Tag: curriculum
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI
With Victoria the latest state to ban ChatGPT, teachers everywhere are grappling with the implications of the large language model and the impact it will have on the classroom. We know that banning and blocking technology is – at best – a temporary solution. Students will find ways around the blocks, and teachers will be…
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Practical Writing Strategies: Sneak Peak
This is an extract from the introduction to Practical Writing Strategies. PWS is written by myself and Benjamin White, and will be published by Amba Press later this year. Introduction What is writing? When Leon wrote Practical Reading Strategies, he started with a seemingly simple question: what is reading? The question came from a Community…
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Advanced Techniques for ChatGPT in education
In a previous post on Practical Strategies for ChatGPT, I explored some of the basics of prompting the AI language model. I also organised education tasks into six areas: In this post I’ll go deeper into prompt techniques, and I’m organising around five key skills that could be used to lift your prompts in any…
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Creative but critical: How educators can learn to live with AI
December 2022 represented a step-change in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. With the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, suddenly the whole world (or at least the millions of users who logged in within a week of its launch) were talking about Large Language Models. LLMs represent just a portion of AI technologies, but ChatGPT shifted the public…
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Getting Motivated for the Personal Response
This post refers to the new VCE English and EAL Study Design. However, the ideas about personal writing can be applied anywhere in the English curriculum where students are expected to respond personally to texts. Many schools in Victoria will be preparing for the new Unit 1 Reading and Exploring Texts outcome, the Personal Response.…
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Reading and Exploring: How to write the OC1 Personal Response
I just got back from the VATE conference after two days with some of the best English teachers and presenters in the state. We also heard directly from the VCAA and a handful of the examination panel about the new Study Design. It’s clear that the new SD is looming large for English teachers and…
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Choosing Mentor Texts
Before the new VCE English and EAL Study Design was launched for consultation I had already written a few posts about using texts as models, from students’ own writing through to literary classics. When the SD came out, it was great to see that idea translated into the ‘mentor texts’ for Crafting and Creating Texts.…
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Planning for Reading and Exploring Texts: The Personal Response
Now that we’re well and truly clear of the Year 12 exams, most schools in Victoria have turned their attention towards the new Study Design and preparing students for 2023. Whether your school has a head start or step up program or not, chances are you’ll be planning your approach to the new Personal Response…
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Aligning 7-10 with the new VCE English and EAL Study Design
Before beginning this article, I need to point out that I absolutely do not recommend turning the 7-10 curriculum into a “mini VCE”, or a funnel that only points students towards the senior certificate. There are many varied pathways students can take through secondary school, and the VCE is only one of them. When I…
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VCE English and EAL: Assessing the new Crafting and Creating Texts outcomes
In all of the Professional Learnings I’ve been running recently related to the new Study Design, the assessment question has cropped up more than any other. We don’t have a sample examination yet; and we won’t get one until well into next year. But the VCAA have provided us with Unit 3 and 4 Performance…