Category: curriculum
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Visualising and the sixth sense
This is the second in a series of posts on each of the six Reading Strategies. To get your hands on a copy of Practical Reading Strategies, with activities for each of the strategies, click here. The Visualising strategy encompasses the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. There are many activities which…
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VCE Study Guide: Flames
This is an abbreviated version of my Neap Smartstudy guide to Robbie Arnott’s Flames, new to the VCE English text list. You can find a copy of the full study guide here or here (these are not affiliate links). Overview Flames is a darkly humorous novel that blends elements of mythology and the Gothic with…
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What’s your purpose? Developing a team vision
Talking about vision and purpose is the kind of thing that elicits almost audible eye-rolling, and with good reason. We’ve all been a part of staff meetings, reviews, and planning days where we’ve been told we’re going to “write the vision for the next five years” or “define our mission”. Here’s how that typically plays…
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Moderation and Benchmarking
Over the years we have made some pretty dramatic changes to how we run senior English. We’ve abandoned TEEL, changed the way we provide assessment and feedback, and overhauled our school assessed coursework processes. And along the way, we tightened up our benchmarking and moderation processes to create I system which is fair, rigorous, and…
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Finding Writing Models
If you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of using quality writing models in the English classroom for everything from creative writing to an alternative to the dreaded TEEL. And I’m not alone in thinking that one of the best ways to learn how to write well is…
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TEEL is a four-letter word
Before coming to Australia I’d never heard of TEEL, but as soon as I stepped into the classroom, I was confronted by this strange and menacing acronym. TEEL – Topic Evidence Explanation Link – is a scaffold for writing essay paragraphs. Of course, if you’re an English teacher, you don’t need me to tell you…
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Activity Spotlight: Text Walk
The Text Walk, also known as a chalk talk, is one of the foundational activities in our English classrooms. It serves as the basis for many of our other activities, and a springboard for discussion. Most importantly, the text walk is a means of getting students to engage with short extracts of texts for themselves,…
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Effective Assessment and Feedback
Providing effective assessment and feedback can be simultaneously the most rewarding and the most time-consuming part of the job. Amongst the many benefits of feedback, we find improved student outcomes, greater understanding, even stronger relationships with students. But providing feedback can also become a burden on teachers already pressed for time with classroom, administrative, and…
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Where Close Reading Meets Reader Response
Close reading is the cornerstone of an English curriculum. Not only does it offer an opportunity for student voice and interpretation, but it is also a platform for academic rigour and analysis. In the right hands, the close reading of limited excerpts of a text can be much more powerful than a superficial reading of…
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The General Capabilities: Where Next?
From their inception in 2008’s Melbourne Declaration to the first inclusion in the 2010 ACARA F-10 Curriculum the General Capabilities have sat alongside traditional subject areas such as English, Mathematics, Humanities and Science. The 2019 Mparntwe Declaration has now superseded the Melbourne Declaration and underpins the recent review of the Australian Curriculum. There are seven General…