F-10 Australian Curriculum

QSA Strategic Directions Workshop

English 10 February, 2011

Pamela MurphySenior Project Officer: English

Overview of Session

• Principles for the development of Australian Curriculum (AC)

• Research• Comparison of AC with Queensland Curriculum• Organisation and content of AC• General capabilities and cross curriculum priorities • Inclusivity• Achievement standards• Implementation

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Challenges and positives

• What are the positives for you in supporting teachers implement the Australian Curriculum?

• What are the challenges for you in supporting teachers to implement the Australian Curriculum?

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Key Principles for Development• The Australian Curriculum will make clear what we want all young

Australians to learn

• Classroom teachers are best placed to organise learning for students; they will make decisions about the pedagogical approach intended to achieve the best learning outcomes

• The Melbourne Declaration (Dec 2008)

• The Shape of the Australian Curriculum (V2) guides the development of national curriculum and is available at http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Shape_of_the_Australian_Curriculum.pdf

• The Shape of the Australian Curriculum: English is available at http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_English.pdf

Research and Evidence Base

• A list of references used in the development of the curriculum will be available online

• Data from NAPLAN, performance and entry data from across jurisdictions were used to inform the placement of content descriptions in particular year levels

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International Benchmarking

The Australian Curriculum: English F‒10 has been referenced to and compares favourably with:

– California– England– Finland– New Zealand – Ontario– Singapore

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National mapping

• All state and territory curriculum have been mapped against the Australian Curriculum: English

• A small common set of topic groups in English form the core of the curricula in all states and territories

• Findings in English indicate high to very high level of alignment between AC and Queensland Curriculum but with differences in intensity of coverage and breadth of cognitive demand

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Comparison with QueenslandAustralian Curriculum Queensland Curriculum

The Australian Curriculum F-10 content is organised by year.

Three Strands:•Language•Literature•Literacy

The Australian Curriculum F-10 is prescriptive in specifying types of text s such as imaginative, informative and persuasive

Explicit content for reading and writing acquisition including grammar F-10

Emphasis on the appreciation and understanding of literature F-10

Organisation of Australian Curriculum: English

• Rationale• Aims of the learning area • Organisation of the learning area• Content descriptions (and elaborations)• Achievement standards (with work samples)• Glossary

Rationale• The Australian Curriculum: English involves learning

about English language, literature and literacy

• The Australian Curriculum: English contributes to both nation-building and internationalisation

• Students learn to listen, read and view, speak, write and create increasingly complex and sophisticated texts

• Helps students to extend and deepen their relationships, understand their identities and their place in a changing world

Aims The Australian Curriculum: English aims to ensure that

students:• listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on

increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts

• appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations

• understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication

• develop an informed appreciation of literature

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Strands

The Australian Curriculum: English F–10 is organised into three interrelated strands:• Language: knowing about the English language • Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding

to, analysing and creating literature• Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage

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Strands and sub-strands

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LANGUAGE LITERATURE LITERACY

Language variation and change

Literature and context Texts in context

Language for interaction

Responding to literature

Interacting with others

Text structure and organisation

Examining literature Interpreting, analysing and evaluating

Expressing and developing ideas

Creating literature Creating texts

Sound and letter knowledge K-2

Year Level DescriptionsDescribe: • the interrelated nature of the three strands and the

expectation that planning an English program will involve integration of content from across the strands

• learning contexts that are appropriate at each year for learning across the strands

• a description of the types of texts to be studied and created (includes wider reading texts)

• they appear at every year for F, 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10

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Texts • Teachers choose texts at each year level tailored to the

needs of students provided that the following categories are covered across F to year 10:– Asian – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander texts – World

• Links to websites will be provided that contain lists of texts to support teachers in their selection of Asian and Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander texts

Content descriptions

Content descriptions are specified for every learning area by year of schooling and include:

– what students will be taught– discipline knowledge, skills and understanding;

general capabilities; and cross curriculum dimensions

– supported with examples (elaborations)

Addressing student diversity - EAL/D • EAL/D learners enter Australian schools at different ages

and with various educational backgrounds• They require additional time and support and informed

teaching that explicitly addresses their language needs • A national EAL/D document will be published online• It is a reference for teachers that will allow them to

identify the language levels of EAL/D learners and address their specific learning requirements

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Addressing student diversity

Most students with special education needs can engage with the curriculum provided adjustments are made to learning activities and assessment• key terms have been included in the glossary that

describe different approaches that can be used • an explanation of the approach taken is described in the

Organisation of the learning area• additional curriculum content and advice is being

prepared

Curriculum Content: Early Reading and Writing • Explicit content is provided for early reading and writing

acquisition, supported by detailed content elaborations.• The Language strand includes the fundamental skills of

phonological and phonemic awareness, sound-letter correspondences as well as development in using semantic and syntactic clues to make meaning.

• The Literacy strand focuses on application of these skills.

• These skills are progressively developed across the years of schooling.

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Curriculum Content: Grammar• Students learn about the use of grammar, understand

why it is used, develop a shared language to discuss their understanding, and apply that understanding in their comprehension of spoken and written material, their own speech and their written work.

• The curriculum mainly uses standard grammatical terminology. The selection of terminology is based on an analysis of contemporary reference grammars and chosen in terms of usefulness for school-aged students.

• The glossary and content elaborations support teacher understanding.

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Type of Grammar

To avoid grammatical items being taught as ends in themselves and out of context, most items have been accompanied by a reference to their ‘everyday function’

For example, from year 5 Language, Expressing and developing ideas: • Understand the difference between main and

subordinate clauses and how these can be combined to create complex sentences through subordinating conjunctions to develop and expand ideas (ACELA1507)

• The accompanying elaboration provides further information

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Curriculum Content: An Alternative View • In addition to the view of the content by strand, the

curriculum can also be viewed using the organising headings of reading, writing, listening and speaking

• The content descriptions are the same whether they are viewed by mode or strand

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Handwriting

• The English curriculum specifies that students will be taught to handwrite fluently and legibly using correct letter formation.

• It does not recommend a specific style of handwriting. • State and territory education authorities will identify the

style of writing to be taught in schools.• A feasibility study for a project to develop a nationally

consistent handwriting style may be undertaken.

Feedback from trial schools

• A trial of the curriculum was conducted in over 130 schools across the nation– feedback was very positive and a range of samples of

student work have been collected and annotated– further work samples and exemplary units of work will

be progressively published

Achievement standards • Achievement standards describe for each year, the quality

of learning (the depth of understanding, the extent of knowledge and the sophistication of skills) that would indicate the student is well placed to commence the learning required at the next level of achievement.

• Comprise a written description and student work samples.• Draw on content across strands. • The first paragraph is organised around listening, reading

and viewing (receptive modes), while the second is organised around speaking, writing and creating (productive modes).

• Sequence across F–10 describes and illustrates progress

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Work sample

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Using the curriculum • Can view the curriculum in different ways (eg by strand; by

year level or across year levels; with particular capabilities or cross curriculum dimensions highlighted)

• Content descriptions can also be viewed by reading, writing, listening, speaking

• Can download or print in preferred view/s• Chart of content sequenced for each substrand will be

available• Resources linked to elaborations • Links to websites containing texts to support teachers in

the selection of Asian and Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander texts

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Using the curriculum

• Enables a flexible approach; not lock step and prescribed

• Acknowledge where students are

• Use appropriate teaching strategies and methods

• Assess appropriately using the standards as a reference point

A range of useful information sheets are available at:

www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/resources

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

Thank you

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Learning area

General capabilityCross curriculum

priority

The Three Curriculum Dimensions in Content Descriptions

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Cross curriculum priorities (CCPs) and General capabilities (GCs)

• nature and strength of representation• identified by icons (with rollovers) • may be evident in content descriptions and/or

elaborations• opportunities for addressing additional CCPs and GCs• potential for deep, rich learning where CCPs , GCs and

learning area content intersect in content descriptions • synergies between various CCPs and GCs

General capabilities

Literacy

Numeracy

Information and communication technology competence

Critical and creative thinking

Ethical behaviour

Personal and social competence

Intercultural understanding

Cross curriculum priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

Sustainability

GC and CCP icons

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10?page=2&layout=3

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10?page=7&layout=3

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10?page=11&layout=3

English and Literacy

• In English, literacy knowledge and skills are developed and applied through all three strands: Language, Literature and Literacy.

• To inform curriculum development across the curriculum a literacy continuum has been developed, based on the Language and Literacy strands of English, plus language and literacy demands specific to learning areas other than English.

Session 2

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Examining literature

• Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension (ACELT1605)

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Challenges for implementation • The three strands introduce a new way of organising

content from Reading and viewing, Writing and Designing and Speaking and Listening

• Grammar is an important component of the Language strand. Some teachers may never have taught it or the terminology may be different

• Primary teachers approach to teaching Literature • Secondary teachers accepting the responsibility of

Literacy

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Challenge

• Ensuring the integration of the strands and maintaining the intent of the Literature strand

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Challenges ahead

List major challenges ahead in supporting schools implementing the Australian Curriculum

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Contact Details

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

pamela.murphy@acara.edu.au

ph: 0280983148

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