The English curriculum is organised under 3 interrelated strands: Language, Literature and Literacy. While each strand articulates the essential skills of English, they should be seen as interlinked and interconnected. Together, the 3 strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing...
The English curriculum is organised under 3 interrelated strands: Language, Literature and Literacy. While each strand articulates the essential skills of English, they should be seen as interlinked and interconnected. Together, the 3 strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing. The English curriculum is underpinned by the selection of texts appropriate for the level.
The achievement standards explicitly link together skills drawn from the 3 strands, and map these directly into the sub-strands. Unlike the strands, the achievement standards are organised through the language modes of Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing, and Writing. Further information about the connections between the content descriptions and the achievement standards can be found in the ‘Learning in English’ section.
At Level 1, learning in English builds on the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) and each student’s prior knowledge and experiences.
Students use language and gestures to communicate, and they interact with familiar audiences for different purposes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment and learning. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts. Texts may include picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, various types of information texts, short films and animations, dramatic performances, and texts used by students as models for constructing their own texts.
The range of literary texts comprises the oral narrative traditions and literature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and classic and contemporary literature from a wide range of Australian and world authors, including texts from and about Asia.
Students develop their reading in a text-rich environment through engagement with a range of texts. This range includes literature that expands and reflects their world and texts that support learning in English and across the curriculum. Some students will continue to practise their reading with decodable texts that align with phonic development. These texts systematically introduce words with phoneme–grapheme correspondences. Developing readers engage with authentic texts that support and extend them as independent readers. These texts include straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisably realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts, with illustrations and diagrams, present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest and topics being studied in other learning areas. These texts use a small range of language features including simple and compound sentences, some unfamiliar vocabulary, high-frequency words and other words that need to be decoded using developing phonic knowledge.
Students create short texts whose purposes may be narrative, informative and persuasive. These texts may explain simple procedures, recount real or imagined events or experiences, report and describe learning area content, retell stories, express opinions, and describe real or imagined people, places or things for an audience.
By the end of Level 1, students demonstrate the following skills in English.
When interacting with others, students understand the vocabulary of curriculum area topics and use language, facial expressions and gestures when requesting, exclaiming and commanding. They use turn-taking skills.
They explore language to express preferences and opinions.
When speaking to an audience, students deliver short spoken texts, engaging with personal or learnt topics, using features of voice.
When listening, reading and viewing, students engage with a range of different types of texts, including decodable and authentic texts, using developing phonic knowledge.
They blend, segment and manipulate words with one and 2 syllables. They read an increasing number of high-frequency words and understand boundary punctuation.
When demonstrating understanding of texts, students discuss characters, settings, events and images, and make connections between texts and their personal experiences. They begin to build their understanding of literal and inferred meanings. They identify how types of texts, both print and digital, are organised for purpose and navigation. They compare how textual elements other than language, such as images and sounds, can contribute to meaning in texts.
When creating short written and spoken texts, students use narrative and informative text structures; incorporate some detail from previously encountered texts, learnt topics or topics of interest; and include appropriate multimodal elements. They re-read their texts and complete simple edits.
They select learning area or topic-specific vocabulary.
They write words using unjoined lower-case and upper-case letters. They spell most one- and 2-syllable words with common letter patterns and common grammatical morphemes, and an increasing number of high-frequency words. They apply boundary punctuation.
