symbols, images or objects in their environment (VCELA001)
    1. experiencing various text forms and communication related to the environment or activity
    2. experiencing texts and forms of communication being labelled, e.g. this is a fairy story, hello what did you want to say? Oh I think Amy wants a turn etc.
    3. reacting to different forms of communication by familiar people, for example a smile, a wave
    4. reacting to change in the environment associated with a text type, e.g. turns head or looks towards a multimodal text, images, sound, word such as their name
  2. Encounter books, print and digital texts and respond to images in the text (VCELA002)
    1. experiencing texts in various modes and people communicating about their features
    2. reacting to multimodal texts
    3. experiencing different texts such as printed, multimedia and film
    4. reacting to familiar people and objects in print and digital texts
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Experience sentences being used to express ideas and information and responds to different words, sounds and noise (VCELA003)
    1. experiencing sentences being communicated in different modes to express ideas, e.g. words, keywords, visuals, or sign
    2. turning attention towards the spoken word of a familiar other
    3. exploring how noises stop and start and can be long or short
    4. tracking images, actions and objects moving horizontally and vertically
  2. Respond to words and groups of words and objects in texts and in the environment (VCELA004)
    1. encountering words, images and written texts within their environment
    2. reacting to texts in various modes within the environment
    3. reacting to key words and familiar images
  3. Respond to images and words in texts (VCELA005)
    1. experiencing sound, image and text used in print and screen
    2. reacting to images and objects within their environment
    3. attending to a preferred image or sound such as a photo or voice of a familiar adult
    4. fixating on objects and tracking objects within texts
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Encounter words and writing within the environment and respond to spoken words in familiar environments (VCELA006)
    1. experiencing others writing and reading text, for example ‘Where is mum?’
    2. reacting to the connection between everyday words and significant objects, for example ‘Where is Elmo?’
  2. React to preferred sounds (VCELA007)
    1. encountering words, objects, images and sounds being used and linked
    2. attempting to make sounds and noises to gain attention and develop interactions
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. React to texts, related to personal experience and familiar events (VCELT008)
    1. experiencing texts of various modes, types and purposes
    2. experiencing literature through everyday experiences
    3. observing texts being shared and read by different people
    4. responding to texts being shared and read by different people
Examining literature
  1. Experience and respond to different types of literary texts in various modes (VCELT009)
    1. experiencing some characteristics and features of text and related communication
    2. listening to and experiencing different literary texts
    3. reacting to elements of multimodal text, for example, music, image, texture
  2. Experience texts with different features, events and characters and respond to different literary texts (VCELT010)
    1. experiencing to multimodal texts and experiences
    2. exploring and listening to texts with various themes, features and characters
    3. reacting to some elements within a multimodal text, such as sound, texture, images, actions, music, character
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Respond to texts within the everyday environment (VCELY011)
    1. experiencing texts with different textures, finishes and sound
    2. reacting to texts, images and objects that relate to everyday experiences and cultural events
    3. using their senses to explore elements within a multimodal text, for example, texture, colour, sound
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. React to a range of texts including visual, audio and print text (VCELY012)
    1. experiencing multimodal texts and discussions on their meaning and characteristics
    2. using sounds, gesture and facial features in response to their environment
    3. reacting to interactions, experiences and activities
  2. Experience and respond to different forms of communication and texts being read or viewed (VCELY013)
    1. experiencing texts about everyday life and events
    2. reacting to familiar items in texts viewed
    3. reacting to familiar sounds and voices in familiar multimodal texts
  3. React to a variety of imaginative and informative texts (VCELY014)
    1. experiencing a variety of different multimodal texts
    2. experiencing different text types and genres
    3. experiencing a variety of interactive and multimodal texts and reacting to some elements

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Respond to images, objects and the spoken word (VCELA015)
    1. experiencing different text types, genres and modes
    2. reacting to objects and sounds in their environment
    3. noticing objects and sound in their environment
    4. turning attention towards another person or action of another person
    5. showing interest in photographs of familiar objects and people
    6. observing objects being represented by an image or spoken words
  2. React to different sounds, and words, and respond to visual text (VCELA016)
    1. encountering various types of text, genre and modes and their structure and organisation
    2. reacting to objects and events within the environment
    3. exploring how sounds stop and start, and can be long or short
    4. responding to familiar people and objects, for example acknowledgement by looking at, or reaching towards, a desired object
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Experience people writing, speaking and communicating using various modes (VCELA017)
    1. experiencing speech being broken down into different sounds
    2. reacting to interactive and multimodal texts
    3. exploring a range of sounds and movements, including facial expression and gesture
  2. React to familiar voices and preferred sounds (VCELA018)
    1. encountering various noises, sounds and voices
    2. being exposed to words, sounds and noises of different pitch, duration and timbre
    3. responding to the connection between everyday words and objects
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Encounter literature being created for various reasons and purposes and react to the retelling of a literary text (VCELT019)
    1. experiencing literature being created about them and their context, for example social stories
    2. reacting to digital and interactive retelling of various text
    3. responding to multimodal text based on personally experienced events
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. React to the construction of text that reflects everyday events and activities (VCELY020)
    1. experiencing people constructing and sharing multimodal texts about various events and contexts
    2. reacting to some of the objects, sounds and images being compiled in personalised texts
    3. responding to familiar people, events and objects in multimodal texts
  2. Respond to group text and personalised text being edited (VCELY021)
    1. experiencing people editing and changing a text, for example change music, photo, written word or image
    2. experiencing people editing by review and changing photos and images in multimodal texts
    3. reacting to some of the changes occurring to digital multimodal texts
  3. Encounter a variety of objects and textures and hold objects for a short period of time (VCELY022)
    1. experiencing objects with different textures, sizes, shapes and temperatures
    2. experiencing and holding objects with varying characteristics, sizes, textures and densities
    3. reacting to the sensory input of different objects
    4. reaching, feeling and tapping objects
    5. accepting materials for drawing
  4. React to software being used to construct texts that reflect everyday events and activities (VCELY023)
    1. experiencing multimedia and text constructing software
    2. being exposed to people creating text and images using a range of software, including word-processing programs
    3. reacting to images, sounds and text being added to a digital text
    4. responding to familiar texture, sound or image during text construction

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Use sounds and facial expressions to affect familiar others (VCELA024)
    1. encountering various languages and forms of communication at home, school and in the community
    2. experiencing others engaging, communicating and changing things in the world around them
    3. reacting to the sounds and voices of familiar others
    4. reacting to a range of gestures, signs, images and facial features of familiar others
    5. using sounds, noises, gestures, eye gaze etc. to gain attention or request an object, e.g. reaching towards something they want
    6. turning towards a communication partner
Language for interaction
  1. Respond to a familiar person and engage with them (VCELA025)
    1. being exposed to individuals interpreting their actions and sounds
    2. experiencing people reacting and engaging with each other and them
    3. learning to control their behaviour, e.g. moving, making sounds,
    4. making eye contact, sound or gesture towards a familiar other during a communicative process
    5. gaining another’s attention through sounds and or action
    6. communicating physical need, for example hungry or tired through sounds and/or action
  2. Explore how sound, facial expression and actions can cause a change (VCELA026)
    1. being exposed to others interpreting their actions and labelling them as needs and feeling
    2. exploring how they can change their behaviour
    3. reacting to others through gestures, facial expressions, sounds and movements
    4. changing their focus of engagement on seeing or feeling an object or person
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Respond to vocabulary used in everyday experiences (VCELA027)
    1. being exposed to vocabulary used by others to communicate for various purposes
    2. being exposed to people labelling their behaviour and its purpose
    3. building vocabulary in response to others’ labelling of their activities and actions during everyday experiences
    4. reacting to familiar actions, sounds and voices, for example, a familiar adult’s voice, wave or smile
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Encounter words being isolated into onset and rime (VCELA029)
    1. reacting to preferred sounds
    2. experiencing words that have their onset identified
    3. experiencing words with the same onset or rime being linked through word play, stories and songs
  2. Respond to different sounds and words used in everyday experiences (VCELA028)
    1. being exposed to people communicating and playing with words
    2. being exposed to a variety of different rhymes, syllables and sounds
    3. observing the connection between everyday words and objects
    4. reacting to familiar voices and preferred sounds
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Respond to images, sounds or actions within a multimodal text (VCELT030)
    1. experiencing literature of various types and modes
    2. experiencing the response of others to a variety of literary texts
    3. reacting to images from various sources
    4. reacting to texts that depict familiar events, people or characters
  2. Respond to texts listened to, viewed or read (VCELT031)
    1. experiencing literature in various modes that create different feelings and responses
    2. experiencing texts of different genres, including subject matter, form and structure
    3. viewing stories from various sources
    4. reacting to some images, sounds and action within a text
Examining literature
  1. Respond to the use of rhythms and sound patterns in stories, rhymes, songs and poems from a range of cultures (VCELT032)
    1. experiencing rhythms and sound patterns in stories, rhymes, songs and poems
    2. being exposed to literature through the senses
Creating literature
  1. React to texts and familiar parts of a preferred text (VCELT033)
    1. experiencing familiar texts being personalise
    2. reacting to multimodal texts being constructed and modified
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Respond to various types of communication (VCELY034)
    1. changing behaviour as a consequence of their needs
    2. encountering people who interact with them and interpret their behaviour for them
    3. reacting to familiar people, voices and sounds
    4. responding to interaction with others, for example, by smiling, turning head, making noises
  2. React to others sharing and delivering a presentation on a personally or culturally relevant event (VCELY035)
    1. encountering people communicating information
    2. being exposed to commentary on objects, images and things in the environment
    3. experiencing and responding to a variety of people and interactions
    4. reacting to some elements of an interaction with a familiar adult, for example smiling or speaking

Level A Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level A, students react to a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They respond to images of familiar people, objects or events. They fleetingly maintain eye contact with a person or object. They enjoy reading material as it is being read/experienced, shown or told. They can track objects, people or images for a short period of time.

Writing

When experiencing coactive writing activities, students make choices between objects and images and accept and reject objects and activities. Students develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination and they move their hands in response to tactile stimuli. Students can demonstrate their grasp and can hold an object briefly when it is placed in their hand.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen to and react to some familiar objects, people, words and sounds within the environment by turning head, looking, reaching out and/or vocalising. They respond to their name and to familiar items when named. Students show an interest in others and an awareness of everyday social interactions such as greetings by using gesture or vocalisation. They recognise that their reaction can change others’ behaviour. They can choose between objects, images and activities and accept or reject an object or activity. They withdraw attention if no longer interested in a topic of communication. Students attempt to imitate sounds. They have some consistent vocalisation and gestures in response to different people, activities and environments.

Level B (Towards Foundation)

Level B Description

In Level B, students communicate with peers, teachers and known adults. Opportunities are provided for students to explore English knowledge, understanding, skills and processes through everyday experiences, personal interests and significant events. Students begin to understand that communication is a tool that can be used to indicate needs, make choices and gain attention. Students communicate...

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Level B Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Recognise that texts can have many forms, can use images, objects and symbols (VCELA036)
    1. beginning to understand that multimodal texts may include symbols, images and objects
    2. recognising some photographs, images and objects in a text
  2. Recognise and attend to images in texts and on the screen (VCELA037)
    1. learning about print and screen through adaptive personal text using a keyboard, a touchscreen or switches
    2. learning how to use a book through observation of others reading, for example pick up, hold upright, turn pages and attend to the pictures
    3. touching a switch, keyboard or touchscreen to cause something to happen
    4. identifying repeated images and objects within a text
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Know that an object has a name (VCELA038)
    1. pointing towards or naming an object to communicate a choice
    2. recognising that single words, signs or switches can communicate a need
  2. Recognise an object when named, signed or shown in an image (VCELA039)
    1. exploring multimodal texts that reinforce the link between an image and related noun, for example between and image and spoken words
    2. recognising the connection between an object and spoken words, sign or alternative and augmentative communication representation
    3. recognising the connection between spoken words and images, for example looking at or for an object or image when they hear the word such as 'dog', 'lunch box'
    4. recognising the connection between the image or sign and the object, for example looking at/ touching an image to request an object such as a drink or stopping when told ‘stop’
  3. Recognise familiar objects and images in stories and informative texts (VCELA040)
    1. associating an image with a word, symbol or object
    2. identifying and communicating the names of familiar objects and people in an image
    3. scanning an image or texts for specific objects, word, sound or image
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Explore the concept of difference through matching letters, images, shapes and familiar words and sounds (VCELA041)
    1. matching pictures and shapes that are the same
    2. learning to match letters of the alphabet that are the same
  2. Reproduce sounds associated with familiar objects and names (VCELA042)
    1. copying mouth and face formation adults make to form sounds and noises
    2. repeating a sound or noise made by an adult
    3. matching an object to a sound, noise or word
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Respond to texts which reflect personal and family experiences (VCELT043)
    1. recognising familiar images in texts
    2. identifying texts that reflect everyday experiences
    3. creating a shared photo story about a class event or social experience
Examining literature
  1. Attend to features of literary texts such as images, rhyme and refrains (VCELT044)
    1. listening and responding to repeated chants, rhymes and refrains in familiar literary texts, for example clapping along with the beat
    2. exploring words and sentence starters in different literature during shared reading experiences, for example ‘Once upon a time …’
  2. Recognise a familiar event or character during shared reading or viewing of text (VCELT045)
    1. identifying some familiar images and shapes within a text
    2. engaging with the features of shared texts, such as images, sounds and actions
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Attend to texts that have a variety of contexts (VCELY046)
    1. comparing and identifying things that are the ‘same’ and ‘different’ within texts
    2. exploring texts with the same theme to identify things that are the ‘same’ and ‘different’
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Use images to obtain meaning from shared texts (VCELY047)
    1. attending to familiar images and objects in texts
    2. attending and reproducing some sounds and actions
  2. Attend to images while listening to and viewing texts (VCELY048)
    1. recognising and selecting familiar text to be shared
    2. identifying familiar objects in texts viewed
  3. Attend to imaginative and informative texts including visual schedules in everyday experiences (VCELY049)
    1. attending to familiar images and objects in texts
    2. recognising some visual cues to complete an activity

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Recognise the connection between an object, image and spoken word (VCELA050)
    1. learning that objects and actions are represented by a word or image
    2. using an associated picture/image to request a familiar object, action or event
  2. Recognise that text can be attached to images and recognise that people pause when talking and communicating (VCELA051)
    1. attending to written texts attached to images within their environment
    2. learning that objects can be represented by an image or text
    3. communicating using a word/image to request an object
    4. pausing to wait for a response after a communication
    5. learning about taking turns in communication
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Reproduce speech sounds to communicate basic wants and use images and objects to express their wants and ideas (VCELA052)
    1. reproducing sounds and words heard within a story, for example ‘ch, ch, ch’
    2. comparing sounds and how they are combined to make words and label objects
    3. exploring sounds through sensory activities
  2. Recognise different sounds and words and their connection to objects and people (VCELA053)
    1. connecting everyday objects to their name or image
    2. experimenting with sounds, for example copying the teacher and repeating the letter sound for some letters of the alphabet
    3. making sounds and combining them to make words or label objects
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Select an image and illustration to represent a familiar literary text or recent event (VCELT054)
    1. identifying a significant image or character from a familiar text
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Select image to be used in a short text about a special event (VCELY055)
    1. making simple choices when presented with options during the construction of class texts, for example using ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or a gesture to indicate a choice
    2. attending to the construction of a class multimodal text about a shared experience
  2. Make simple choices during shared construction of personalised multimodal text (VCELY056)
    1. accepting and rejecting images and sounds to be used in multimodal text
    2. refining grasp by handling and using a variety of writing medium
  3. Grasp and move objects within and between their hands (VCELY057)
    1. imitating writing behaviour
    2. drawing non-linear shapes and forms
    3. making marks on paper
    4. crossing the midline to handle and manipulate objects
    5. manipulating objects by picking up, putting down, transferring and ‘posting’ objects of various sizes
  4. Use software or applications to select images and sounds for shared texts (VCELY058)
    1. selecting photos to be used in a photo story
    2. indicating music they would like to be added to text

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Use sounds, gestures, images and facial expressions to communicate (VCELA059)
    1. responding to their name and the names of familiar people
    2. responding consistently to familiar contexts including people, places and objects
    3. showing an understanding that sound and action convey meaning
    4. contributing to small group discussions by sharing a favourite toy
    5. gaining and directing attention, such as turning attention toward the person who is communicating
    6. recognising some of the sounds, gestures and facial features of familiar people and contexts
    7. reproducing part of a short message by pointing and/or using objects or pictures
Language for interaction
  1. Recognise ways to gain and maintain attention (VCELA060)
    1. gaining the attention of others through gestures, facial expressions, sounds and movements
    2. interacting with a familiar adult by attending and making eye contact for extended periods of time
    3. refining their behaviour and actions based on the response of others (cause and effect)
    4. developing a small repertoire of predictable and consistent responses
  2. Demonstrate a number of ways to indicate a choice (VCELA061)
    1. selecting a preferred object, or requesting a drink through gestures, facial expressions, sounds and movements
    2. learning that gestures can indicate needs or choices, for example reaches towards a familiar person/object
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Recognise the connection between words, images, sounds and everyday objects (VCELA062)
    1. recognising the words associated with classroom activities and actions
    2. making choices as a way to explore the connection between an object and its spoken name, image or sign
    3. making simple requests
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Connect sounds and words and match them to objects (VCELA063)
    1. learning about the connection between everyday images and objects
    2. learning about the connection between everyday objects and their name
    3. exploring different sounds and words and their connection to objects and people
    4. exploring sounds and words by imitating and making approximations of words
  2. Copy a sound (VCELA064)
    1. playing with words attempting to reproduce the sounds within a word
    2. copying the face and mouth formations required to produce sounds
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Identify a preferred text (VCELT065)
    1. engaging with various texts, including interactive stories
    2. attending to elements within multimodal texts
    3. participating in interactive stories, for example selecting text to be shared due to a particular story, character or theme or hitting a switch to turn a page
  2. Respond to familiar images or sounds during shared reading/viewing of texts (VCELT066)
    1. scanning and indicating preferred image
    2. recognising a familiar face or voice during a shared reading
Examining literature
  1. Participate in rhymes and songs from a range of cultures and echo some familiar rhythms and sound patterns (VCELT067)
    1. listening and responding to various rhymes and songs
    2. replicating or signalling the beat or rhythm within a text
Creating literature
  1. Assist to modify a text by producing a sound, noise or using an object (VCELT068)
    1. producing noises, sound or words to be added to a familiar text during shared text modification
    2. assisting in the modifying of a familiar text by selecting an object to be added to the story or object to be changed in a story
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen to and respond to simple instructions (VCELY069)
    1. attending to a familiar speaker, song or story
    2. listening and responding to a simple closed question and indicating a choice, for example indicating which equipment is wanted, selecting a switch or image to request help or an object
    3. making relevant responses such as nod of head to indicate understanding when communicating or listening to instructions
  2. Respond to a presentation on an everyday experience (VCELY070)
    1. sharing a personal experience with an adult by using an object, picture or image
    2. exploring an event or object of interest using a multimodal approach

Level B Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level B, students will listen to and view a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They can focus on an image during the sharing of a text. They select a text using visual images and request a text to be read. Students can recognise images of familiar people. They recognise their own name in print using a shape or beginning letter. They can sort and match pictures and shapes. They imitate some reading behaviour, including holding reading material upright and turning pages several at a time. They can show another person their favourite character or object in a text.

Writing

When writing, they can scribble freely using various materials or computer mouse. Students draw non-linear shapes and forms. They can use a touchscreen, press keys on keyboard and move a computer mouse. They begin to hold and manipulate objects. They assist in the construction of text by selecting images and topics through choice making.

Speaking and Listening

Students look towards and attend to significant people for short periods of time. They attend to and respond to key word instructions. They imitate familiar words, spoken and/or signed. They use gesture or ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses to answer a question or respond to an instruction. They communicate basic wants and needs through the selection of objects, gestures, sounds, or action. Students find and identify a variety of objects in their environment, choose an activity by pointing to an object, and point to objects as they are named by the teacher. They communicate intentionally by using gesture, eye gaze or sound, or by selecting an object. They follow a simple one-word instruction.

Level C (Towards Foundation)

Level C Description

In Level C, students communicate with known adults, teachers and peers. Students learn about social rules of communication and experience different ways to convey information to others. Students are provided with experiences that engage, support and extend their learning, including the use of verbal and non-verbal communication, use of symbols, and choice making. Students express and record...

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Level C Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Recognise that texts and communication can take various forms including multimodal and picture books (VCELA071)
    1. investigating the relationship between symbols or images and objects, people and actions
    2. recognising and participating in interactive stories
  2. Know that successive pages or images in a book or on a screen present a story in sequence (VCELA072)
    1. learning that images tell us about the text
    2. recognising consistent characters in the images within a text
    3. knowing that a book has a front, back and right way up
    4. recognising and using the icons to 'turn' successive pages in a digital text
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Recognise that a group of words can communicate a message (VCELA073)
    1. learning to build on spoken sentence starters to communicate a need or want, for example ‘I want … a drink’
    2. learning to combine words to convey a message, for example ‘Dad’s car’, ‘throw ball’
  2. Know how to use the connection between the object, its name, image or sign (VCELA074)
    1. learning to scan a collection of images and select one image to describe an object or action
    2. matching 3D objects to an image, sign or spoken word, for example using an apple, an image and a word
  3. Recognise the use of images to represent an event, object or idea (VCELA075)
    1. exploring what information an image tells us
    2. learning that words and images can be used to tell a story about an event
    3. using images to represent a story or an event
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Explore similarities and differences between letters by shape and size and match some letters with their name or sound (VCELA076)
    1. tracing and exploring letter-like shapes and patterns
    2. learning to identify the written form of their name
  2. Recognise different sounds and their connection to a word or image (VCELA077)
    1. refining sound and word formation
    2. identifying a familiar word which starts with this a given sound
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Recognise key events in texts which reflect personal and familiar experiences (VCELT078)
    1. viewing stories by different storytellers using online and interactive sources
    2. engaging with texts that reflect personal and community events
    3. recognising the start and ending of a text
Examining literature
  1. Identify characteristics of familiar literary texts including poetry (VCELT079)
    1. identifying similar types of literary text and discussing the topics that connect them, for example, animal stories
    2. clapping, communicating using alternative and augmentative communication system or repeating a short poem or rhyme
  2. Recognise familiar texts which share the same character or similar topic or event (VCELT080)
    1. learning that texts can share a similar theme or character
    2. joining in the chant or rhyme during shared reading
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Explore some familiar texts and images used in the community (VCELY081)
    1. exploring the texts, images and objects associated with cultural events.
    2. investigating different ways texts can express the same things in different contexts
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Recognise that images, words and symbols convey meaning (VCELY082)
    1. identifying and labelling pictorial representations of familiar objects, events and activities
    2. identifying some personally significant words, symbols and images
  2. Use images within text to identify key objects and events (VCELY083)
    1. using images to select a text to be read or viewed
    2. learning to sequence images to demonstrate an understanding of a text that has been listened to or viewed
  3. Use simple visual schedules and selected imaginative and informative texts (VCELY084)
    1. matching images to events and activities
    2. recognising familiar characters, images and events in texts
    3. identifying real and imaginary events

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Know that symbols, words and images can communicate needs (VCELA085)
    1. making choices through alternative and augmentative communication, sign, symbol and image selection
    2. using language to make requests, greet people, convey basic information about themselves and others
    3. using image and sentence strip to communicate a need for example I want… to assist in requesting an object
    4. using symbols to label an image
  2. Know their written name (as a grapheme) and match the letters in their name (VCELA086)
    1. matching letters that are the same
    2. recognising that letters and numbers are different
    3. learning to speak and communicate using simple sentence starters
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Use spoken words, sign or Augmentative Alternative Communication System to communicate and understand that images can be used to write and express ideas (VCELA087)
    1. learning to use high-frequency images and words, for example the student’s own name, ‘stop’
    2. using spoken words, articulating most of the sounds
    3. learning that images/signs can be combined to make a word
    4. listening to sounds and words and reproducing them using a personalised communication system
  2. Know the beginning sounds (onset) of familiar words (VCELA088)
    1. exploring sounds and how they are combined to make words
    2. knowing how to copy/imitate words and sounds using voice or personalised communication system
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Retell an event or familiar text through images and illustrations (VCELT089)
    1. labelling images from a familiar text or event
    2. learning to sequence images to retell a significant event or routine
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create simple texts by labelling images from an event with own ‘writing’ (VCELY090)
    1. assisting in the collection of relevant images for a class photo story
    2. attempting to copy letters and simple words from a modelled example
    3. participating in the construction of class texts by selecting images, and adding vocalisation or drawings
  2. Review choices made during shared construction of personalised multimodal texts during shared review (VCELY091)
    1. using the delete button when editing own typing
    2. making suggestions on what can change during a shared editing session, for example image, sound clip from a selection of options
  3. Trace patterns and letters (VCELY092)
    1. attempting to convey a message through marks on paper, including some linear letter-like marks, moving from left to right across the page
    2. holding and manipulating objects using their fingers
    3. using objects and materials in purposeful ways
  4. Use software or application by selecting images and typing to ‘label’ images (VCELY093)
    1. labelling an image with a simple ‘text like’ statement
    2. taking photos to be used in multimodal text

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Recognise that words, images and actions have the same meaning across environments (VCELA094)
    1. recognising and communicating the label for everyday objects
    2. showing some of the ways to maintain an interaction between self and others using verbal- vocal exchange, sign or augmentative and alternative communication
    3. recognising and following simple multi-word directions
Language for interaction
  1. Recognise ways to greet and interact with familiar people (VCELA095)
    1. greeting people, such as a grandparent, helper or teacher, differently according to their relationship, for example how they use their name or a particular form of greeting
    2. using social aspects of listening and speaking
    3. using appropriate combinations of words, signs, gestures, or assistive technologies and alternative and augmentative communication to signal greetings such as hello or goodbye
  2. Recognise different ways to communicate needs, likes and dislikes (VCELA096)
    1. expressing needs, wants and feelings through language and communication
    2. making requests through the use of words, photographs, pictures or alternative and augmentative communication
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Use words and images to make a request, indicate a choice, recount information, and express a feeling (VCELA097)
    1. exploring and matching everyday words, signs and images to objects, events and places
    2. using an ever-widening vocabulary associated with familiar routines and actions
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Recognise the beginning sounds of familiar words (VCELA098)
    1. matching images to objects
    2. recognising objects or images that begin with the same or a similar sound
    3. copying and imitating words and sounds using voice or alternative and augmentative communication
  2. Identify the initial sound of a single syllable word (VCELA099)
    1. breaking a word into its onset and rime
    2. investigating words which share the same onset
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Identify a preferred aspect of text, such as image, refrain within a multimodal text (VCELT100)
    1. identifying repeated images and objects within a text
    2. engaging with the images and refrains in some stories
  2. Identify a favourite character or event within a story (VCELT101)
    1. learning to link an event within a text to a feeling, for example happy, sad, angry
    2. identifying a favourite image within a preferred text
Examining literature
  1. Repeat and follow rhythms and sound patterns in familiar rhymes and songs from a range of cultures (VCELT102)
    1. learning the key actions of everyday songs and rhymes
    2. exploring the use of percussion instruments to react to the rhythm of a text
Creating literature
  1. Modify part of a refrain from a familiar text (VCELT103)
    1. changing the ending of a refrain from a familiar text
    2. changing the action used within a reframe
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen to and respond to the communication from an adult in classroom situations (VCELY104)
    1. listening and responding to simple instructions and questions
    2. answering simple questions using single word responses, for example yes, no, red, bus or alternative and augmentative communication
  2. Deliver some comment to a small group (VCELY105)
    1. selecting images or objects for presentation to their peers
    2. using sentence strips or alternative and augmentative communication to deliver information
    3. exploring ways to convey information to others

Level C Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level C, students listen to and view a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They identify the main character or event in a familiar text using visual images from the text. They participate in interactive stories and repeat or activate a short phrase or refrain during the sharing of a familiar text. When reading, students move through a print text from front to back. They can comment or point to illustrations in reading material to predict the topic of the material. They use a key word to respond to questions about what is happening in a text. They can make a graphophonic identification of their own name. They can match letters and numbers, and identify some letters and numbers named by another.

Writing

When writing, students add writing such as scribble to label or comment on drawings, and imitate writing words and sentences. They express and record their wants and needs through a word, a picture or symbol selection. They demonstrate fine motor grasp and manipulating skills such as moving, picking up and manipulating objects. They can hold and use a pencil to make purposeful marks on paper. They apply colour to an...

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Level D (Towards Foundation)

Level D Description

In the Level D, students communicate with known adults, teachers and peers. Students are provided with experiences that engage, support and extend their learning, including the use of pictorial representations or other marks to express and record their ideas. Students communicate by using short oral statements or augmentative communication systems. Students listen and follow simple directions...

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Level D Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Investigate different forms of texts and the relationship between symbols, images and objects (VCELA106)
    1. making meaning from familiar environmental texts, for example a stop or exit sign
    2. recognising that texts can be used to outline a series of actions or schedule, for example, a routine, sequence, daily timetable
  2. Identify some of the features of text such as digital/screen layout or the features of a book cover (VCELA107)
    1. learning that an idea can be represented in different ways, for example a word, a picture, an image
    2. identifying the topic of a book from the image on the cover
    3. using an icon image to select a digital text
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand how to make a statement or ask a question (VCELA108)
    1. recognising when to ask a question
    2. communicating a statement to express an idea
    3. communicating a statement to answer a question
    4. communicating a statement to ask a simple question
  2. Recognise how a group of words can represent an object or image (VCELA109)
    1. using a noun and adjective to refer to an object or image, for example ‘the red car’ to refer to an object or image
    2. making a request using a group of words, for example ‘I want the red car’, ‘cold drink please’, ‘work book please’
    3. identifying spaces, letters and words in text
  3. Explore connection between words, objects and images in stories and informative texts (VCELA110)
    1. learning that text can provide information about an image
    2. understanding that words can be used to describe an image
    3. learning that words and images can be used to tell a story about an event
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Know that a letter can be the same but look different, including capital and lower-case letters, and match some letters with their sound and name (VCELA111)
    1. recognising the individual letters of their name
    2. experiencing the individual letters of the alphabet, their name letter and common sounds
    3. identifying their name as starting with a capital letter
  2. Identify and make sounds associated with the beginning letter of words or images (VCELA112)
    1. identifying the beginning sound of a word
    2. identifying familiar words or image which start with the same sound
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Identify topic and key events in texts that reflect personal and familiar experiences (VCELT113)
    1. recognising shared elements from texts and their own personal experience
    2. engaging with texts about a familiar event and comparing to personal experience
Examining literature
  1. Know some characteristics and features of literary texts, such as characters, beginning and ending in stories and rhyme in poetry (VCELT114)
    1. knowing that there are different types of literary texts, for example story, poetry
  2. Identify the characters, events and setting in a literary text (VCELT115)
    1. recognising a familiar setting or event in a known text
    2. recognising similar objects and events across texts
    3. discussing setting and characters within the text
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Identify some familiar texts and their use in the community (VCELY116)
    1. recognising a familiar event from a book, card or symbol
    2. recognising the purpose of some everyday signs, for example ‘stop’, ‘phone’, ‘bus stop’
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Read a simple sentence or pictorial representation of a sentence (VCELY117)
    1. repeating predictable text and refrains from a familiar story
    2. identifying and selecting a small number of words or symbols within an environmental text
  2. Use images to retell or comment on a familiar text listened to and viewed (VCELY118)
    1. beginning to identify key characters and the setting within a text
    2. using images from text to assist with comprehending and discussing texts that have been listened to and viewed
  3. Identify some familiar informative and imaginary texts (VCELY119)
    1. discussing whether characters in texts may be real or imaginary
    2. co-constructing and following texts such as visual schedules based on classroom routines and activities

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that language can be represented as written text (VCELA120)
    1. identifying object or action by matching object to word
    2. contributing text during shared writing experiences
  2. Copy own name and recognise some of the letters within it, and understand that pausing is presented as a full stop in written text (VCELA121)
    1. learning that each letter has two symbols, a capital and lowercase symbol
    2. recognising the capital letter of their name in other contexts
    3. understanding what a full stop looks like
    4. locating full stops in text
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Use, communicate or articulate high-frequency words and reproduce familiar sounds and their letters (VCELA122)
    1. identifying the beginning sound of own names and other familiar words
    2. using and articulating a range of familiar words
    3. repeating short refrains from texts, for example ‘I think I can’, ‘I’m not scared’, ‘Where are you?’
    4. identifying some words with the same onset, for example objects that start with the same letter as their name
    5. learning to recognize some letter-sound relationships
  2. Identify the onset of familiar words and some words that have the same rime (VCELA123)
    1. recognising one-syllable spoken words that start with the same sound
    2. recognising one-syllable spoken words with the same end sound
    3. investigating sounds and syllables within familiar words
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Retell familiar text or event by sequencing images and simple statements (VCELT124)
    1. identifying key images of a story
    2. using two to three images in sequence to retell an event or familiar text
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Use symbols, letters and words to create a simple statement about an idea or event (VCELY125)
    1. creating a drawing and simple statement (of own ‘writing’) about an event
    2. participating in the construction of class texts by selecting images and suggesting simple sentences to accompany the image
  2. Review own text and make changes during shared editing (VCELY126)
    1. using delete and Caps Lock functions during shared editing of their own typing
    2. making alternative selections of images and audio used, including music, during shared editing
    3. checking their name, some patterns and symbols for size
  3. Copy and write letters, symbols and numbers (VCELY127)
    1. using letters (including letter-like symbols) when 'writing'
    2. using a tripod grip to hold and handle writing implements
    3. developing finger strength and endurance by holding and handling small objects and materials
  4. Use software or application by selecting images and suggesting simple sentences to accompany the image (VCELY128)
    1. typing simple sentences from a sentence stem
    2. recording a simple message or a retelling of a story or event, using a simple text to talk program, switch activated communication device or application such as ‘audio memo’ or ‘Proloque2Go’

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that people communicate in different ways (VCELA129)
    1. knowing that people use different communication forms, such as image, voice, facial expressions or sign, to communicate the same intention, for example ‘stop’ as a sign, image or expression
    2. recognising that people communicate in different ways
    3. learning that English is the spoken language used at school
    4. modifying the style (for example, volume, rate or intensity) of communication to suit familiar locations and contexts
Language for interaction
  1. Know how to greet and maintain a short interaction with others (VCELA130)
    1. intentionally conveying information during a communication exchange
    2. changing volume based on the context, for example inside and outside
    3. learning to recognise the space required when communicating with another person
  2. Use different ways to express needs, likes and dislikes (VCELA131)
    1. using communication systems to express preferences and make requests and comments
    2. recognising that symbols and signs can be used in conjunction with spoken language to communicate ideas
    3. using words, signs or images to express needs and feelings
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Use vocabulary in the form of short phrases for a variety of purposes such as to request an object, communicate a need, recount information, or express a feeling (VCELA132)
    1. building the vocabulary to label personal interests, experiences and associated objects
    2. building vocabulary and images used to label experiences at school including those associated with topics or themes of study
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Identify the sounds within familiar words (VCELA133)
    1. identifying the beginning sound of their own name, and in familiar everyday words
    2. tapping out a beat to represent the syllables in two and three syllable words including their own name
  2. Blend sounds to produce familiar single syllable words and identify words that have the same rime (VCELA134)
    1. exploring words which share the same rime
    2. identifying the sounds within the word
    3. matching the grapheme (letter) with the phoneme (sound)
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Identify favourite texts topic and character (VCELT136)
    1. identifying key events within favourite texts
    2. identifying the main character or objects within a known story
    3. engaging in the refrain from a favourite story
  2. Express likes or dislikes about characters and events in a text (VCELT137)
    1. comparing self to familiar characters and events within a text
    2. identifying favourite events within preferred texts
    3. identifying favourite characters or objects within a story
Examining literature
  1. Identify and copy the rhythms and sound patterns in stories, rhymes and songs from a range of cultures (VCELT138)
    1. accompanying songs and rhymes using a range of musical instruments
Creating literature
  1. Add to a familiar text (VCELT135)
    1. adding additional challenges or events within a familiar text
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen and respond to communication of others in classroom situations and routines (VCELY139)
    1. asking and answering questions to seek information
    2. communicating in pairs during a classroom activity
  2. Deliver short oral presentation about an object or event of interest that identifies some of its key characteristics (VCELY140)
    1. identifying and sharing some ideas with a small group
    2. sharing a simple retelling of a recent significant event

Level D Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level D, students listen to and view a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They identify the main character and event in an imaginative text. They use visual images to identify the key topic or theme within an informative text. They understand familiar text by using images and communicate a short statement about the text. They can follow a simple pictorial timetable. They select their own reading material by looking at the picture on the cover. They model reading by tracking text page by page, from left to right and top to bottom, and follow or point to a line of text as it is being read. They use illustrations to retell a story and answer simple questions about a story. They recognise the connection between print and the spoken word, identifying spaces, letters and/or words in text, and reading familiar words and signs using partial cues and illustrations. They identify some letters of the English alphabet and their associated sound. They retell a picture story they have selected using key words to describe each picture. They respond to questions and sequence key words to describe or predict what is happening...

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Foundation Level

Foundation Level Description

In the Foundation level, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults, and students from other classes.

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as some texts designed to inform. These include traditional oral texts, picture books, various types of...

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Foundation Level Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that texts can take many forms, and that imaginative and informative texts have different purposes (VCELA141)
    1. sharing experiences of different texts and discussing some differences
    2. discussing the purpose of texts, for example ‘This text will tell a story’, ‘This text will give information’
    3. repeating parts of texts, for example characteristic refrains, predicting cumulative storylines, reciting poetic and rhyming phrases
  2. Understand concepts about print and screen, including how books, film and simple digital texts work, and know some features of print, including directionality (VCELA142)
    1. learning about print: direction of print and return sweep, spaces between words
    2. learning that Standard Australian English in written texts is read from left to right and from top to bottom of the page and that direction of print may differ in other cultures, for example Japanese texts
    3. learning about front and back covers; title and author, layout and navigation of digital/screen texts
    4. learning about simple functions of keyboard and mouse including typing letters, scrolling, selecting icons and drop-down menu
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Recognise that sentences are key units for expressing ideas (VCELA143)
    1. learning that word order in sentences is important for meaning (for example 'The boy sat on the dog', 'The dog sat on the boy')
    2. creating students' own written texts and reading aloud to the teacher and others
  2. Recognise that texts are made up of words and groups of words that make meaning (VCELA144)
    1. exploring spoken, written and multimodal texts and identifying elements, for example words and images
  3. Explore the different contribution of words and images to meaning in stories and informative texts (VCELA145)
    1. talking about how a ‘different’ story is told if we read only the words, or only the pictures; and the story that words and pictures make when combined
    2. exploring how the combination of print and images in texts create meaning
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Recognise all upper- and lower-case letters and the most common sound that each letter represents (VCELA146)
    1. recognising and saying the name and most common sound made by each upper and lower case letter of the alphabet, including consonants and short vowel sounds, such as /a/ in cat
    2. using familiar and common letters in handwritten and digital communications
  2. Blend sounds associated with letters when reading consonant-vowel-consonant words (VCELA147)
    1. blending together common sounds for consonants and vowels to read short words with consonant-vowel-consonant patterns, for example, c-a-t, p-e-g
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Recognise that texts are created by authors who tell stories and share experiences that may be similar or different to students’ own experiences (VCELT148)
    1. recognising that there are storytellers in all cultures
    2. viewing stories by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers from online sources
    3. comparing experiences depicted in stories with students’ own
    4. engaging with texts that reflect the social and cultural groups to which students belong
Examining literature
  1. Recognise some different types of literary texts and identify some characteristic features of literary texts (VCELT149)
    1. recognising cultural patterns of storytelling, for example ‘Once upon a time’, ‘A long, long time ago’, ‘Before the Dreamtime…’
  2. Identify some features of texts including events and characters and retell events from a text (VCELT150)
    1. identifying some features of culture related to characters and events in literary texts, for example dress, food and daily routines
    2. listening, responding to and joining in with rhymes, poems, chants and songs
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Identify some familiar texts and the contexts in which they are used (VCELY151)
    1. recognising the meaning of symbols in everyday contexts, for example exit signs, logos, hearts and flowers on greeting cards
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Read texts with familiar structures and features, practising phrasing and fluency, and monitor meaning using concepts about print and emerging phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge (VCELY152)
    1. navigating a text correctly, starting at the right place and reading in the right direction, returning to the next line as needed, matching one spoken word to one written word
    2. reading aloud with attempts at fluency and intonation
    3. attempting to work out unknown words by combining contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge
    4. predicting what might happen on the basis of experience of this kind of text; at the sentence level predicting the meaning on the basis of syntax and word meaning
  2. Use comprehension strategies to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently (VCELY153)
    1. talking about the meanings in texts listened to, viewed and read
    2. visualising elements in a text (for example drawing an event or character from a text read aloud)
    3. providing a simple, correctly-sequenced retelling of narrative texts
    4. relating one or two key facts from informative texts
    5. finding a key word in a text to answer a literal question
    6. making links between events in a text and students’ own experiences
    7. making an inference about a character's feelings
    8. discussing and sequencing events in stories
    9. drawing events in sequence, recognising that for some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories the sequence of events may be cyclical
  3. Identify some differences between imaginative and informative texts (VCELY154)
    1. talking about what is ‘real’ and what is imagined in texts
    2. identifying and selecting texts for information purposes and commenting on how the text might help with a task

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that some language in written texts is unlike everyday spoken language (VCELA155)
    1. learning that written text in Standard Australian English has conventions about words, spaces between words, layout on the page and consistent spelling because it has to communicate when the speaker/writer is not present
  2. Understand that punctuation is a feature of written text different from letters and recognise how capital letters are used for names, and that capital letters and full stops signal the beginning and end of sentences (VCELA156)
    1. pointing to the letters and the punctuation in a text
    2. commenting on punctuation encountered in the everyday texts, for example ‘That’s the letter that starts my name’, ‘The name of my family and my town has a capital letter’
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand that spoken sounds and words can be written and know how to write some high-frequency words and other familiar words including their name (VCELA157)
    1. recognising the most common sound made by each letter of the alphabet, including consonants and short vowel sounds
    2. writing consonant-vowel-consonant words by writing letters to represent the sounds in the spoken words
    3. knowing that spoken words are written down by listening to the sounds heard in the word and then writing letters to represent those sounds
  2. Know how to use onset and rime to spell words where sounds map more directly onto letters (VCELA158)
    1. breaking words into onset and rime, for example c/at
    2. building word families using onset and rime, for example h/ot, g/ot, n/ot, sh/ot, sp/ot
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Retell familiar literary texts through performance, use of illustrations and images (VCELT159)
    1. drawing, labelling and role playing representations of characters or events
    2. reciting rhymes with actions
    3. using digital technologies to retell events and recreate characters from favourite print and film texts
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create short texts to explore, record and report ideas and events using familiar words and beginning writing knowledge (VCELY160)
    1. using image-making and beginning writing to represent characters and events in written, film and web-based texts
    2. using speaking, writing and drawing to represent and communicate personal responses to ideas and events experienced through texts
    3. creating short spoken, written and multimodal observations, recounts and descriptions, extending vocabulary and including some content-specific words in spoken and written texts
    4. using beginning concepts about print, sound–letter and word knowledge and punctuation to create short texts
  2. Participate in shared editing of students’ own texts for meaning, spelling, capital letters and full stops (VCELY161)
    1. rereading collaboratively developed texts to check that they communicate what the authors intended
  3. Understand that sounds in English are represented by upper- and lower-case letters that can be written using learned letter formation patterns for each case (VCELY162)
    1. adopting correct posture and pencil grip
    2. learning to produce simple handwriting movements
    3. following clear demonstrations of how to construct each letter (for example where to start; which direction to write)
    4. learning to construct lower-case letters and to combine these into words
    5. learning to construct some upper-case letters
  4. Construct texts using software including word processing programs (VCELY163)
    1. using simple functions of keyboard and mouse including typing letters, scrolling, selecting icons and drop-down menu

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that English is one of many languages spoken in Australia and that different languages may be spoken by family, classmates and community (VCELA164)
    1. learning that different languages exist; discussing the various languages encountered in the community and at school; acknowledging the home languages of students who speak another language, and valuing the ability to speak more than one language
    2. recognising that some texts can include both Standard Australian English and elements of other languages including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages
Language for interaction
  1. Explore how language is used differently at home and school depending on the relationships between people (VCELA165)
    1. learning that language varies according to the relationships between people, for example between parent and child, teacher and student, siblings, friends, shopkeepers and customers
    2. learning that we use a different tone and style of language with different people
    3. learning to ask relevant questions and to express requests and opinions in ways that suit different contexts
  2. Understand that language can be used to explore ways of expressing needs, likes and dislikes (VCELA166)
    1. recognising some of the ways we can use speech, gesture, writing and media to communicate feelings
    2. recognising some of the ways emotions and feelings can be conveyed and influenced by visual representations, for example in advertising and animations
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand the use of vocabulary in familiar contexts related to everyday experiences, personal interests and topics taught at school (VCELA167)
    1. engaging in multiple speaking and listening experiences to build vocabulary
    2. discussing new vocabulary found in texts
    3. bringing vocabulary from personal experiences, relating this to new experiences and building a vocabulary for thinking and talking about school topics
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Identify rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and some sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (VCELA168)
    1. listening to the sounds a student hears in the word, and writing letters to represent those sounds
    2. identifying rhyme and syllables in spoken words
    3. identifying and manipulating sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
    4. identifying onset and rime in one-syllable spoken words
  2. Blend and segment onset and rime in single syllable spoken words and isolate, blend and segment phonemes in single syllable words (first consonant sound, last consonant sound, middle vowel sound) (VCELA169)
    1. putting together and pulling apart onset and rime sounds (phonemes) in spoken words with one syllable, for example st-op, b-ack and in spoken words with consonant-vowel-consonant patterns, for example d-o-g, c-u-p
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Respond to texts, identifying favourite stories, authors and illustrators (VCELT170)
    1. talking about stories and authors, choosing favourites, discussing how students feel about what happens in stories
    2. engaging with the humour in some stories and repeating favourite lines, jokes and ideas
    3. returning to preferred texts and commenting on reasons for selection
  2. Share feelings and thoughts about the events and characters in texts (VCELT171)
    1. talking about stories and authors, choosing favourites, discussing how students feel about what happens in stories
    2. using art forms and beginning forms of writing to express personal responses to literature and film experiences
    3. talking about people, events and ideas in texts to connect them to their own experiences and to express their own opinions about what is depicted
Examining literature
  1. Replicate the rhythms and sound patterns in stories, rhymes, songs and poems from a range of cultures (VCELT172)
    1. using music and actions to enhance appreciation of rhymes, poems, chants and songs
    2. reciting rhymes with actions
Creating literature
  1. Modify familiar texts (VCELT173)
    1. changing familiar texts by innovating on elements of text structure, for example replacing rhyming words or substituting verbs with other verbs
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen to and respond orally to texts and to the communication of others in informal and structured classroom situations using interaction skills, including listening, while others speak (VCELY174)
    1. listening to, remembering and following simple instructions
    2. sequencing ideas in spoken texts, retelling well known stories, retelling stories with picture cues, retelling information using story maps
    3. listening for specific things, for example the main idea of a short statement, the details of a story, or to answer a given question
    4. participating in informal situations, for example play-based experiences which involve the imaginative use of spoken language
    5. participating in class, group and pair discussions about shared experiences including shared texts
    6. asking and answering questions to clarify understanding
  2. Deliver short oral presentations to peers, using appropriate voice levels, articulation, body language, gestures and eye contact (VCELY175)
    1. sharing a personal experience, interest or discovery with peers in a semi-formal situation
    2. using visual cues to practise staying on topic

Foundation Level Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of the Foundation level, students use questioning and monitoring strategies to make meaning from texts. They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics. They understand that there are different types of texts and that these can have similar characteristics. They identify connections between texts and their personal experience. They read short predictable texts with familiar vocabulary and supportive images, drawing on their developing knowledge of concepts about print, and sound and letters. They identify all the letters of the English alphabet in both upper- and lower-case, and know and can use the sounds represented by most letters.

Writing

When writing, students use familiar words and phrases and images to convey ideas. Their writing shows evidence of letter and sound knowledge, beginning writing behaviours and experimentation with capital letters and full stops. They correctly form all upper- and lower-case letters.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen to and use appropriate interaction skills to respond to others in a familiar environment. They can identify rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words. Students understand that their texts can reflect their own experiences. They identify and describe likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events. In informal group and whole-class settings, students communicate clearly. They retell events and experiences with peers and known adults. They identify and use rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words.

Level 1

Level 1 Description

In Level 1, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults and students from other classes.

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts designed to entertain and inform. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry...

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Level 1 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that the purposes texts serve shape their structure in predictable ways (VCELA176)
    1. discussing and comparing the purposes of familiar texts drawn from local contexts and interests
    2. becoming familiar with the typical stages of types of text including recount and procedure
    3. using different types of texts, for example procedures (including recipes), and discussing the text structure
  2. Understand concepts about print and screen, including how different types of texts are organised using page numbering, tables of content, headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links (VCELA177)
    1. learning about how books and digital texts are organised including page numbers, table of contents, headings, images with captions and the use of scrolling to access digital texts
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Identify the parts of a simple sentence that represent ‘What’s happening?’, ‘Who or what is involved?’ and the surrounding circumstances (VCELA178)
    1. knowing that, in terms of meaning, a basic sentence or clause represents: a happening or a state (verb), who or what is involved (noun group/phrase), and the surrounding circumstances (adverb group/phrase)
    2. understanding that a simple sentence expresses a single idea, represented grammatically by a single independent clause (for example 'A kangaroo is a mammal. A mammal suckles its young')
  2. Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs) (VCELA179)
    1. talking about effective words that describe a place, person or event
    2. learning how a sentence can be made more vivid by adding adjectives, adverbs and unusual verbs
  3. Compare different kinds of images in narrative and informative texts and discuss how they contribute to meaning (VCELA180)
    1. talking about what is ‘real’ and what is imagined in texts, for example ‘This is the section about platypuses in the book about mammals’
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Recognise short vowels, common long vowels and consonant digraphs, and consonant blends (VCELA181)
    1. saying words with the same onset as a given word (for example words that begin like 'd/og', 'bl/ue')
    2. saying words with the same rime as a given word (for example words that end like 'c/at', 'pl/ay')
  2. Understand how to spell one and two syllable words with common letter patterns (VCELA182)
    1. investigating one and two syllable words containing common consonant blends and vowel sounds, for example ‘tree’, ‘star’ and 'about', 'begin', identified in shared texts
    2. learning an increasing number of high-frequency sight words recognised in shared texts and in texts being read independently (for example 'one', 'have', 'them', 'about')
  3. Understand that a letter can represent more than one sound, and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound (VCELA183)
    1. recognising that letters can have more than one sound (for example ‘u’ in ‘cut’, ‘put’, ‘use’ and a in ‘cat’, ‘father’, ‘any’)
    2. recognising sounds that can be produced by different letters (for example the /s/ sound in ‘sat’, ‘cent’, ‘scene’)
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Respond to texts drawn from a range of cultures and experiences (VCELY185)
    1. exploring some of the meanings and teachings embedded in Dreaming stories
    2. using drawing and writing to depict and comment on people and places beyond their immediate experience
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (VCELY186)
    1. using elements in books and screen texts, for example illustrations, diagrams, sound and movement, to support reading
    2. making connections between the text and students’ own experiences, and between information in print and images
    3. finding key information in a text
    4. making inferences about characters’ feelings and motives
    5. building knowledge about the topic of the text and learning new vocabulary before and during reading
    6. making predictions from the cover, from illustrations and at points in the text before reading on
    7. retelling the events or key information in the text orally, in writing and/or through digital or arts media
  2. Read texts with familiar features and structures using developing phrasing, fluency, phonic, semantic, contextual, and grammatical knowledge and emerging text processing strategies, including prediction, monitoring meaning and rereading (VCELY187)
    1. using contextual and semantic knowledge to make predictions about a text’s purpose and content
    2. combining knowledge of context, meaning, grammar and phonics to decode text
    3. recognising most high-frequency sight words when reading text
    4. self-correcting when reading does not make sense, using pictures, context, meaning, phonics and grammatical knowledge
    5. reading aloud with developing fluency and intonation
  3. Describe some differences between imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, and identify the audience of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts (VCELY188)
    1. comparing and discussing texts, identifying some features that distinguish those that ‘tell stories’ from those that ‘give opinions’
    2. selecting texts for a particular purpose or task, for example a website that will give information about whales, a book that will tell a story about a possum

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand patterns of repetition and contrast in simple texts (VCELA189)
    1. identifying patterns of vocabulary items in texts (for example class/subclass patterns, part/whole patterns, compare/contrast patterns, cause-and-effect patterns, word associations/collocation)
    2. discussing different types of texts and identifying some characteristic features and elements (for example language patterns and repetition) in stories and poetry
  2. Recognise that different types of punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, signal sentences that make statements, ask questions, express emotion or give commands (VCELA190)
    1. using intonation and pauses in response to punctuation when reading
    2. reading texts and identifying different sentence-level punctuation
    3. writing different types of sentences, for example statements and questions, and discussing appropriate punctuation
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Recognise and know how to use simple grammatical morphemes in word families (VCELA191)
    1. building word families from common morphemes (for example 'play', 'plays', 'playing', 'played', 'playground')
    2. using morphemes to read words (for example by recognising the 'stem' in words such as 'walk/ed')
  2. Understand how to use visual memory to write high-frequency words, and that some high-frequency words have regular and irregular spelling components (VCELA184)
    1. using strategies such as look-say-cover-write-check to learn an increasing number of high-frequency sight words recognised in texts, including words with regular spelling patterns such as 'them' and 'got' and irregular patterns such as 'one' and 'was'
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Recreate texts imaginatively using drawing, writing, performance and digital forms of communication (VCELT192)
    1. creating visual representations of literary texts from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or Asian cultures
    2. writing character descriptions drawn from illustrations in stories
    3. retelling key events in stories using oral language, arts, digital technologies and performance media
  2. Build on familiar texts by using similar characters, repetitive patterns or vocabulary (VCELT193)
    1. creating familiar text types in shared or independent writing by drawing on details of characters, repeated phrases and similar vocabulary encountered in known texts
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements (VCELY194)
    1. referring to learned knowledge of text structure and grammar when creating a new text
    2. applying new vocabulary appropriately in creating text
    3. learning how to plan spoken and written communications so that listeners and readers might follow the sequence of ideas or events
    4. beginning to consider audience in designing a communication involving visual components, selecting images for maximum impact
  2. Reread student's own texts and discuss possible changes to improve meaning, spelling and punctuation (VCELY195)
    1. adding or deleting words on page or screen to improve meaning, for example adding an adjective to a noun
    2. reading own work aloud to listen for grammatical correctness: checking use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks
    3. checking for inclusion of capital letters and full stops
    4. identifying words which might not be spelt correctly
    5. beginning to use dictionaries and classroom charts to check and correct spelling of less familiar words
  3. Understand how to use learned formation patterns to represent sounds and write words using combinations of unjoined upper- and lower-case letters (VCELY196)
    1. using correct posture and pencil grip
    2. learning how each letter is constructed including where to start and the direction to follow
    3. writing words legibly using unjoined print script of consistent size
  4. Construct texts that incorporate supporting images using software including word processing programs (VCELY197)
    1. creating digital images and composing a story or information sequence on screen using images and captions
    2. adding images to digital written communications such as emails with pictures of self, classmates or location

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that people use different systems of communication to cater to different needs and purposes and that many people may use sign systems to communicate with others (VCELA198)
    1. recognising how and where signs and symbols are used and placed in students’ school and community
    2. learning some signs in Auslan and finding out about ‘Hear a Book’ and Braille technologies for hearing and visually impaired people
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that language is used in combination with other means of communication (VCELA199)
    1. recognising the effect of words, symbols, gestures and body language on the way communications are received by others
  2. Understand that there are different ways of asking for information, making offers and giving commands (VCELA200)
    1. learning the difference between questions and statements, requests and commands
    2. learning about different types of questions including closed and open questions and ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘why’ questions
  3. Explore different ways of expressing emotions, including verbal, visual, body language and facial expressions (VCELA201)
    1. extending students’ vocabularies for the expression of feelings and emotions
    2. considering how others might respond before expressing their views, and how students might respond to others’ views in civil and constructive ways
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand the use of vocabulary in everyday contexts as well as a growing number of school contexts, including appropriate use of formal and informal terms of address in different contexts (VCELA202)
    1. learning forms of address for visitors and how to use language appropriately to ask directions and for information, for example on excursions
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Identify the separate phonemes in consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of syllables (VCELA203)
    1. clapping the syllables in words and identifying the separate consonant sounds in blends or clusters in each syllable, for example in 'frost' and 'play-ing'
  2. Manipulate phonemes by addition, deletion and substitution of initial, medial and final phonemes to generate new words (VCELA204)
    1. recognising words that start with a given sound, end with a given sound, have a given medial sound, rhyme with a given word
    2. recognising and producing rhyming words
    3. replacing sounds in spoken words, for example replace the ‘m’ in 'mat' with 'c' to form a new word 'cat', deleting the 'f' from 'farm' to form a new word 'arm', and substituting the 't' in 'pet' with 'n' to form a new word 'pen'
    4. saying sounds in order for a given spoken word (for example f/i/sh, th/i/s)
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Discuss how authors create characters using language and images (VCELT205)
    1. identifying similarities between texts from different cultural traditions, for example representations of dragons in traditional European and Asian texts, and how spiritual beings are represented in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories
    2. identifying some features of characters and how particular words and images convey qualities of their nature, for example some characters are portrayed as shy, others adventurous
    3. discussing the characters of fictional animals and how they relate to those of humans
Responding to literature
  1. Express preferences for specific texts and authors and listen to the opinions of others (VCELT206)
    1. sharing favourite texts and authors and some reasons for preferences
    2. discussing different texts and considering what is entertaining or appealing
    3. using arts methods and role play to express personal responses to characters and events in stories
    4. identifying who is telling the story in different texts
  2. Discuss characters and events in a range of literary texts and share personal responses to these texts, making connections with own experiences (VCELT207)
    1. discussing characters from books and films and whether these are life-like or imaginary (for example talking animals)
    2. comparing characters and events in texts to own experiences
Examining literature
  1. Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and compare some features of characters in different texts (VCELT208)
    1. examining different types of literature including traditional tales, humorous stories and poetry
    2. discussing similarities and differences between texts ( for example features of main characters in different stories)
    3. discussing features of book settings including time (year, season) and place (country or city, realistic or imagined)
    4. discussing how plots develop including: beginnings (orientation), how the problem (complication) is introduced and solved (resolution)
  2. Listen to, recite and perform poems, chants, rhymes and songs, imitating and inventing sound patterns including alliteration and rhyme (VCELT209)
    1. exploring performance poetry, chants and songs from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Asian cultures
    2. listening to and performing simple haiku poems about familiar topics such as nature and the seasons
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Engage in conversations and discussions, using active listening, showing interest, and contributing ideas, information and questions, taking turns and recognising the contributions of others (VCELY210)
    1. listening for details in spoken informative texts
    2. participating in informal and structured class, group and pair discussions about content area topics, ideas and information
    3. speaking clearly and with appropriate volume
    4. interacting confidently and appropriately with peers, teachers, visitors and community members
    5. learning to value listening, questioning and positive body language and understanding that different cultures may approach these differently
    6. formulating different types of questions to ask a speaker, such as open and closed questions and ‘when’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions
  2. Make short presentations, speaking clearly and using appropriate voice and pace, and using some introduced text structures and language (VCELY211)
    1. reporting the results of group discussions
    2. providing simple explanations about how to do or make something
    3. giving short oral presentations about areas of interest or content area topics, speaking clearly and with appropriate volume and using extended vocabulary and a growing knowledge of content-specific words

Level 1 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 1, students understand the different purposes of texts. They make connections to personal experience when explaining characters and main events in short texts. They identify that texts serve different purposes and that this affects how they are organised. They are able to read aloud, with developing fluency, short texts with some unfamiliar vocabulary, simple and compound sentences and supportive images. When reading, they use knowledge of the relationships between sounds and letters, high-frequency words, sentence-boundary punctuation and directionality to make meaning. They recall key ideas and recognise literal and implied meaning in texts.

Writing

When writing, students provide details about ideas or events, and details about the participants in those events. They accurately spell words with regular spelling patterns and use their knowledge of blending and segmenting, and many simple and high-frequency words to write predictable words. They use capital letters and full stops appropriately.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen to others when taking part in conversations using appropriate interaction skills. They listen for and reproduce letter patterns and letter clusters. Students understand how characters in texts are developed and give reasons for personal preferences. They can describe characters, settings and events in different types of literature. They create texts that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images. They create short texts for a small range of purposes. They interact in pair, group and class discussions, taking turns when responding. They make short presentations on familiar topics.

Level 2

Level 2 Description

In Level 2, students communicate with peers, teachers, students from other classes, and community members.

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass traditional oral texts, picture books, various...

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Level 2 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that different types of texts have identifiable text structures and language features that help the text serve its purpose (VCELA212)
    1. identifying the topic and type of a text through its visual presentation, for example cover design, packaging, title/subtitle and images
    2. becoming familiar with the typical stages of text types, for example simple narratives, instructions and expositions
  2. Know some features of text organisation including page and screen layouts, alphabetical order, and different types of diagrams (VCELA213)
    1. recognising how chapters and table of contents, alphabetical order of index and glossary operate to guide access to information
    2. learning about features of screen texts including menu buttons, drop down menus, links and live connections
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand that simple connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with two or more clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction (VCELA214)
    1. learning how to express ideas using compound sentences
    2. learning how to join simple sentences with conjunctions, for example ‘and’, ‘but’ or ‘so’, to construct compound sentences
  2. Identify visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and consider how these images add to or contradict or multiply the meaning of accompanying words (VCELA215)
    1. comparing two versions of the same story, for example ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, identifying how a character’s actions and reactions are depicted differently by different illustrators
  3. Understand that nouns represent people, places, things and ideas and include common, proper, concrete or abstract, and that noun groups/phrases can be expanded using articles and adjectives (VCELA216)
    1. exploring texts and identifying nouns that refer to characters, elements of the setting, and ideas
    2. exploring illustrations and noun groups/phrases in picture books to identify how the participants have been represented by an illustrator
    3. exploring names of people and places and how to write them using capital letters
    4. building extended noun groups/phrases that provide a clear description of an item
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Learn some generalisations for adding suffixes to words (VCELA217)
    1. joining discussion about how a suffix affects meaning, for example uncomfortable, older, and division, and investigating the ways words change when suffixes are added, for example, dropping the final 'e' when '-ing' is added
  2. Recognise most letter–sound matches including silent letters, trigraphs, vowel digraphs and common long vowels, and understand that a sound can be represented by various letter combinations (VCELA218)
    1. recognising when some letters are silent, for example knife, listen, castle, and providing the sound for less common sound-letter matches, for example ‘tion’
Literature Elaborations
Examining literature
  1. Discuss the characters and settings of different texts and explore how language is used to present these features in different ways (VCELT219)
    1. describing features of text settings including time, colours used to portray year, season, and place (country or city) and how this impacts on the characters
    2. describing plots including beginnings (orientation), how the problem (complication) is introduced and solved (resolution), and considering how these features construct meanings
    3. identifying features of imaginary or fantasy texts, for example magic powers, shifts in time
    4. investigating Aboriginal stories, found from online sources, that explain physical features of the landscape and identify and describe the common features of language used
    5. comparing two or more versions of the same story by different authors or from different cultures, describing similarities and differences in authors’ points of view
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Discuss different texts on a similar topic, identifying similarities and differences between the texts (VCELY220)
    1. identifying examples and features of different kinds of spoken, non-verbal, written and visual communication from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and from several Asian cultures within Australia
    2. comparing two or more versions of the same topic by different authors or from different cultures, describing similarities and differences
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Read familiar and some unfamiliar texts with phrasing and fluency by combining phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge using text processing strategies, including monitoring meaning, predicting, rereading and self-correcting (VCELY221)
    1. using prior and learned knowledge and vocabulary to make and confirm predictions when reading text
    2. using grammatical knowledge to predict likely sentence patterns when reading more complex narratives and informative texts
    3. using knowledge of sound–letter relationships and high-frequency sight words when decoding text
    4. monitoring own reading and self-correcting when reading does not make sense, using illustrations, context, phonics, grammar knowledge and prior and learned topic knowledge
    5. using grammar and meaning to read aloud with fluency and intonation
  2. Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to analyse texts by drawing on growing knowledge of context, language and visual features and print and multimodal text structures (VCELY222)
    1. making connections between the text and students’ own experiences and experiences with other texts, comparing authors’ differing point of view on a topic
    2. making connections between information in print and images
    3. building on and using prior knowledge and vocabulary
    4. making valid inferences using information in a text and students’ own prior knowledge
    5. predicting, asking and answering questions as they read, and summarising and reviewing meaning
  3. Analyse how different texts use nouns to represent people, places, things and ideas in particular ways (VCELY223)
    1. discussing the different ways that nouns and noun groups are used in various types of texts, for example, general nouns ('mammals') in information reports and specific nouns ('the neighbour's dog') in narratives

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how texts are made cohesive by the use of resources, including word associations, synonyms, and antonyms (VCELA224)
    1. exploring how texts develop their themes and ideas, building information by connecting similar and contrasting dissimilar things
    2. mapping examples of word associations in texts, for example words that refer to the main character
  2. Recognise that capital letters signal proper nouns and commas are used to separate items in lists (VCELA225)
    1. talking about how a comma can be used to separate two or more elements in a list, for example ‘At the museum they saw a tiger, a dinosaur and two snakes’
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use digraphs, long vowels, blends, silent letters and syllabification to spell simple words including compound words (VCELA226)
    1. drawing on knowledge of high-frequency sight words
    2. drawing on knowledge of sound–letter relationships (for example breaking words into syllables and phonemes)
    3. using known words in writing and spelling unknown words using developing visual, graphophonic and morphemic knowledge
  2. Use visual memory to write high-frequency words and words where spelling is not predictable from the sounds (VCELA227)
    1. writing sight words (because, said) and other words that cannot be sounded out phonetically (bird, phone) by drawing on knowledge of letter patterns, word shape and possible sequencing of letters in English (for example, jam is possible but not jxm)
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Create events and characters using different media that develop key events and characters from literary texts (VCELT228)
    1. creating imaginative reconstructions of stories and poetry using a range of print and digital media
    2. telling known stories from a different point of view
    3. orally, in writing or using digital media, constructing a sequel to a known story
  2. Build on familiar texts by experimenting with character, setting or plot (VCELT229)
    1. innovating on known narratives in shared or independent writing by changing or adding to details of the characters, setting or plot
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose (VCELY230)
    1. learning how to plan spoken and written communications so that listeners and readers might follow the sequence of ideas or events
    2. sequencing content according to text structure
    3. using appropriate simple and compound sentence to express and combine ideas
    4. using vocabulary, including technical vocabulary, appropriate to text type and purpose
  2. Reread and edit text for spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation and text structure (VCELY231)
    1. reading their work and adding, deleting or changing words, prepositional phrases or sentences to improve meaning, for example replacing an everyday noun with a technical one in an informative text
    2. checking spelling using a dictionary
    3. checking for inclusion of relevant punctuation including capital letters to signal names, as well as sentence beginnings, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks
    4. making significant changes to their texts using a word processing program ( for example add, delete or move sentences)
  3. Write words and sentences legibly using upper- and lower-case letters that are applied with growing fluency using an appropriate pen/pencil grip and body position (VCELY232)
    1. using correct pencil grip and posture
    2. writing sentences legibly and fluently using unjoined print script of consistent size
  4. Construct texts featuring print, visual and audio elements using software, including word processing programs (VCELY233)
    1. experimenting with and combining elements of software programs to create texts

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that spoken, visual and written forms of language are different modes of communication with different features and their use varies according to the audience, purpose, context and cultural background (VCELA234)
    1. identifying examples and features of different kinds of spoken, non-verbal, written and visual communication from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and from several Asian cultures within Australia, and associating those features with particular communities
    2. recognising some phrases in the languages of the class and community, for example greetings and expressions of politeness
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that language varies when people take on different roles in social and classroom interactions and how the use of key interpersonal language resources varies depending on context (VCELA235)
    1. exploring how terms of address are used to signal different kinds of relationships
    2. exploring the differences between the language used when giving a presentation and when talking to friends
    3. exploring culturally specific greetings and expressions of politeness
  2. Identify language that can be used for appreciating texts and the qualities of people and things (VCELA236)
    1. exploring how language is used to express feelings including learning vocabulary to express a gradation of feeling, for example ‘happy’, ‘joyful’, ‘pleased’, ‘contented’
    2. exploring in stories, everyday and media texts moral and social dilemmas; such as right and wrong, fairness/unfairness, inclusion and exclusion; learning to use language to describe actions and consider consequences
    3. exploring how language is used to construct characters and settings in narratives, including choice of nouns such as ‘girl’, ‘princess’ or ‘orphan’, and choice of adjectives such as ‘gentle’, ‘timid’ or ‘frightened’
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand the use of vocabulary about familiar and new topics and experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit audience and purpose (VCELA237)
    1. interpreting new terminology drawing on prior knowledge, analogies and connections with known words
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Manipulate more complex sounds in spoken words through knowledge of blending and segmenting sounds, phoneme deletion and substitution (VCELA238)
    1. separating and blending more difficult sounds when saying words, for example 'squint' and 'watch'
    2. generating new words by deleting one phoneme and replacing it with another, for example substituting 'b' in 'back' with 's' to make 'sack'
  2. Identify all Standard Australian English phonemes, including short and long vowels, separate sounds in clusters (VCELA239)
    1. listening for and recognising different sounds in words during shared reading and read alouds including short vowels ('a' as in can), long vowels ('o' as in pony) and separate sounds in letter clusters ('s-t-r' in strap)
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Discuss how depictions of characters in print, sound and images reflect the contexts in which they were created (VCELT240)
    1. exploring iconography of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures
    2. recognising recurring characters, settings and themes in Dreaming stories experienced through texts, films and online sources
    3. discussing moral and teaching stories from varied cultures, identifying and comparing their central messages
Responding to literature
  1. Identify aspects of different types of literary texts that entertain, and give reasons for personal preferences (VCELT241)
    1. describing features of texts from different cultures including recurring language patterns, style of illustrations, elements of humour or drama, and identifying the features which give rise to their personal preferences
    2. connecting the feelings and behaviours of animals in anthropomorphic stories with human emotions and relationships
    3. drawing, writing and using digital technologies to capture and communicate favourite characters and events
  2. Compare opinions about characters, events and settings in and between texts (VCELT242)
    1. discussing each others’ preferences for stories set in familiar or unfamiliar worlds, or about people whose lives are like or unlike their own
Examining literature
  1. Identify, reproduce and experiment with rhythmic, sound and word patterns in poems, chants, rhymes and songs (VCELT243)
    1. exploring poems, chants, rhymes or songs from different cultures which class members may bring from home
    2. learning to recite, sing or create interpretations of poems, chants, rhymes or songs from students’ own and other different cultures
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen for specific purposes and information, including instructions, and extend students’ own and others' ideas in discussions through initiating topics, making positive statements, and voicing disagreement in an appropriate manner (VCELY244)
    1. using spoken language for problem solving, and exploring ideas and concepts
    2. listening for specific information and providing two or more key facts from an informative text spoken or read aloud
    3. listening to, remembering and responding to detailed instructions
  2. Rehearse and deliver short presentations on familiar and new topics, speaking clearly and varying tone, volume and pace appropriately, and using supportive props (VCELY245)
    1. adjusting presentation for different audiences
    2. preparing and giving oral presentations, including reports of group discussions, using more formal speech and specific vocabulary about content area topics
    3. listening and responding to presentations, including those using multimedia, on familiar and learned topics, recording key information, and connecting new and existing knowledge about a topic

Level 2 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 2, students understand how similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features used to describe characters, settings and events or communicate factual information. They recognise all Standard Australian English phonemes, and most letter–sound matches. They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and images that provide additional information. They monitor meaning and self-correct using context, prior knowledge, punctuation, language and phonic knowledge. They identify literal and implied meaning, main ideas and supporting detail. Students make connections between texts by comparing content.

Writing

Students create texts that show how images support the meaning of the text. They accurately spell words with regular spelling patterns and can write words with less common long vowels, trigraphs and silent letters. They use some punctuation accurately, and can write words and sentences legibly using unjoined upper- and lower-case letters.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen for particular purposes. They listen for and manipulate sound combinations and rhythmic sound patterns. When discussing their ideas and experiences, students use everyday language features and topic-specific vocabulary. They explain their preferences for aspects of texts using other texts as comparisons. They create texts that show how images support the meaning of the text. Students create texts, drawing on their own experiences, their imagination and information they have learned. Students use a variety of strategies to engage in group and class discussions and make presentations.

Level 3

Level 3 Description

In Levels 3 and 4, students communicate with peers and teachers from other classes and schools 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 and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass...

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Level 3 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how different types of texts vary in use of language choices, depending on their purpose, audience and context, including tense and types of sentences (VCELA246)
    1. becoming familiar with typical structural stages and language features of various types of text, for example narratives, procedures, reports, reviews and expositions
  2. Identify the features of online texts that enhance navigation (VCELA247)
    1. becoming familiar with the typical features of online texts, for example navigation bars and buttons, hyperlinks and sitemaps
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Identify the effect on audiences of techniques, including shot size, vertical camera angle and layout in picture books, advertisements and film segments (VCELA248)
    1. noting how the relationship between characters can be depicted in illustrations through the positioning of the characters (for example facing each other or facing away from each other), the distance between them, the relative size, one character looking up (or down) at the other (power relationships), facial expressions and body gesture
    2. observing how images construct a relationship with the viewer through such strategies as: direct gaze into the viewer's eyes, inviting involvement, and how close ups are more engaging than distanced images, which can suggest alienation or loneliness
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to apply knowledge of letter–sound relationships, and blending and segmenting to read and use more complex words with less common consonant and vowel clusters (VCELA249)
    1. using strategies such as sounding out, chunking and blending of uncommon consonant and vowel clusters to problem solve words, for example 'machine' and 'spoil', in shared or guided reading
  2. Recognise most high-frequency words, know how to use common prefixes and suffixes, and know some homophones and generalisations for adding a suffix to a base word (VCELA250)
    1. becoming familiar with most high-frequency sight words
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Draw connections between personal experiences and the worlds of texts, and share responses with others (VCELT251)
    1. discussing relevant prior knowledge and past experiences to make meaningful connections to the people, places, events, issues and ideas in the text
    2. exploring texts that highlight issues and problems in making moral decisions and discussing these with others
    3. drawing on literature from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or Asian cultures, to explore commonalities of experience and ideas as well as recognising difference in lifestyle and world view
  2. Develop criteria for establishing personal preferences for literature (VCELT252)
    1. building a conscious understanding of preference regarding topics and genres of personal interest (for example humorous short stories, school and family stories, mysteries, fantasy and quest, series books)
    2. selecting and discussing favourite texts and explaining their reasons for assigning greater or lesser merit to particular texts or types of texts
Examining literature
  1. Discuss how language is used to describe the settings in texts, and explore how the settings shape the events and influence the mood of the narrative (VCELT253)
    1. identifying and discussing the use of descriptive adjectives (‘in the middle of a vast, bare plain’) to establish setting and atmosphere (‘the castle loomed dark and forbidding’) and to draw readers into events that follow
    2. discussing the language used to describe the traits of characters in stories, their actions and motivations: ‘Claire was so lonely; she desperately wanted a pet and she was afraid she would do anything, just anything, to have one to care for’
  2. Discuss the nature and effects of some language devices used to enhance meaning and shape the reader’s reaction, including rhythm and onomatopoeia in poetry and prose (VCELT254)
    1. identifying the effect of imagery in texts, for example the use of imagery related to nature in haiku poems
    2. exploring how rhythm, onomatopoeia and alliteration give momentum to poetry and prose read aloud, and enhance enjoyment
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Identify the point of view in a text and suggest alternative points of view (VCELY255)
    1. discussing how a text presents the point of view of the main character, and speculating on what other characters might think or feel
    2. recognising that there is more than one way of looking at the same event and that stories seen through the eyes of one character privileges some aspects of the story over others
    3. speculating about what other characters might think or feel and retelling the story from other perspectives (for example ‘Cinderella’ from the point of view of the ‘Ugly Sisters’)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Read an increasing range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts by combining phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge, using text processing strategies, including confirming, rereading and cross-checking (VCELY256)
    1. combining different types of knowledge (for example word knowledge, vocabulary, grammar, phonics) to make decisions about unknown words, reading on, reviewing and summarising meaning
    2. analysing the way illustrations help to construct meaning and interpreting different types of illustrations and graphics
    3. reading text types from own culture to enhance confidence in building reading strategies
    4. reading aloud with fluency and intonation
    5. integrating use of sound-letter knowledge, meaning and grammar patterns as well as a range of reading strategies, for example, confirming, rereading and cross-checking, to read a wide variety of text types in guided reading
  2. Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (VCELY257)
    1. making connections between the text and own experience and other texts
    2. making connections between the information in print and images
    3. making predictions and asking and answering questions about the text drawing on knowledge of the topic, subject-specific vocabulary and experience of texts on the same topic
    4. using text features and search tools to locate information in written and digital texts efficiently
    5. determining important ideas, events or details in texts, commenting on things learned or questions raised by reading, referring explicitly to the text for verification
    6. making considered inferences taking into account topic knowledge or a character’s likely actions and feelings
  3. Analyse how different texts use verb groups to represent different processes (action, thinking, feeling, saying, relating) (VCELY258)
    1. exploring how different types of verb groups, for example, action commands in procedures, saying verbs in narratives and relating verbs in information reports, are used to make meaning in different types of texts

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that paragraphs are a key organisational feature of written texts (VCELA259)
    1. noticing how longer texts are organised into paragraphs, each beginning with a topic sentence/paragraph opener which predicts how the paragraph will develop and is then elaborated in various ways
  2. Know that word contractions are a feature of informal language and that apostrophes of contraction are used to signal missing letters (VCELA260)
    1. recognising both grammatically accurate and inaccurate usage of the apostrophe in everyday texts such as signs in the community and newspaper advertisements
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand that a clause is a unit of grammar usually containing a subject and a verb and that these need to be in agreement (VCELA261)
    1. knowing that a clause is basically a group of words that contains a verb
    2. knowing that, in terms of meaning, a basic clause represents: what is happening; who or what is participating, and the surrounding circumstances
  2. Understand that verbs represent different processes (doing, thinking, saying, and relating) and that these processes are anchored in time through tense (VCELA262)
    1. identifying different types of verbs and the way they add meaning to a sentence
    2. exploring action and saying verbs in narrative texts to show how they give information about what characters do and say
    3. exploring the use of sensing verbs and how they allow readers to know what characters think and feel
    4. exploring the use of relating verbs in constructing definitions and descriptions
    5. learning how time is represented through the tense of a verb and other structural, language and visual features
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use letter–sound relationships and less common letter combinations to spell words (VCELA263)
    1. using spelling strategies such as: phonological knowledge (for example diphthongs and other ambiguous vowel sounds in more complex words); three-letter clusters (for example 'thr', 'shr', 'squ'); visual knowledge (for example more complex single-syllable homophones such as 'break/brake', 'ate/eight'); morphemic knowledge (for example inflectional endings in single-syllable words, plural and past tense); generalisations (for example to make a word plural when it ends in 's', 'sh', 'ch', or 'z' add 'es'); and using knowledge of how different letters and combinations of letters represent different sounds, including less common combinations, for example, 'dge' after a short vowel as in 'badge', to write words in independent writing
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Create imaginative texts based on characters, settings and events from students’ own and other cultures including through the use of visual features (VCELT264)
    1. drawing on literary texts read, viewed and listened to for inspiration and ideas, appropriating language to create mood and characterisation
    2. innovating on texts read, viewed and listened to by changing the point of view, revising an ending or creating a sequel
  2. Create texts that adapt language features and patterns encountered in literary texts (VCELT265)
    1. creating visual and multimodal texts based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or Asian literature, applying one or more visual elements to convey the intent of the original text
    2. creating multimodal texts that combine visual images, sound effects, music and voice overs to convey settings and events in a fantasy world
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features and selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose (VCELY266)
    1. using print and digital resources to gather information about a topic
    2. selecting appropriate text structure for a writing purpose and sequencing content for clarity and audience impact
    3. using appropriate simple, compound and complex sentences to express and combine ideas
    4. using vocabulary, including technical vocabulary, relevant to the text type and purpose, and appropriate sentence structures to express and combine ideas
  2. Reread and edit texts for meaning, appropriate structure, grammatical choices and punctuation (VCELY267)
    1. using glossaries, print and digital dictionaries and spell check to edit spelling, realising that spell check accuracy depends on understanding the word function, for example there/their; rain/reign
  3. Understand the conventions for writing words and sentences using joined letters that are clearly formed and consistent in size (VCELY268)
    1. practising how to join letters to construct a fluent handwriting style
  4. Use software including word processing programs with growing speed and efficiency to construct and edit texts featuring visual, print and audio elements (VCELY269)
    1. using features of relevant technologies to plan, sequence, compose and edit multimodal texts

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that languages have different written and visual communication systems, different oral traditions and different ways of constructing meaning (VCELA270)
    1. learning that a word or sign can carry different weight in different cultural contexts, for example that particular respect is due to some people and creatures and that stories can be passed on to teach us how to live appropriately
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that successful cooperation with others depends on shared use of social conventions, including turn-taking patterns, and forms of address that vary according to the degree of formality in social situations (VCELA271)
    1. identifying roles and collaborative patterns in students’ own groups and pair work (for example initiating a topic, changing a topic through negotiation, affirming other speakers and building on their comments, asking relevant questions, providing useful feedback, prompting and checking individual and group understanding)
  2. Examine how evaluative language can be varied to be more or less forceful (VCELA272)
    1. exploring how modal verbs, for example ‘must’, ‘might’,’ or ‘could’ indicate degrees of certainty, command or obligation
    2. distinguishing how choice of adverbs, nouns and verbs present different evaluations of characters in texts
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Learn extended and technical vocabulary and ways of expressing opinion including modal verbs and adverbs (VCELA273)
    1. exploring examples of language which demonstrate a range of feelings and positions, and building a vocabulary to express judgments about characters or events, acknowledging that language and judgments might differ depending on the cultural context
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Discuss texts in which characters, events and settings are portrayed in different ways, and speculate on the authors’ reasons (VCELT274)
    1. reading texts in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children/young people are the central characters/protagonists and making links to own lives, noting similarities
    2. exploring the ways that the same story can be told in many cultures, identifying variations in the storyline and in music (for example ‘The Ramayana’ story which is told to children in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Laos, Tibet and Malaysia)
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations and use interaction skills, including active listening and clear, coherent communications (VCELY275)
    1. participating in collaborative discussions, building on and connecting ideas and opinions expressed by others, and checking own understanding against group views
  2. Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence, using appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume (VCELY276)
    1. drawing on relevant research into a topic to prepare an oral or multimodal presentation, using devices such as storyboards to plan the sequence of ideas and information

Level 3 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 3, students understand how content can be organised using different text structures depending on the purpose of the text. They understand how language features, images and vocabulary choices are used for different effects. They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, a range of punctuation conventions, and images that provide additional information. They apply appropriate text processing strategies when decoding and monitoring meaning in texts, and use knowledge of letter-sound relationships, and blending and segmenting to read more complex words. They can identify literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different parts of a text. They select information, ideas and events in texts that relate to their own lives and to other texts.

Writing

Students' texts include writing and images to express and develop in some detail experiences, events, information, ideas and characters. They demonstrate understanding of grammar and choose vocabulary and punctuation appropriate to the purpose and context of their writing. They use knowledge letter–sound relationships and high-frequency words to spell words accurately, and can write words with complex consonant and vowel clusters. They reread and edit their writing, checking their work for appropriate vocabulary, structure and meaning. They write using joined letters that are accurately formed and consistent in size.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen to others’ views and respond appropriately using interaction skills. They understand how language features are used to link and sequence ideas. They understand how language can be used to express feelings and opinions on topics. They create a range of texts for familiar and unfamiliar audiences. They contribute actively to class and group discussions, asking questions, providing useful feedback and making presentations.

Level 4

Level 4 Description

In Levels 3 and 4, students experience learning in familiar contexts and a range of contexts that relate to study in other areas of the curriculum. They interact with peers and teachers from other classes and schools 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 and interpret spoken, written and multimodal...

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Level 4 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Identify features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text, and understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the intended audience (VCELA277)
    1. becoming familiar with the typical stages and language features of such text types as: simple narrative, procedure, simple persuasion texts and information reports
  2. Identify features of online texts that enhance readability including text, navigation, links, graphics and layout (VCELA278)
    1. participating in online searches for information using navigation tools and discussing similarities and differences between print and digital information
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Explore the effect of choices when framing an image, placement of elements in the image, and salience on composition of still and moving images in a range of types of texts (VCELA279)
    1. examining visual and multimodal texts, building a vocabulary to describe visual elements and techniques such as framing, composition and visual point of view and beginning to understand how these choices impact on viewer response
  2. Understand how adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases work in different ways to provide circumstantial details about an activity (VCELA280)
    1. investigating in texts how adverb group/phrases and prepositional phrases can provide details of the circumstances surrounding a happening or state (for example, ‘At midnight (time) he rose slowly (manner) from the chair (place) and went upstairs (place)’
  3. Investigate how quoted (direct) and reported (indirect) speech work in different types of text (VCELA281)
    1. investigating examples of quoted (direct) speech (‘He said, “I’ll go to the park today”’) and reported (indirect) speech (‘He told me he was going to the park today’) and comparing similarities and differences
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Make connections between the ways different authors may represent similar storylines, ideas and relationships (VCELT282)
    1. commenting on how authors have established setting and period in different cultures and times and the relevance of characters, actions and beliefs to their own time
    2. comparing different authors’ treatment of similar themes and text patterns, for example comparing fables and allegories from different cultures and quest novels by different authors
Responding to literature
  1. Describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features of literary texts (VCELT283)
    1. examining the author’s description of a character’s appearance, behaviour and speech and noting how the character’s development is evident through his or her dialogue and changing relationships and the reactions of other characters to him or her
    2. sharing views using appropriate metalanguage (for example ‘The use of the adjectives in describing the character really helps to create images for the reader’)
Examining literature
  1. Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques (VCELT284)
    1. examining the author’s description of a character’s appearance, behaviour and speech and noting how the character’s development is evident through his or her dialogue and changing relationships and the reactions of other characters to him or her
    2. identifying pivotal points in the plot where characters are faced with choices and commenting on how the author makes us care about their decisions and consequences
  2. Understand, interpret and experiment with a range of devices and deliberate word play in poetry and other literary texts (VCELT285)
    1. defining spoonerisms, neologisms and puns and exploring how they are used by authors to create a sense of freshness, originality and playfulness
    2. discussing poetic language, including unusual adjectival use and how it engages us emotionally and brings to life the poet’s subject matter (for example ‘He grasps the crag with crooked hands’/wee timorous beastie)
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Identify and explain language features of texts from earlier times and compare with the vocabulary, images, layout and content of contemporary texts (VCELY286)
    1. viewing documentaries and news footage from different periods, comparing the style of presentation, including costumes and iconography with contemporary texts on similar topics and tracking changing views on issues, for example war, race, gender
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Read different types of texts for specific purposes by combining phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge using text processing strategies, including monitoring meaning, skimming, scanning and reviewing (VCELY287)
    1. reading new and different kinds of texts with the use of established word identification strategies, including knowledge of the topic and of text type together with self monitoring strategies, including rereading, self questioning and pausing, and self correction strategies such as confirming and cross-checking
    2. reading aloud with fluency and expression
    3. reading a wide range of different types of texts for pleasure
  2. Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (VCELY288)
    1. making connections between the text and students’ own experience and other texts
    2. making connections between information in print and images
    3. building and using prior knowledge and vocabulary
    4. finding specific literal information
    5. asking and answering questions
    6. creating mental images
    7. finding the main idea of a text
    8. inferring meaning from the ways communication occurs in digital environments including the interplay between words, images, and sounds
    9. bringing subject and technical vocabulary and concept knowledge to new reading tasks, selecting and using texts for their pertinence to the task and the accuracy of their information
  3. Compare and evaluate two texts presenting the same ideas and analyse why one is more comprehensible or engaging than the other (VCELY289)
    1. describing the language which different authors use to create imaginary worlds
    2. comparing how textual features such as headings, sub-headings, bold type and graphic organisers are used to order and present information

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how texts are made cohesive through the use of linking devices including pronoun reference and text connectives (VCELA290)
    1. knowing how authors construct texts that are cohesive and coherent by using pronouns that link to something previously mentioned, determiners (for example 'this', 'that', 'these', 'those', 'the'), text connectives that create links between sentences (for example 'however', 'therefore', 'nevertheless', 'in addition', 'by contrast', 'in summary')
    2. identifying how participants are tracked through a text by, for example, using pronouns to refer back to noun groups/phrases
    3. describing how text connectives link sections of a text providing sequences through time, for example ‘firstly’, ‘then’, ‘next’, and ‘finally’
  2. Recognise how quotation marks are used in texts to signal dialogue, titles and quoted (direct) speech (VCELA291)
    1. exploring texts to identify the use of quotation marks
    2. experimenting with the use of quotation marks in own writing
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand that the meaning of sentences can be enriched through the use of noun groups/phrases and verb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases (VCELA292)
    1. creating richer, more specific descriptions through the use of noun groups/phrases (for example, in narrative texts, ‘their very old Siamese cat’; in reports, 'its extremely high mountain ranges')
  2. Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources, including vocabulary encountered in research, into own texts (VCELA293)
    1. building etymological knowledge about word origins (for example 'thermometer') and building vocabulary from research about technical and subject specific topics
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use phonic generalisations to identify and write words with more complex letter combinations (VCELA294)
    1. using knowledge of complex spelling patterns to read and write words, for example 'bought'
  2. Understand how to use spelling patterns and generalisations including syllabification, letter combinations including double letters, and morphemic knowledge to build word families (VCELA295)
    1. using phonological knowledge (for example long vowel patterns in multi-syllabic words) and consonant clusters (for example 'straight', 'throat', 'screen', 'squawk')
    2. using visual knowledge (for example diphthongs in more complex words and other ambiguous vowel sounds, as in 'oy', 'oi', 'ou', 'ow', 'ould', 'u', 'ough', 'au', 'aw'), silent beginning consonant patterns (for example 'gn' and 'kn')
    3. applying generalisations, such as doubling (for example 'running') and 'e'-drop (for example 'hoping')
  3. Recognise homophones and know how to use context to identify correct spelling (VCELA296)
    1. using meaning and context when spelling words, for example when differentiating between homophones such as ‘to’, ‘too’, ‘two’
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Create literary texts by developing storylines, characters and settings (VCELT297)
    1. collaboratively plan, compose, sequence and prepare a literary text along a familiar storyline, using film, sound and images to convey setting, characters and points of drama in the plot
  2. Create literary texts that explore students’ own experiences and imagining (VCELT298)
    1. drawing upon literary texts they have encountered and experimenting with changing particular aspects, for example the time or place of the setting, adding characters or changing their personalities, or offering an alternative point of view on key ideas
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features (VCELY299)
    1. using research from print and digital resources to gather ideas, integrating information from a range of sources, selecting text structure and planning how to group ideas into paragraphs to sequence content, and choosing vocabulary to suit topic and communication purpose
    2. using appropriate simple, compound and complex sentences to express and combine ideas
    3. using grammatical features including different types of verb groups/phrases, noun groups/phrases, adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases for effective descriptions as related to purpose and context (for example, development of a character’s actions or a description in a report)
  2. Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure (VCELY300)
    1. revising written texts: editing for grammatical and spelling accuracy and clarity of the text, to improve the connection between ideas and overall fluency
  3. Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (VCELY302)
    1. identifying, selecting and using appropriate software programs for constructing text
  4. Handwrite using clearly-formed joined letters, and develop increased fluency and automaticity (VCELY301)
    1. using handwriting fluency with speed for a wide range of tasks

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that Standard Australian English is one of many social dialects used in Australia, and that while it originated in England it has been influenced by many other languages (VCELA303)
    1. identifying words used in Standard Australian English that are derived from other languages, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, and determining if the original meaning is reflected in English usage, for example kangaroo, tsunami, typhoon, amok, orang-utan
    2. identifying commonly used words derived from other cultures
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others (VCELA304)
    1. recognising that we can use language differently with our friends and families, but that Standard Australian English is typically used in written school texts and more formal contexts
    2. recognising that language is adjusted in different contexts, for example in degree of formality when moving between group discussions and presenting a group report
    3. understanding how age, status, expertise and familiarity influence the ways in which we interact with people and how these codes and conventions vary across cultures
    4. recognising the importance of using inclusive language
  2. Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording (VCELA305)
    1. identifying ways thinking verbs are used to express opinion, for example ‘I think’, ‘I believe’, and ways summary verbs are used to report findings, for example ‘we concluded’
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Discuss literary experiences with others, sharing responses and expressing a point of view (VCELT306)
    1. sharing and discussing own and others’ understanding of the effects of particular literary techniques on their appreciation of texts
    2. drawing comparisons between multiple texts and students’ own experiences. Commenting orally, in written form and in digital reviews on aspects such as: 'Do I recognise this in my own world?'; 'How is this text similar to or different from other texts I’ve read?'; 'How common is it to human experience in the real world?'; 'What new ideas does it bring?'; ’How do they fit with what I believe?'
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and use interaction skills (VCELY307)
    1. making notes about a task, asking questions to clarify or follow up information, and seeking assistance if required
    2. discussing levels of language — slang, colloquial (everyday) and formal language — and how their appropriateness changes with the situation and audience. Presenting ideas and opinions at levels of formality appropriate to the context and audience
  2. Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular audiences and purposes such as informative, persuasive and imaginative, including multimodal elements (VCELY308)
    1. reporting on a topic in an organised manner, providing relevant facts and descriptive detail to enhance audience understanding, and beginning to refer to reliable sources to support claims

Level 4 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 4, students understand that texts have different structures depending on the purpose and context. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to engage the interest of audiences and can describe literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different texts. They express preferences for particular types of texts, and respond to others’ viewpoints.

Writing

Students use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. They make use of their increasing knowledge of phonics, and they understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to extend key ideas. Students create well-structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, select vocabulary from a range of resources and use accurate spelling and punctuation, rereading and editing their work to improve meaning.

Speaking and Listening

Students can collaborate, listen for key points in discussions and use the information to carry out tasks. They use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. They understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to extend key ideas. Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, varying language according to context.

Level 5

Level 5 Description

In Levels 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...

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Level 5 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality (VCELA309)
    1. becoming familiar with the typical stages and language features of such text types as: narrative, procedure, exposition, explanation, discussion and informative text and how they can be composed and presented in written, digital and multimedia forms
  2. Investigate how the organisation of texts into chapters, headings, subheadings, home pages and sub pages for online texts and according to chronology or topic can be used to predict content and assist navigation (VCELA310)
    1. mapping topic words related to sub-headings
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Explain sequences of images in print texts and compare these to the ways hyperlinked digital texts are organised, explaining their effect on viewers’ interpretations (VCELA311)
    1. interpreting narrative texts told as wordless picture books
    2. identifying and comparing sequences of images revealed through different hyperlink choices
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use banks of known words, syllabification, spelling patterns, word origins, base words, prefixes and suffixes, to spell new words, including some uncommon plurals (VCELA312)
    1. learning that many complex words were originally hyphenated but have become ‘prefixed’ as in ‘uncommon’, ‘renew’ ‘email’ and ‘refine’
    2. talking about how suffixes change over time and new forms are invented to reflect changing attitudes to gender, for example ‘policewoman’, ‘salesperson’; ‘air hostess’/‘steward’ or ‘flight attendant’
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Identify aspects of literary texts that convey details or information about particular social, cultural and historical contexts (VCELT313)
    1. describing how aspects of literature, for example visuals, symbolic elements, dialogue and character descriptions, can convey information about cultural elements, such as beliefs, traditions and customs
    2. identifying variability within cultural contexts in literary texts, recognising the diversity of people’s experiences within a cultural group such as differences in setting and lifestyle between urban and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Responding to literature
  1. Use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features on particular audiences (VCELT314)
    1. orally, in writing or using digital media, giving a considered interpretation and opinion about a literary text, recognising that one's view may not be shared by others and that others have equal claims to divergent views
Examining literature
  1. Recognise that ideas in literary texts can be conveyed from different viewpoints, which can lead to different kinds of interpretations and responses (VCELT315)
    1. identifying the narrative voice (the person or entity through whom the audience experiences the story) in a literary work, discussing the impact of first person narration on empathy and engagement
    2. examining texts written from different narrative points of view and discussing what information the audience can access, how this impacts on the audience’s sympathies, and why an author might choose a particular narrative point of view
    3. examining the narrative voice in texts from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions, which include perspectives of animals and spirits, about how we should care for the Earth, for example reflecting on how this affects significance, interpretation and response
  2. Understand, interpret and experiment with sound devices and imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification, in narratives, shape poetry, songs, anthems and odes (VCELT316)
    1. discussing how figurative language including simile and metaphor can make use of a comparison between different things, for example ‘My love is like a red, red rose’, ‘Tyger!, Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night’, and how by appealing to the imagination, it provides new ways of looking at the world
    2. investigating the qualities of contemporary protest songs, for example those about Indigenous peoples and those about the environment
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Show how ideas and points of view in texts are conveyed through the use of vocabulary, including idiomatic expressions, objective and subjective language, and that these can change according to context (VCELY317)
    1. identifying the narrative voice (the person or entity through whom the audience experiences the story) in a literary work, discussing the impact of first person narration on empathy and engagement
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Navigate and read imaginative, informative and persuasive texts by interpreting structural features, including tables of content, glossaries, chapters, headings and subheadings and applying appropriate text processing strategies, including monitoring meaning, skimming and scanning (VCELY318)
    1. bringing subject and technical vocabulary and concept knowledge to new reading tasks
    2. selecting and using texts for their pertinence to the task and the accuracy of their information
    3. using word identification, self-monitoring and self-correcting strategies to access material on less familiar topics, skimming and scanning to check the pertinence of particular information to the topic and task
    4. reading a wide range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for pleasure and to find and use information
  2. Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources (VCELY319)
    1. using research skills including identifying research purpose, locating texts, gathering and organising information, evaluating its relative value, and the accuracy and currency of print and digital sources and summarising information from several sources
  3. Analyse the text structures and language features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text (VCELY320)
    1. identifying the text structures and language features used in information reports, for example definitions, organising ideas, part/whole and general/specific relationships, and considering how these meet the purpose of the text

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that the starting point of a sentence gives prominence to the message in the text and allows for prediction of how the text will unfold (VCELA321)
    1. observing how writers use the beginning of a sentence to signal to the reader how the text is developing (for example 'Snakes are reptiles. They have scales and no legs. Many snakes are poisonous. However, in Australia they are protected')
  2. Understand how the grammatical category of possessives is signalled through apostrophes and how to use apostrophes with common and proper nouns (VCELA322)
    1. learning that in Standard Australian English regular plural nouns ending in ‘s’ form the possessive by adding just the apostrophe (for example ‘my parents' car’)
    2. learning that in Standard Australian English for proper nouns a variant form without the second ‘s’ is sometimes found (for example ‘James’s house’ or ‘James’ house’)
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand the difference between main and subordinate clauses and that a complex sentence involves at least one subordinate clause (VCELA323)
    1. knowing that the function of complex sentences is to make connections between ideas, such as: to provide a reason (for example 'He jumped up because the bell rang.'), to state a purpose (for example 'She raced home in order to confront her brother.'), to express a condition (for example 'It will break if you push it.'), to make a concession (for example 'She went to work even though she was not feeling well.'), to link two ideas in terms of various time relations (for example 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned.')
  2. Understand how noun groups/phrases and adjective groups/phrases can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of the person, place, thing or idea (VCELA324)
    1. learning how to expand a description by combining a related set of nouns and adjectives – ‘Two old brown cattle dogs sat on the ruined front veranda of the deserted house’
    2. observing how descriptive details can be built up around a noun or an adjective, forming a group/phrase (for example, ‘this very smelly cleaning cloth in the sink’ is a noun group/phrase and ‘as pretty as the flowers in May’ is an adjective group/phrase)
  3. Understand the use of vocabulary to express greater precision of meaning, and know that words can have different meanings in different contexts (VCELA325)
    1. moving from general, ‘all-purpose’ words, for example ‘cut’ to more specific words, for example ‘slice’, ‘dice’, ‘fillet’, ‘segment’
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Recognise and write less familiar words that share common letter patterns but have different pronunciations (VCELA326)
    1. spelling words that share common letter patterns but have different pronunciations, for example the 'ou' in 'journey', 'your', 'tour', 'sour'
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Create literary texts that experiment with structures, ideas and stylistic features of selected authors (VCELT327)
    1. drawing upon fiction elements in a range of model texts - for example main idea, characterisation, setting (time and place), narrative point of view; and devices, for example figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification), as well as non-verbal conventions in digital and screen texts - in order to experiment with new, creative ways of communicating ideas, experiences and stories in literary texts
  2. Create literary texts using realistic and fantasy settings and characters that draw on the worlds represented in texts students have experienced (VCELT328)
    1. using texts with computer-based graphics, animation and 2D qualities, consider how and why particular traits for a character have been chosen
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (VCELY329)
    1. using research from print and digital resources to gather and organise information for writing
    2. selecting an appropriate text structure for the writing purpose and sequencing content according to that text structure, introducing the topic, and grouping related information in well-sequenced paragraphs with a concluding statement
    3. using vocabulary, including technical vocabulary, appropriate to purpose and context
    4. using paragraphs to present and sequence a text
    5. using appropriate grammatical features, including more complex sentences and relevant verb tense, pronoun reference, adverb and noun groups/phrases for effective descriptions
  2. Reread and edit own and others’ work using agreed criteria for text structures and language features (VCELY330)
    1. editing for flow and sense, organisation of ideas and choice of language, revising and trying new approaches if an element is not having the desired impact
  3. Develop a handwriting style that is becoming legible, fluent and automatic (VCELY331)
    1. using handwriting with increasing fluency and legibility appropriate to a wide range of writing purposes
  4. Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (VCELY332)
    1. writing letters in print and by email, composing with increasing fluency, accuracy and legibility and demonstrating understanding of what the audience may want to hear

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that the pronunciation, spelling and meanings of words have histories and change over time (VCELA333)
    1. recognising that a knowledge of word origins is not only interesting in its own right, but that it extends students’ knowledge of vocabulary and spelling
    2. exploring examples of words in which pronunciation, writing and meaning has changed over time, including words from a range of cultures
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that patterns of language interaction vary across social contexts and types of texts and that they help to signal social roles and relationships (VCELA334)
    1. identifying ways in which cultures differ in making and responding to common requests, for example periods of silence, degrees of formality
  2. Understand how to move beyond making bare assertions and take account of differing perspectives and points of view (VCELA335)
    1. recognising that a bare assertion (for example 'It's the best film this year') often needs to be tempered by: using the 'impersonal it' to distance oneself (for example 'It could be that it is the best film this year'); recruiting anonymous support (for example 'It is generally agreed that it is the best film this year.'); indicating a general source of the opinion (for example 'Most critics agree that it is the best film this year.'); specifying the source of the opinion (for example 'David and Margaret both agree that it is the best film this year') and reflecting on the effect of these different choices
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Present a point of view about particular literary texts using appropriate metalanguage, and reflecting on the viewpoints of others (VCELT336)
    1. posing and discussing questions, such as ‘Should this character have behaved as they did?’, and beginning to make balanced judgments about the dilemmas characters face and relative merit and harm
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds in formal and informal situations, connecting ideas to students’ own experiences, and present and justify a point of view or recount an experience using interaction skills (VCELY337)
    1. asking specific questions to clarify a speaker’s meaning, making constructive comments that keep conversation moving, reviewing ideas expressed and conveying tentative conclusions
  2. Participate in informal debates and plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (VCELY338)
    1. planning a report on a topic, sequencing ideas logically and providing supporting detail, including graphics, sound and visuals to enhance audience engagement and understanding

Level 5 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 5, students explain how text structures assist in understanding the text. They understand how language features, images and vocabulary influence interpretations of characters, settings and events. They analyse and explain literal and implied information from a variety of texts. They describe how events, characters and settings in texts are depicted and explain their own responses to them. When reading, they confidently encounter and can decode less familiar words.

Writing

Students use language features to show how ideas can be extended. They develop and explain a point of view about a text. They create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for different purposes and audiences. When writing, they demonstrate understanding of grammar and sentence types, and they select specific vocabulary and use accurate spelling and punctuation. They edit their work for cohesive structure and meaning.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen and ask questions to clarify content. They use language features to show how ideas can be extended. They develop and explain a point of view about a text selecting information, ideas and images from a range of resources. They create a variety of sequenced texts for different purposes and audiences. They make presentations for defined purposed using multimodal elements, and contribute actively to class and group discussions, taking into account other perspectives.

Level 6

Level 6 Description

In Levels 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...

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Level 6 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (VCELA339)
    1. exploring a range of everyday, community, literary and informative texts discussing elements of text structure and language features and comparing the overall structure and effect of authors’ choices in two or more texts
    2. examining different works by an author who specialises in humour or pathos to identify strategies such as exaggeration and character embarrassment to amuse and to offer insights into characters’ feelings, so building empathy with their points of view and concern for their welfare
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. 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 (VCELA340)
    1. observing how sequential events can be represented visually by a series of images, including comic strips, timelines, photo stories, procedure diagrams and flowcharts, life-cycle diagrams, and the flow of images in picture books
    2. observing how concepts, information and relationships can be represented visually through such images as tables, maps, graphs, diagrams, and icons
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Analyse and evaluate similarities and differences in texts on similar topics, themes or plots (VCELT341)
    1. exploring texts on a similar topic by authors with very different styles, for example comparing fantasy quest novels or realistic novels on a specific theme, identifying differences in the use of narrator, narrative structure and voice and language style and register
  2. Identify and explain how choices in language, including modality, emphasis, repetition and metaphor, influence personal response to different texts (VCELT342)
    1. noting how degrees of possibility are opened up through the use of modal verbs (for example, ‘It may be a solution’ as compared to ‘It could be a solution’), as well as through other resources such as adverbs (for example, ‘It’s possibly/probably/certainly a solution’), adjectives (for example, ‘It’s a possible/probable/certain solution’); and nouns (for example, ‘It’s a possibility/probability’)
Examining literature
  1. 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 (VCELT343)
    1. exploring two or more texts by the same author, drawing out the similarities, for example subject or theme, characterisation, text structure, plot development, tone, vocabulary, sense of voice, narrative point of view, favoured grammatical structures and visual techniques in sophisticated picture books
  2. Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads, limericks and free verse (VCELT344)
    1. identifying how language choice and imagery build emotional connection and engagement with the story or theme
    2. describing how a character’s experience expressed through a verse novel impacts on students personally, how the author controls the revelation of the experiences and how the verse story builds meaning to its climax when we understand the whole
Literacy Elaborations
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Analyse strategies authors use to influence readers (VCELY345)
    1. identify how authors use language to position the reader and give reasons
  2. Select, navigate and read increasingly complex texts for a range of purposes, applying appropriate text processing strategies to recall information and consolidate meaning (VCELY346)
    1. bringing subject and technical vocabulary and concept knowledge to new reading tasks, selecting, evaluating and using texts for their pertinence to the task and the accuracy of their information
    2. using word identification, self-monitoring and self-correcting strategies
    3. using research skills including identifying research purpose, locating texts, gathering and organising information, evaluating and using information
    4. identifying and using texts for a wide range of purposes, selecting texts by favourite authors and trying new ones
  3. Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse information and ideas, comparing content from a variety of textual sources including media and digital texts (VCELY347)
    1. making connections between the text and own experience or other texts
    2. making connections between information in print and images
    3. finding specific literal information
    4. using prior knowledge and textual information to make inferences and predictions
    5. asking and answering questions
    6. finding the main idea of a text
    7. summarising a text or part of a text

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that cohesive links can be made in texts by omitting or replacing words (VCELA348)
    1. noting how writers often substitute a general word for a more specific word already mentioned, thus creating a cohesive link between the words (for example, ‘Look at those apples. Can I take these big ones?’, where ‘ones’ substitutes for ‘apples’)
    2. noting how writers often substitute a general word for a more specific word already mentioned, thus creating a cohesive link between the words (for example 'Look at those apples. Can I have one?')
    3. recognising how cohesion can be developed through repeating key words or by using synonyms or antonyms
    4. observing how relationships between concepts can be represented visually through similarity, contrast, juxtaposition, repetition, class-subclass diagrams, part-whole diagrams, cause-and-effect figures, visual continuities and discontinuities
  2. Understand the uses of commas to separate clauses (VCELA349)
    1. identifying different uses of commas in texts
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Investigate how complex sentences can be used in a variety of ways to elaborate, extend and explain ideas (VCELA350)
    1. knowing that a complex sentence typically consists of a main clause and a subordinate clause
    2. knowing that the function of complex sentences is to make connections between ideas, such as: to provide a reason (for example 'He jumped up because the bell rang'); to state a purpose (for example 'She raced home in order to confront her brother'); to express a condition (for example 'It will break if you push it'); to make a concession (for example 'She went to work even though she was not feeling well'); to link two ideas in terms of various time relations (for example 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned')
  2. Understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaborated tenses and a range of adverb groups/phrases (VCELA351)
    1. knowing that verbs often represent actions and that the choice of more expressive verbs makes an action more vivid (for example 'She ate her lunch' compared to 'She gobbled up her lunch')
    2. knowing that adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases can provide important details about a happening(for example, ‘At nine o'clock the buzzer rang loudly throughout the school’) or state (for example, ‘The tiger is a member of the cat family’)
    3. knowing the difference between the simple present tense (for example 'Pandas eat bamboo.') and the simple past tense (for example 'She replied.')
    4. knowing that the simple present tense is typically used to talk about either present states (for example, ‘He lives in Darwin’) or actions that happen regularly in the present (for example, ‘He watches television every night’) or that represent ‘timeless’ happenings, as in information reports (for example, ‘Bears hibernate in winter’)
    5. knowing that there are various ways in English to refer to future time (for example 'She will call you tomorrow'; 'I am going to the movies tomorrow'; 'Tomorrow I leave for Hobart')
  3. Investigate how vocabulary choices, including evaluative language can express shades of meaning, feeling and opinion (VCELA352)
    1. identifying (for example from reviews) the ways in which evaluative language is used to assess the qualities of the various aspects of the work in question
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use phonic knowledge and accumulated understandings about blending, letter–sound relationships, common and uncommon letter patterns and phonic generalisations to recognise and write increasingly complex words (VCELA353)
    1. spelling increasingly complex words using understanding of common letter patterns, for example 'pneumonia'
  2. Understand how to use banks of known words, word origins, base words, prefixes, suffixes, spelling patterns and generalisations to spell new words, including technical words and words adopted from other languages (VCELA354)
    1. adopting a range of spelling strategies to recall and attempt to spell new words
    2. using a dictionary to correct own spelling
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts (VCELT355)
    1. selecting and using sensory language to convey a vivid picture of places, feelings and events in a semi-structured verse form
  2. Create literary texts that adapt or combine aspects of texts students have experienced in innovative ways (VCELT356)
    1. creating narratives in written, spoken or multimodal/digital format for more than one specified audience, requiring adaptation of narrative elements and language features
    2. planning and creating texts that entertain, inform, inspire and/or emotionally engage familiar and less-familiar audiences
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Compare texts including media texts that represent ideas and events in different ways, explaining the effects of the different approaches (VCELY357)
    1. identifying and exploring news reports of the same event, and discuss the language choices and point of view of the writers
    2. using display advertising as a topic vehicle for close analysis of the ways images and words combine for deliberate effect including examples from the countries of Asia (for example comparing Hollywood film posters with Indian Bollywood film posters)
Creating texts
  1. 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 (VCELY358)
    1. creating informative texts for two different audiences, such as a visiting academic and a Level 3 class, that explore an aspect of biodiversity
    2. using rhetorical devices, images, surprise techniques and juxtaposition of people and ideas and modal verbs and modal auxiliaries to enhance the persuasive nature of a text, recognising and exploiting audience susceptibilities
  2. Reread and edit own and others’ work using agreed criteria and explaining editing choices (VCELY359)
    1. editing for coherence, sequence, effective choice of vocabulary, opening devices, dialogue and description, humour and pathos, as appropriate to the task and audience
  3. Develop a handwriting style that is legible, fluent and that can vary depending on context (VCELY360)
    1. using handwriting efficiently as a tool for a wide range of formal and informal text creation tasks
  4. Use a range of software, including word processing programs, learning new functions as required to create texts (VCELY361)
    1. selecting and combining software functions as needed to create texts

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that different social and geographical dialects or accents are used in Australia in addition to Standard Australian English (VCELA362)
    1. recognising that there are more than 150 Aboriginal languages and two Torres Strait Islander languages and that they relate to geographic areas in Australia
    2. recognising that all languages and dialects are of equal value, although we use different ones in different contexts, for example the use of Standard Australian English, Aboriginal English and forms of Creole used by some Torres Strait Islander groups and some of Australia’s near neighbours
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that strategies for interaction become more complex and demanding as levels of formality and social distance increase (VCELA363)
    1. identify and appreciate differences in language used in diverse family settings
  2. Understand the uses of objective and subjective language and bias (VCELA364)
    1. understanding when it is appropriate to share feelings and opinions (for example in a personal recount) and when it is appropriate to remain more objective (for example in a factual recount)
    2. differentiating between reporting the facts (for example in a news story) and providing a commentary (for example in an editorial)
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Make connections between own experiences and those of characters and events represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (VCELT365)
    1. recognising the influence our different historical, social and cultural experiences may have on the meaning we make from the text and the attitudes we may develop towards characters, actions and events
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions, and use interaction skills, varying conventions of spoken interactions according to group size, formality of interaction and needs and expertise of the audience (VCELY366)
    1. using strategies, for example pausing, questioning, rephrasing, repeating, summarising, reviewing and asking clarifying questions
    2. exploring personal reasons for acceptance or rejection of opinions offered and linking the reasons to the way our cultural experiences can affect our responses
    3. recognising that closed questions ask for precise responses while open questions prompt a speaker to provide more information
  2. Participate in formal and informal debates and 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 (VCELY367)
    1. using technologies to collaboratively prepare a humorous, dynamic group view on a debatable topic, such as ‘Kids should be allowed to read and view what they like,’ to be presented to teachers and parents

Level 6 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 6, students understand how to use knowledge of phonics when decoding familiar words and the technical or derived words in increasingly complex texts. They understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects and can analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events. They compare and analyse information in different texts, explaining literal and implied meaning. They select and use evidence from a text to explain their response to it.

Writing

Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used. They use banks of known words and the less familiar words they encounter to create detailed texts elaborating upon key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They demonstrate understanding of grammar and make considered choices from an expanding vocabulary to enhance cohesion and structure in their writing. They also use accurate spelling and punctuation for clarity, provide feedback on the work of their peers and can make and explain editorial choices based on agreed criteria.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen to discussions, clarifying content and challenging others’ ideas. They understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used. They create detailed texts, elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect.

Level 7

Level 7 Description

In Levels 7 and 8, students communicate with peers, teachers, individuals, groups and community members in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments. They experience learning in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts that relate to the school curriculum, local community, regional and global contexts.

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view...

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Level 7 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Language for interaction
  1. Understand how language is used to evaluate texts and how evaluations about a text can be substantiated by reference to the text and other sources (VCELA368)
    1. defending points of view in reading circle discussions
    2. responding to points of view by developing and elaborating on others’ responses
    3. building a knowledge base about words of evaluation, including words to express emotional responses to texts, judgment of characters and their actions, and appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of text
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand and explain how the text structures and language features of texts become more complex in informative and persuasive texts and identify underlying structures such as taxonomies, cause and effect, and extended metaphors (VCELA369)
    1. learning about the structure of the book or film review and how it moves from context description to text summary and then to a text judgment
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Analyse how point of view is generated in visual texts by means of choices, including gaze, angle and social distance (VCELA370)
    1. comparing choices for point of view in animations, advertisements and other persuasive texts
    2. comparing how different advertisements use visual elements to advertise the same product
    3. experimenting with digital storytelling conventions to create personal reflections on shared experiences
  2. Investigate vocabulary typical of extended and more academic texts and the role of abstract nouns, classification, description and generalisation in building specialised knowledge through language (VCELA371)
    1. identifying abstract nouns in a response to a literary text, noting those that are similar in meaning and how they demonstrate understanding of features of the text, for example characters
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Compare the ways that language and images are used to create character, and to influence emotions and opinions in different types of texts (VCELT372)
    1. identifying stereotypes, prejudice and oversimplifications in texts
    2. exploring ethical issues in literary texts drawing on a range of examples from the texts to illustrate and substantiate the views expressed
  2. Discuss aspects of texts, including their aesthetic and social value, using relevant and appropriate metalanguage (VCELT373)
    1. investigating how a text written about a social issue, for example racism, may have contributed to social change
Examining literature
  1. Recognise and analyse the ways that characterisation, events and settings are combined in narratives, and discuss the purposes and appeal of different approaches (VCELT374)
    1. analysing and explaining the structure and features of short stories discussing the purposes and appeal of different authorial choices for structure and language
    2. exploring traditional stories from Asia and discussing their engaging features, for example use of the oral mode, visual elements, verse, use of puppets to convey the narrative
    3. analysing writers’ depictions of challenges in texts, for example those faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
    4. discussing a text’s intended audience, whether the text is typical of its type and whether it has fulfilled its purpose
  2. Understand, interpret and discuss how language is compressed to produce a dramatic effect in film or drama, and to create layers of meaning in poetry (VCELT375)
    1. experiencing the sound and rhythm of poetry and using metalanguage, for example ‘refrain’, ‘chant’ to discuss the layers of meaning that are created
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Analyse and explain the effect of technological innovations on texts, particularly media texts (VCELY376)
    1. investigating the influence on written language of communicative technologies like SMS, text, email and Twitter
    2. analysing the impact of interactive elements of digital magazines
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Use prior knowledge and text processing strategies to interpret a range of types of texts (VCELY377)
    1. identifying cause and effect in explanations and how these are used to convince an audience of a course of action
    2. inferring the tone and emotional intent of a character in dialogue in a narrative
  2. Use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources (VCELY378)
    1. identifying words that refer to a character or person in a text and explaining how these words contribute to a particular representation of the character or person
  3. Analyse and explain the ways text structures and language features shape meaning and vary according to audience and purpose (VCELY379)
    1. explaining the possible relationship between an author's choices and the features of a text, such as identifying which group would be the most likely target of the information in an advertisement, and justifying why on the basis of textual features

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that the coherence of more complex texts relies on devices that signal text structure and guide readers, for example overviews, initial and concluding paragraphs and topic sentences, indexes or site maps or breadcrumb trails for online texts (VCELA380)
    1. analysing the structure of media texts such as television news items and broadcasts and various types of newspaper and magazine articles
    2. writing structured paragraphs for use in a range of academic settings such as paragraph responses, reports and presentations
  2. Understand the use of punctuation to support meaning in complex sentences with prepositional phrases and embedded clauses (VCELA381)
    1. discussing how qualifying statements add meaning to opinions and views in spoken texts
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Recognise and understand that subordinate clauses embedded within noun groups/phrases are a common feature of written sentence structures and increase the density of information (VCELA382)
    1. identifying and experimenting with a range of clause types and discussing the effect of these in the expression and development of ideas
  2. Understand how modality is achieved through discriminating choices in modal verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns (VCELA383)
    1. observing and discussing how a sense of certainty, probability and obligation is created in texts
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use spelling rules and word origins to learn new words and how to spell them (VCELA384)
    1. using Greek and Latin roots, base words, suffixes, prefixes, spelling patterns and generalisations
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts (VCELT385)
    1. experimenting with different narrative structures such as the epistolary form, flashback, multiple perspectives
    2. transforming familiar print narratives into short video or film narratives, drawing on knowledge of the type of text and possible adaptations necessary to a new mode
    3. drawing on literature and life experiences to create a poem, for example ballad, series of haiku
  2. Create literary texts that adapt stylistic features encountered in other texts (VCELT386)
    1. using aspects of texts in imaginative recreations such as re-situating a character from a text in a new situation
    2. imagining a character’s life events (for example misadventures organised retrospectively to be presented as a series of flashbacks in scripted monologue supported by single images), making a sequel or prequel or rewriting an ending
    3. creating chapters for an autobiography, short story or diary
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas to a specific audience (VCELY387)
    1. compiling a portfolio of texts in a range of modes related to a particular concept, purpose or audience, for example a class anthology of poems or stories
    2. using appropriate textual conventions, create scripts for interviews, presentations, advertisements and radio segments
    3. writing and delivering presentations with specific rhetorical devices to engage an audience
  2. Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (VCELY388)
    1. using collaborative technologies to jointly construct and edit texts
  3. Consolidate a personal handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic and supports writing for extended periods (VCELY389)
    1. using handwriting regularly, attending to feedback about legibility
  4. Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (VCELY390)
    1. understanding conventions associated with particular kinds of software and using them appropriately, for example synthesising information and ideas in dot points and sequencing information in presentations or timing scenes in animation

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand the way language evolves to reflect a changing world, particularly in response to the use of new technology for presenting texts and communicating (VCELA391)
    1. exploring languages and dialects through building webcam relationships with schools across Australia and Asia
    2. investigating changes in word use and meaning over time and some of the reasons for these changes, for example the influence on spelling and vocabulary of new forms of communication like texting, emoticons and email
Language for interaction
  1. Understand how accents, styles of speech and idioms express and create personal and social identities (VCELA392)
    1. building a database of local idioms and their meanings, accents and styles of speech for different contexts, exploring the possibilities of these choices in drama and role play, and discussing their connection with personal and social identities
    2. developing dialogues authentic to characters in comics, cartoons and animations
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Identify and explore ideas and viewpoints about events, issues and characters represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (VCELT393)
    1. building knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to the history, culture, and literary heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
    2. identifying and explaining differences between points of view in texts, for example contrasting the city and the bush or different perspectives based on culture, gender or age
Responding to literature
  1. Reflect on ideas and opinions about characters, settings and events in literary texts, identifying areas of agreement and difference with others and justifying a point of view (VCELT394)
    1. exploring concepts about the criteria for heroism and testing these criteria in a range of texts, including more complex ones where the hero may be flawed
    2. establishing forums for discussing the relative merits of fiction and film texts
    3. comparing personal viewpoints on texts and justifying responses in actual and virtual discussions
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Identify and discuss main ideas, concepts and points of view in spoken texts to evaluate qualities, using interaction skills when sharing interpretations or presenting ideas and information (VCELY395)
    1. identifying, discussing and interpreting ideas and concepts that other individuals and groups value
    2. identifying key evidence supporting an argument in a discussion between two speakers
  2. Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements to promote a point of view or enable a new way of seeing, using body language, voice qualities and other elements to add interest and meaning (VCELY396)
    1. preparing a presentation combining print, visual and audio elements to explore and interpret ideas, drawing on knowledge and research about perspectives different from own

Level 7 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 7, students understand how text structures can influence the complexity of a text and are dependent on audience, purpose and context. They demonstrate understanding of how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary affects meaning. They explain issues and ideas from a variety of sources, analysing supporting evidence and implied meaning. They select specific details from texts to develop their own response, recognising that texts reflect different viewpoints.

Writing

Students understand how the selection of a variety of language features can influence an audience. They understand how to draw on personal knowledge, textual analysis and other sources to express or challenge a point of view. They create texts showing how language features, text structures, and images from other texts can be combined for effect. They create structured and coherent texts for a range of purposes and audiences. When creating and editing texts they demonstrate understanding of grammar, use a variety of more specialised vocabulary, use accurate spelling and punctuation.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen for and explain different perspectives in texts. They understand how the selection of a variety of language features can influence an audience. They understand how to draw on personal knowledge, textual analysis and other sources to express or challenge a point of view. They create texts showing how language features and images from other texts can be combined for effect. They create texts structured and coherent texts for a range purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language features to engage the audience.

Level 8

Level 8 Description

In Levels 7 and 8, 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 both familiar and unfamiliar contexts that relate to the school curriculum, local community, regional and global contexts.

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view,...

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Level 8 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Language for interaction
  1. Understand how rhetorical devices are used to persuade and how different layers of meaning are developed through the use of metaphor, irony and parody (VCELA397)
    1. identifying and evaluating examples of how rhetorical devices reveal the dark or serious aspects of a topic in ways that cause laughter or amusement, for example by making a statement but implying/meaning the opposite (irony); exaggerating or overstating something (hyperbole); imitating or sending up something (parody), and making something appear less serious than it really is (understatement)
Text structure and organisation
  1. Analyse how the text structures and language features of persuasive texts, including media texts, vary according to the medium and mode of communication (VCELA398)
    1. discussing how particular perspectives of the same event are portrayed through the combination of images and words in various media texts
  2. Understand how cohesion in texts is improved by strengthening the internal structure of paragraphs through the use of examples, quotations and substantiation of claims (VCELA399)
    1. writing paragraphs of extended length that explain and substantiate a particular personal viewpoint
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Analyse and examine how effective authors control and use a variety of clause structures, including clauses embedded within the structure of a noun group/phrase or clause (VCELA400)
    1. evaluating how speechmakers influence audiences though specific language features such as the use of embedded clauses to add information
  2. Recognise that vocabulary choices contribute to the specificity, abstraction and style of texts (VCELA401)
    1. experimenting with vocabulary choices in a range of written and spoken texts and assessing the different effects these choices generate
  3. Investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning (VCELA402)
    1. comprehending a series of static images and combinations of language and images in a picture book, for example title, setting, characters, actions, as well as technical elements including position, size, colour, angle, framing, point of view
    2. analysing the relationship between visual elements and text in non-fiction texts such as documentaries, television news, online newspapers and digital magazines
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Explore the ways that ideas and viewpoints in literary texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts may reflect or challenge the values of individuals and groups (VCELT403)
    1. investigating texts about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history from different sources and explaining differing viewpoints
    2. comparing attitudes and ideas in texts drawn from contexts that are different to one's own
  2. Explore the interconnectedness of Country and Place, People, Identity and Culture in texts including those by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors (VCELT404)
    1. identifying and describing the ways films suggest Country/Place and Identity through language features such as image, soundtrack and narrative control
    2. selecting aspects of a text related to Country and Place, People, Identity and Culture and adapt it for a new context, noting if changes in one aspect will result in changes in another
    3. explaining how individual interpretations of these aspects are influenced by students’ own knowledge, values and cultural assumptions
Responding to literature
  1. Understand and explain how combinations of words and images in texts are used to represent particular groups in society, and how texts position readers in relation to those groups (VCELT405)
    1. recognising the similarities and differences between types of texts (for example a complex picture book and a feature film) in order to understand how different combinations of words and images lead readers to interpret visual texts in particular ways, according to audience, purpose and context
  2. Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures, individual people and concerns represented in texts (VCELT406)
    1. analysing arguments for and against a particular issue in current community debates and justifying a personal stance
Examining literature
  1. Recognise, explain and analyse the ways literary texts draw on readers’ knowledge of other texts and enable new understanding and appreciation of aesthetic qualities (VCELT407)
    1. exploring how some writers use terse and relatively simple language choices while others use more elaborate and complex syntax
    2. examining the language patterns, including sentence patterns, in a range of short texts and discussing the effect on readers’ interpretation of these choices
    3. writing or speaking about a literary text and outlining the impact of the text on a listener, viewer or reader, for example in a journal in which students reflect on their personal responses and on how language and structural features in the text contribute to its impact
    4. discussing, debating and assessing remakes of literary texts and their effectiveness and purpose
    5. discussing, debating and assessing book or film series, sequels, prequels, fan fiction sites, tie-in publications or merchandise
  2. Identify and evaluate devices that create tone in literary texts, including humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody (VCELT408)
    1. understanding that tone (serious, bitter, sincere, amused) indicates attitude to the subject and to readers/listeners, who can identify or judge tone through past experience and language clues in the text
  3. Interpret and analyse language choices, including sentence patterns, dialogue, imagery and other language features, in short stories, literary essays and plays (VCELT409)
    1. select an aspect of a text such as a sentence pattern or an image or word and adapt it for a new context explaining how the change will affect meaning
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Analyse and explain how language has evolved over time and how technology and the media have influenced language use and forms of communication (VCELY410)
    1. identifying and explaining how mobile technologies are influencing language uses and structures
    2. analysing the ways that identity may be created in digital contexts
    3. identifying how meanings or words change or shift depending on context, for example the word ‘cool’ is used to describe temperature or to express approval when used in informal contexts
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Apply increasing knowledge of vocabulary, text structures and language features to understand the content of texts (VCELY411)
    1. identifying the meaning of a wide range of words, including technical and literary language in various contexts
    2. using print and digital/online thesauruses and dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms and homonyms and subject-specific dictionaries
  2. Use comprehension strategies to interpret and evaluate texts by reflecting on the validity of content and the credibility of sources, including finding evidence in the text for the author’s point of view (VCELY412)
    1. reflecting on content by connecting and comparing information found in a text to knowledge sourced elsewhere
    2. determining and applying criteria for evaluating the credibility of a website
    3. explaining whether the author conveys meaning adequately, particularly in distinguishing fact from opinion
  3. Analyse and evaluate the ways that text structures and language features vary according to the purpose of the text and the ways that referenced sources add authority to a text (VCELY413)
    1. evaluating an author's use of particular textual structures and language features in achieving the representation of a point of view
    2. making assertions about the sufficiency and adequacy of information or evidence and the credibility of sources
    3. exploring texts that attempt to solve moral problems in a particular way, for example by consideration of consequences or rights/duties, and by identifying strengths as well as problems that arise from this approach

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how coherence is created in complex texts through devices like lexical cohesion, ellipsis, grammatical theme and text connectives (VCELA414)
    1. interpreting complex sentence structures through reading aloud literary texts such as sonnets or plays
    2. using cohesive devices when writing complex texts
  2. Understand the use of punctuation conventions, including colons, semicolons, dashes and brackets in formal and informal texts (VCELA415)
    1. creating dialogue in drama showing interruptions, asides and pauses for effect
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand the effect of nominalisation in the writing of informative and persuasive texts (VCELA416)
    1. analysing formal and persuasive texts to identify and explain language choices such as nominalisation
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to apply learned knowledge consistently in order to spell accurately and to learn new words including nominalisations (VCELA417)
    1. understanding the different ways complex words are constructed and, when spelling these words, drawing on morphemic knowledge and knowledge of unusual letter combinations
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts (VCELT418)
    1. creating and performing scripts for short plays that make use of the affordances of visual, verbal and additional modes (for example music) to create atmosphere, to deepen interpretation of verbal meaning and to enhance the drama of a performance
  2. Create literary texts that draw upon text structures and language features of other texts for particular purposes and effects (VCELT419)
    1. creating literary interpretations of short stories based on understanding and analysis of their context, narrative structure (including the twist at the end), layers of meaning, themes, point of view and style
    2. combining visual and digital elements to create layers of meaning for serious and humorous purposes
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate (VCELY420)
    1. integrating multimodal approaches within a spoken presentation to purposefully develop meaning for a given audience
    2. selecting vocabulary to influence meaning and to position and persuade the audience, for example adjusting language to show or acknowledge power
  2. Experiment with text structures and language features to refine and clarify ideas to improve the effectiveness of own texts (VCELY421)
    1. experimenting with text structures and language features, for example paragraph order and content, language choices or mode of delivery, to refine and clarify ideas and to improve text effectiveness
    2. combining verbal, visual and sound elements in imaginative multimodal texts
    3. ordering paragraphs to best support and sustain an argument and to organise and convey information clearly
  3. Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively (VCELY422)
    1. investigating how digital tools or software can enhance a text that was originally print-based

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand the influence and impact that the English language has had on other languages or dialects and how English has been influenced in return (VCELA423)
    1. exploring examples of Singlish (Singapore English) from a Singlish dictionary
    2. investigating borrowings from a range of languages into English, for example from French and Italian
Language for interaction
  1. Understand how conventions of speech adopted by communities influence the identities of people in those communities (VCELA424)
    1. understanding that our use of language helps to create different identities, for example teenage groups and sportspeople have adopted particular words or ways of speaking
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Share, reflect on, clarify and evaluate opinions and arguments about aspects of literary texts (VCELT425)
    1. discussing the relative merits of literary texts and comparing and evaluating personal viewpoints on texts
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Interpret the stated and implied meanings in spoken texts, and use interaction skills including voice and language conventions to discuss evidence that supports or challenges different perspectives (VCELY426)
    1. listen to a conversation or speech and identify the point being made and explain the tone and manner of presentation. Change the focus of the conversation or speech and identify how meaning has changed
    2. change the tone in which the speech or conversation is presented and discuss how interpretations can also change.
  2. Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content, including multimodal elements, to reflect a diversity of viewpoints, using voice and language conventions to suit different situations, modulating voice and incorporating elements for specific effects (VCELY427)
    1. creating texts that express views and values other than own
    2. researching subject matter on social issues and/or relationships and presenting ideas in particular ways to appeal to different audiences

Level 8 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 8, students understand how the selection of text structures is influenced by the selection of language mode and how this varies for different purposes and audiences. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts. They interpret texts, questioning the reliability of sources of ideas and information. They select evidence from the text to show how events, situations and people can be represented from different viewpoints.

Writing

Students understand how the selection of language features can be used for particular purposes and effects. They explain the effectiveness of language choices they use to influence the audience. Through combining ideas, images and language features from other texts students show how ideas can be expressed in new ways. They create texts for different purposes selecting language to influence audience response. When creating and editing texts for specific effects, they take into account intended purposes and the needs and interests of audiences. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, select vocabulary for effect and use accurate spelling and punctuation.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen for and identify different emphases in texts, using that understanding to elaborate upon discussions. They understand how the selection of language features can be used for particular purposes and effects. They explain the effectiveness of language choices they use to influence the audience. Through combining ideas, images and language features from other texts students show how ideas can be expressed in new ways. They create texts for different purposes selecting language to influence audience response. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language patterns for effect.

Level 9

Level 9 Description

In Levels 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...

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Level 9 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Language for interaction
  1. Investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, including allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor (VCELA428)
    1. 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
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand that authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects (VCELA429)
    1. experimenting with ways to present personal viewpoints through innovating with texts
  2. 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 (VCELA430)
    1. 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’)
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Analyse and explain the use of symbols, icons and myth in still and moving images and how these augment meaning (VCELA431)
    1. 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
  2. Identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effectiveness (VCELA432)
    1. 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
    2. identifying examples of acronyms, abbreviations and proprietary words which are used creatively in texts
  3. Explain how authors creatively use the structures of sentences and clauses for particular effects (VCELA433)
    1. identifying and analysing aspects of rhetoric in speeches drawn from contemporary and earlier contexts and creating speeches of their own
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how spelling is used creatively in texts for particular effects (VCELA434)
    1. identifying examples of spelling used to create characterisation and humour, and to represent accents and styles of speech
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Interpret and compare how representations of people and culture in literary texts are drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (VCELT435)
    1. exploring and reflecting on representations of values (for example love, freedom, integrity) in literature drawn from cultures and times different from their own
    2. exploring and reflecting on personal understanding of the world and human experience, interpreted in literature drawn from cultures and times different from the students’ own
    3. reviewing historical fiction or nonfiction written by and about the peoples of Asia
    4. analysing literary texts created by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (including documentaries, picture books, print texts and other multimodal texts) and also texts including film produced by and about peoples of Asian background, and considering the different ways these texts represent people, places, things and issues
Responding to literature
  1. Present an argument about a literary text based on initial impressions and subsequent analysis of the whole text (VCELT436)
    1. interrogating and making judgments about a text, comparing others’ ideas against the student’s own and reaching an independent decision or shared consensus about the interpretations and ideas expressed
  2. Explore and reflect on personal understanding of the world and significant human experience gained from interpreting various representations of life matters in texts (VCELT437)
    1. establishing a wide reading list on a particular issue based on personal preference and establishing reasons for the inclusion of these texts
Examining literature
  1. Analyse texts from familiar and unfamiliar contexts, and discuss and evaluate their content and the appeal of an individual author’s literary style (VCELT438)
    1. comparing texts created by the same author to determine literary style, assessing its appeal and presenting this comparison to others
    2. examining how different authors make use of devices like myth, icons and imagery and evaluating the effect of these choices on audiences
  2. Analyse text structures and language features of literary texts, and make relevant comparisons with other texts (VCELT439)
    1. evaluating the effect on readers of text structures and language features of a literary text and comparing these with other texts
    2. by comparing texts, writing or speaking about how well the author constructed the opening and closing sections of the text and used ‘hooks’ to keep the reader/viewer/listener engaged and reading on/watching/listening to the end
  3. Interpret and analyse language choices, including sentence patterns, dialogue, imagery and other language features, in short stories, literary essays and plays (VCELT440)
    1. identifying examples of language devices in a range of poems, ballads or poetic extracts, and considering how their use adds to meaning and may also influence the emotional responses of listeners or readers, in varying ways
    2. exploring how language devices look or sound in written or spoken texts, how they can be identified, purposes they serve and what effect they might have on how the audience responds
    3. taking a particular area of study, a topic or theme and examining how different authors make use of devices like myth, icons and imagery in their work
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Analyse how the construction and interpretation of texts, including media texts, can be influenced by cultural perspectives and other texts (VCELY441)
    1. comparing perspectives represented in texts from different times and places, including texts drawn from popular culture
    2. identifying, comparing and creating relationships between texts (including novels, illustrated stories, social issue cartoons, documentaries, multimodal texts)
    3. reflecting on the notion that all texts build on a body of prior texts in a culture
    4. analysing and identifying how socio-cultural values, attitudes and beliefs are conveyed in texts, for example comparing and analysing perspectives about an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issue reported in commercial media compared to public and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media
    5. analysing and interpreting assumptions about groups that have shaped or influenced representations of people, places, events and things and identifying how listeners and readers are positioned by these representations
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Analyse and evaluate how authors combine language and visual choices to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (VCELY442)
    1. comparing two articles with accompanying images on a similar topic in the media, considering the language and visual choices made by the authors for different audiences
    2. analysing how graphic novels present perspectives through the combination of visual and text
  2. Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse texts, comparing and evaluating representations of an event, issue, situation or character in different texts (VCELY443)
    1. evaluating techniques used to construct plot and create emotional responses, for example comparison, contrast, exaggeration, juxtaposition, the changing of chronological order, or the expansion and compression of time
  3. Apply an expanding vocabulary to read increasingly complex texts with fluency and comprehension (VCELY444)
    1. predicting meanings of unfamiliar words by using morphographic patterns

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how punctuation is used along with layout and font variations in constructing texts for different audiences and purposes (VCELA445)
    1. experimenting with the use of colons and semicolons in expositions and other extended writing to improve precision and clarity of expression
    2. investigating instances of colons and semicolons in expository texts and discuss their uses in elaborating on and clarifying ideas in complex sentences
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Understand how certain abstract nouns can be used to summarise preceding or subsequent stretches of text (VCELA446)
    1. 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
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Experiment with the ways that language features, image and sound can be adapted in literary texts (VCELT447)
    1. making language choices and choosing particular language devices to achieve intended effects, for example building in a surprise or twist in the ending of a short story or final scene of a film
    2. taking an existing short story, poem, play or speech in print form and creating a short visual text which is accompanied by a sound track containing music and sound effects, and which is intended to amuse audiences who are familiar with the original text
    3. creating written interpretations of traditional and contemporary literature which employs devices like metaphor, symbol, allegory and myth, and evaluating the contribution of these devices to the interpretation of the text
    4. creating written interpretations of traditional and contemporary poetry (for example sonnets and contemporary song lyrics) focusing on their use of symbol, myth, icons and imagery
  2. Create literary texts, including hybrid texts, that innovate on aspects of other texts, including through the use of parody, allusion and appropriation (VCELT448)
    1. creating a contemporary parody of an historical text to highlight changes in societal attitudes
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features (VCELY449)
    1. presenting arguments that advance opinions, justify positions, and make judgments in order to persuade others about issues such the importance of maintaining balance in the biosphere
    2. creating imaginative texts with main ideas developed through the interconnections of plot, settings, characters, the changing of chronological order, foreshadowing in written, spoken and digital texts
    3. creating informative and argumentative texts with explanations, details and evidence
    4. following the structure of an argument which has a series of sequenced and linked paragraphs, beginning with an outline of the stance to be taken, a series of supported points that develop a line of argument, and a conclusion which summarises the main line of argument
  2. Review and edit students’ own and others’ texts to improve clarity and control over content, organisation, paragraphing, sentence structure, vocabulary and audio/visual features (VCELY450)
    1. checking for run on sentences, eliminating unnecessary detail or repetition, and providing clear introductory and concluding paragraphs
  3. Publishing texts using a range of software, including word processing programs, flexibly and imaginatively (VCELY451)
    1. applying word processing functions, for example outlining, standard styles and indexing

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that Standard Australian English is a living language within which the creation and loss of words and the evolution of usage is ongoing (VCELA452)
    1. identifying some of the changes in the grammar of English over time, for example from thee and thou to you
    2. exploring examples of ‘Globish’ English
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that roles and relationships are developed and challenged through language and interpersonal skills (VCELA453)
    1. 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)
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary value and how and why such notions vary according to context (VCELT454)
    1. reflecting on and discussing responses to literature including plot events, setting details, characterisation, themes, structure and language devices used to achieve particular effects, and collaboratively formulating a list of factors that characterise merit
    2. discussing, debating and evaluating the cinematic qualities and success of a film or new versions of a film
    3. exploring the ways that context has shaped the representation of particular cultures, such as through the analysis of differing viewpoints in texts about different cultures or by comparing the ways texts from different periods reveal differences in viewpoints (for example differences in the portrayal of migrants in traditional and more contemporary literature)
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Listen to spoken texts constructed for different purposes and analyse how language features in these texts position listeners to respond in particular ways, and consider the interaction skills used to present and discuss ideas, or to influence and engage audiences through persuasive language, varied voice tone, pitch and pace (VCELY455)
    1. comparing and evaluating bias or stereotyping and presenting findings in discussions and presentations
    2. identifying and commenting on omissions of information in different texts
    3. exploring and identifying moral and ethical dimensions of an issue represented in different texts, and how these align or contradict with personal and others’ perspectives
    4. understanding the role of intonation, pausing, combinations of clause and rhythm in spoken language and of punctuation
  2. Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for aesthetic and playful purposes (VCELY456)
    1. using graphics and text animations to accompany spoken text, for example presenting a news item suitable for a current affairs program that aligns image to spoken text, or establishing humour by creating a disjunct between sound, image and spoken text

Level 9 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 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 the text to analyse and explain how language choices and conventions are used to influence an audience.

Writing

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. They create texts that respond to issues interpreting and integrating ideas from other texts. They edit for effect, selecting vocabulary and grammar that contribute to the precision and persuasiveness of texts and using accurate spelling and punctuation.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen for ways texts position an audience. They 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. They create texts that respond to issues, interpreting and integrating ideas from texts. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, comparing and evaluating responses to ideas and issues.

Level 10

Level 10 Description

In Levels 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...

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Level 10 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations
Language for interaction
  1. Understand that people’s evaluations of texts are influenced by their value systems, the context and the purpose and mode of communication (VCELA457)
    1. considering whether ethical judgments of good, bad, right or wrong are absolute or relative through consideration of texts with varying points of view and through discussion with others
    2. interpreting texts by drawing on knowledge of the historical context in which texts were created
Text structure and organisation
  1. Compare the purposes, text structures and language features of traditional and contemporary texts in different media (VCELA458)
    1. reproducing and adapting existing print texts for an online environment and explaining the reasons for the adaptations (for example accounting for the navigation and use of hyperlinks as structuring principles in hypertext narratives)
    2. investigating the structure and language of similar text types like information reports and narratives and how these are influenced by different technological affordances (for example hyperlinks as structuring principles in hypertext narratives versus linear text sequencing principles in print narratives)
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Evaluate the impact on audiences of different choices in the representation of still and moving images (VCELA459)
    1. experimenting with aspects of visual texts to establish different nuances, for example evaluating the impact of the movement of camera or light in moving images
Literature Elaborations
Literature and context
  1. Compare and evaluate a range of representations of individuals and groups in different historical, social and cultural contexts (VCELT460)
    1. investigating and analysing the ways cultural stories may be retold and adapted across a range of contexts such as the ‘Cinderella’ story and the ‘anti-hero’
    2. imaginatively adapting texts from an earlier time or different social context for a new audience
    3. exploring and reflecting on personal understanding of the world and human experience gained from interpreting literature drawn from cultures and times different from the students’ own
Responding to literature
  1. Analyse and explain how text structures, language features and visual features of texts and the context in which texts are experienced may influence audience response (VCELT461)
    1. looking at a range of texts to consider how the use of a structural device, for example a female narrator, may influence female readers/viewers/listeners to respond sympathetically to an event or issue
  2. Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (VCELT462)
    1. identifying and analysing ethical positions on a current issue debated in blogs or online discussion forums, including values and/or principles involved and the strengths and weaknesses of the position in the context of the issue
Examining literature
  1. Identify, explain and discuss how narrative viewpoint, structure, characterisation and devices including analogy and satire shape different interpretations and responses to a text (VCELT463)
    1. looking at a range of short poems, a short story, or extracts from a novel or film to find and discuss examples of how language devices layer meaning and influence the responses of listeners, viewers or readers
  2. Analyse and evaluate text structures and language features of literary texts and make relevant thematic and intertextual connections with other texts (VCELT464)
    1. using terms associated with literary text analysis (for example narrative, characters, poetry, figurative language, symbolism, soundtrack) when evaluating aspects that are valued and that contain aesthetic qualities
    2. writing or speaking about how effectively the author constructed the text and engaged and sustained the reader’s/viewer’s/listener’s personal interest
  3. Compare and evaluate how ‘voice’ as a literary device can be used in a range of different types of texts such as poetry to evoke particular emotional responses (VCELT465)
    1. creating extended written responses to literary texts, making reference to varying points of view about the issues raised
Literacy Elaborations
Texts in context
  1. Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices (VCELY466)
    1. considering ethical positions across more than one culture as represented in text and consider the similarities and differences
    2. questioning the representation of stereotypes of people, cultures, places, events and concepts, and expressing views on the appropriateness of these representations
    3. identifying and explaining satirical events, including events in other cultures, for example depictions in political cartoons
    4. identifying and evaluating poetic, lyrical language in the depiction of people, culture, places, events, things and concepts in texts
    5. analysing the ways socio-cultural values, attitudes and beliefs are presented in texts by comparing the ways news is reported in commercial media and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
  1. Identify and analyse implicit or explicit values, beliefs and assumptions in texts and how these are influenced by purposes and likely audiences (VCELY467)
    1. skim reading sections of a persuasive text to identify the main contention, key arguments in linked paragraphs and supporting evidence in order to locate points for building rebuttal or counter argument
  2. Choose a reading technique and reading path appropriate for the type of text, to retrieve and connect ideas within and between texts (VCELY468)
    1. assessing the impact of hyperlinked text in a website’s navigation
    2. using appropriate metalanguage associated with digital technologies to analyse reading pathways on websites
  3. Use comprehension strategies to compare and contrast information within and between texts, identifying and analysing embedded perspectives, and evaluating supporting evidence (VCELY469)
    1. identifying the meaning of an increasing range of subtle vocabulary, for example inferring the different connotations of words in advertising texts from other cultures

Writing

Language Elaborations
Text structure and organisation
  1. Understand how paragraphs and images can be arranged for different purposes, audiences, perspectives and stylistic effects (VCELA470)
    1. analysing and experimenting with combinations of graphics, text and sound in the production of multimodal texts such as documentaries, media reports, online magazines and digital books
  2. Understand conventions for citing others, and how to reference these in different ways (VCELA471)
    1. understanding who to cite in essays, reviews and academic assignments and when it is appropriate to use direct quotations or to report sources more generally
Expressing and developing ideas
  1. Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of sentence and clause structures as authors design and craft texts (VCELA472)
    1. recognising how emphasis in sentences can be changed by reordering clauses (for example, ‘She made her way home because she was feeling ill’ as compared with ‘Because she was feeling ill, she made her way home’) or parts of clauses (for example, ‘The horses raced up from the valley’ as compared with ‘Up from the valley raced the horses’)
    2. recognising how the focus of a sentence can be changed through the use of the passive voice (for example compare active, ‘The police had caught the thief.’ with passive ‘The thief had been caught.’)
    3. observing how authors sometimes use verbless clauses for effect (for example, ‘And what about the other woman? With her long black eyelashes and red lipstick’)
    4. understanding that a sentence can begin with a coordinating conjunction for stylistic effect (for example, ‘And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it’)
  2. Analyse how higher order concepts are developed in complex texts through language features including nominalisation, clause combinations, technicality and abstraction (VCELA473)
    1. considering how nominalisation affects the way in which events are constructed and explained, making some information more explicit and other information less so
    2. analysing how logical relations between ideas are built up by combining main with subordinate clauses indicating cause, result, manner, concession, condition, and so on (for example, ‘Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life (concession), Keats’ reputation grew substantially after his death’)
    3. noting how technicality allows for efficient reference to shared knowledge, indicating growing expertise in the field (for example, ‘The Romantic poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes.’)
    4. observing how abstraction allows for greater generalisation at a higher level (for example, ‘the political, religious, social and economic features of the society’ – which is an abstract noun group/phrase)
  3. Refine vocabulary choices to discriminate between shades of meaning, with deliberate attention to the effect on audiences (VCELA474)
    1. creating texts that demand complex processes of responding, for example the inclusion of symbolism in advertising, foreshadowing in documentary and irony in humorous texts
Phonics and word knowledge
  1. Understand how to use knowledge of the spelling system to spell unusual and technical words accurately (VCELA475)
    1. spelling words based on uncommon Greek and Latin roots, for example 'ec-centric' using the uncommon Latin prefix ec- meaning 'out of'
Literature Elaborations
Creating literature
  1. Create literary texts that reflect an emerging sense of personal style and evaluate the effectiveness of these texts (VCELT476)
    1. creating texts which draw on own experience of other texts and which have a personal aesthetic appeal
    2. reflect on the authors who have influenced own aesthetic style and evaluate their impact
  2. Create literary texts with a sustained ‘voice’, selecting and adapting appropriate text structures, literary devices, language, auditory and visual structures and features for a specific purpose and intended audience (VCELT477)
    1. creating a range of own spoken, written or multimodal texts, experimenting with and manipulating language devices for particular audiences, purposes and contexts
    2. using humour and drama as devices to entertain, inform and persuade listeners, viewers and readers
  3. Create imaginative texts that make relevant thematic and intertextual connections with other texts (VCELT478)
    1. creating texts that refer to themes or make particular connections to texts, for example writing crime fiction or romance short stories
Literacy Elaborations
Creating texts
  1. Create sustained texts, including texts that combine specific digital or media content, for imaginative, informative, or persuasive purposes that reflect upon challenging and complex issues (VCELY479)
    1. presenting a structured argument by providing a statement of the major perspectives or concerns relating to an issue, previewing the structure of arguments, structuring the text to provide a major point for each paragraph with succinct elaboration, and concluding with a summary of the main issues or recommendations in an argument
    2. creating spoken, written and multimodal texts that compel readers to empathise with the ideas and emotions expressed or implied
    3. exploring models of sustained texts created for persuasive purposes about a challenging or complex issue from other cultures, including Asia
  2. Review, edit and refine own and others’ texts for control of content, organisation, sentence structure, vocabulary, and/or visual features to achieve particular purposes and effects (VCELY480)
    1. reflecting on, critiquing and refining own texts prior to publishing for an authentic audience, such as uploading a movie to a website, contributing to an anthology, writing texts appropriate for the workplace, or delivering a presentation
  3. Use a range of software, including word processing programs, confidently, flexibly and imaginatively to create, edit and publish texts, considering the identified purpose and the characteristics of the user (VCELY481)
    1. designing a webpage that combines navigation, text, sound and moving and still images for a specific audience

Speaking and Listening

Language Elaborations
Language variation and change
  1. Understand that Standard Australian English in its spoken and written forms has a history of evolution and change and continues to evolve (VCELA482)
    1. investigating differences between spoken and written English by comparing the language of conversation and interviews with the written language of print texts
    2. experimenting with and incorporating new words and creative inventions in own written and spoken texts
    3. understanding how and why spelling became standardised and how conventions have changed over time and continue to change through common usage, the invention of new words and creative combinations of existing words
Language for interaction
  1. Understand how language use can have inclusive and exclusive social effects, and can empower or disempower people (VCELA483)
    1. identifying language that seeks to align the listener or reader (for example 'of course', 'obviously', 'as you can imagine')
    2. identifying the use of first person (I, we) and second person pronouns (you) to distance or involve the audience, for example in a speech made to a local cultural community
    3. identifying references to shared assumptions
    4. identifying appeals to shared cultural knowledge, values and beliefs
    5. reflecting on experiences of when language includes, distances or marginalises others
    6. creating texts that represent personal belief systems (such as credos, statements of ethical judgements, guidelines, letters to the editor and blog entries)
Literature Elaborations
Responding to literature
  1. Reflect on, extend, endorse or refute others’ interpretations of and responses to literature (VCELT484)
    1. determining, through debate, whether a text possesses universal qualities and remains relevant
    2. presenting arguments based on close textual analysis to support an interpretation of a text, for example writing an essay or creating a set of director’s notes
    3. creating personal reading lists in a variety of genres and explain why the texts qualify for inclusion on a particular list
    4. reflecting upon and asking questions about interpretations of texts relevant to a student’s cultural background
Literacy Elaborations
Interacting with others
  1. Identify and explore the purposes and effects of different text structures and language features of spoken texts, and use this knowledge to create purposeful texts that inform, persuade and engage audiences, using organisation patterns, voice and language conventions to present a coherent point of view on a subject (VCELY485)
    1. identifying stereotypes of people, cultures, places, events, and concepts and explaining why they are stereotypes
    2. identifying and explaining satirical events, including events in other cultures, for example depictions in political cartoons
    3. applying knowledge of spoken, visual, auditory, technical and multimodal resources (for example sound and silence, camera shot types, lighting and colour) in conjunction with verbal resources for varying purposes and contexts
    4. selecting subject matter and language to position readers to accept representations of people, events, ideas and information
  2. Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements to influence a course of action, speaking clearly and using logic, imagery and rhetorical devices in order to engage audiences (VCELY486)
    1. using assumptions about listeners, viewers and readers to try to position them to accept a particular point of view

Level 10 Achievement Standard

Reading and Viewing

By the end of Level 10, students evaluate how text structures can be used in innovative ways by different authors. They explain how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary contributes to the development of individual style. They develop and justify their own interpretations of texts. They evaluate other interpretations, analysing the evidence used to support them.

Writing

Students show how the selection of language features can achieve precision and stylistic effect. They explain different viewpoints, attitudes and perspectives through the development of cohesive and logical arguments. They develop their own style by experimenting with language features, stylistic devices, text structures and images. They create a wide range of texts to articulate complex ideas. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, vary vocabulary choices for impact, and accurately use spelling and punctuation when creating and editing texts.

Speaking and Listening

Students listen for ways features within texts can be manipulated to achieve particular effects. They show how the selection of language features can achieve precision and stylistic effect. They explain different viewpoints, attitudes and perspectives through the development of cohesive and logical arguments. They develop their own style by experimenting with language features, stylistic devices, text structures and images. They create a wide range of texts to articulate complex ideas. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions building on others' ideas, solving problems, justifying opinions and developing and expanding arguments.

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