English

Purpose and Structure

VCE English is designed to engage mainstream students with the broad requirements of communication in adult life. In doing so, they are developing skills as readers, writers and discerning audiences. In reading literature and persuasive texts, students engage with culture and interrogate purpose. The study of literature develops empathy for the characters that populate God's world, cultivating wisdom in relationships and character. Compassion, attentiveness and wisdom are encouraged. The study of arguments in issues plants the students squarely within a difficult area depicting an aspect of brokenness in the world, and how institutions and societies grapple with this. It encourages students to develop critical thinking in the writers' intentions. They ask questions such as: What is being said? Who is saying it? How is language being deployed intentionally? How does it point us to the truth about reality and how this world is struggling with this issue? In seeking to learn from others' point of view rather than providing their own, the student is strengthened in their understanding of language and authorial intent to become wise decision makers.

Unit 1 

The focus of this unit is on the reading of a range of texts, particularly narrative and persuasive texts, to comprehend, analyse and make personal connections with the ways in which texts are constructed and interpreted. Students will develop competence and confidence in creating written texts. 

Students are required to achieve a range of outcomes, demonstrating the ability to: 

• Read and respond to texts both analytically and personally 

• Craft texts for a specific context and audience.

Unit 2 

The focus of this unit is to develop reading and viewing skills, including deepening their capacity for inferential reading and viewing, to further open possible meanings in a text, and to extend their writing in response to text. Students will develop their skills from Unit 1 through an exploration of a different text type from that studied in Unit 1. 

Students are required to achieve a range of outcomes, demonstrating the ability to: 

• Read and respond to texts both analytically and personally 

• Explore and analyse persuasive texts.

Unit 3 

In this unit students read and respond to texts analytically and personally. They create texts that explore ideas within a framework. 

The key areas of study are: 

• Reading and responding to texts 

• Creating texts in response to a framework of ideas. 

Unit 4 

In this unit students read and analyse explicit and implicit ideas, concerns and values presented in a text. Students analyse persuasive texts and create their own text intended to position audiences about an issue currently debated in the media. 

The key areas of study are: 

• Reading and view to elicit meaning, text dynamics, ideas, concerns and conflicts in a text • Analyse the use of argument and persuasive language in text and develop and present a point of view.