English - Curriculum - Victorian Curriculum

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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,...

Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view, interpret, evaluate and perform a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These include various types of media texts including newspapers, magazines and digital texts, early adolescent novels, non-fiction, poetry and dramatic performances. Students develop their understanding of how texts, including media texts, are influenced by context, purpose and audience.

Literary texts that support and extend students in Levels 7 and 8 as independent readers are drawn from a range of realistic, fantasy, speculative fiction and historical genres and involve some challenging and unpredictable plot sequences and a range of non-stereotypical characters. These texts explore themes of interpersonal relationships and ethical dilemmas within real-world and fictional settings and represent a variety of perspectives. Informative texts present technical and content information from various sources about specialised topics. Text structures are more complex including chapters, headings and subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and glossaries. Language features include successive complex sentences with embedded clauses, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, figurative and rhetorical language, and information supported by various types of graphics presented in visual form.

Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts, for example narratives, procedures, performances, reports and discussions, and begin to create literary analyses and transformations of texts.

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Level 8 Content Descriptions

Reading and Viewing

Language Elaborations

Language for interaction

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

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
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

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
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
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

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
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

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
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

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
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
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

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

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
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
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

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.