To support teachers with the first year of the new Crafting Texts Area of Study in Unit 1 English, I’ve put together this collection of 12 texts from a variety of fiction and nonfiction forms around the idea of ‘Futures’.

According to the new VCE English and EAL Study Design, “The mentor texts can include short stories, speeches or monologues (with transcripts), essays (comment, opinion, reflective, personal), podcasts (with transcripts), poetry/songs, feature articles (including a series of blog or social media postings) and memoirs and biography and can be entire texts or extracts.”

In this collection you’ll find a variety of the above text types, all under the broad idea of “Futures”. These texts are by no means the only texts you could use with your class, but I’ve tried to find a diverse range that will appeal to many students.Each of the texts comes with three lesson activities. Remember, the purpose of the mentor text is less about the idea and more about the style, voice, and techniques in the text.

The collection features texts from Margaret Atwood, Tim Flannery, Greta Thunberg and more, and ranges across poetry, prose, articles and speeches.