Tag: curriculum
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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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Making the most of Head Start
As term 4 draws to a close, many schools will have some form of Head Start or acceleration program for senior students. For our school, that means our Y11s move up to their Y12 classes for the final fortnight of term. For new senior teachers, this might be the first time you have encountered a […]
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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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Activity spotlight: One minutes, three minutes, five minutes, write!
This is a great activity for encouraging students to do more than just glance at a text before trying to write a response, or answer a direct question. A lot of the time, our students want to rush ahead and just, “get the job done,” when we really want them to provide a thoughtful response. […]
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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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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 […]
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The worst sentence I ever wrote
The importance of teachers-as-writers cannot be understated, particularly in the English classroom. If you want students to be successful, you must be willing and able to model. The problem is, it can be incredibly daunting to stand in front of a class of students and just start writing. The good news: your students will benefit […]
Leon Furze 