ENGLISH FACULTY REPORT

Current units of work

This is what the students in each year level are currently studying:

• Year 7s are completing a series of Start-up Activities to familiarise them with a variety of English skills, both written and spoken. After they return from their camp in Week 5, the students will embark on the Reading Skills unit for the remainder of term.
• Year 8s will complete their Reading Skills unit this week, which will be followed by a three-week advertising unit entitled Sell it to me. The students will work in small groups to create an advertising campaign for a product new to the market. After they return from their camp in Week 7, they will begin a text study of Cop & Robber.
• Year 9s are engaged in a unit entitled Walk a Mile, which is based around a text study of Ahn Do’s The Happiest Refugee. The students’ goal is to investigate ways in which greater empathy for refugees can be promoted within our local community.
• Year 10s are undertaking a writing unit in which they experiment with a variety of writing styles, such as recounts, diaries, journals, screenplays, short stories and podcasts. The end product will be two texts submitted for assessment in Week 6 that have been carefully drafted and edited.
• Year 11s are currently reading and exploring texts. Prompted by a series of ‘mentor texts’ (ie, models of effective and cohesive writing), the students will be required to make personal connections with the ideas portrayed in The Crucible when they complete the SAC in Week 8.
• Year 12s are currently studying the novel Nine Days before drafting a creative response to it as their SAC task in Week 6. This will be followed by Analysing and Comparing Argument for the remainder of term.

Delayed book listed orders have arrived

If you ordered a copy of Cop & Robber (Year 8) or Dear Evan Hansen (Year 9) from Campion Education, the novels have finally arrived. Students can collect them from the Front Office.

Reading Challenges

To promote regular reading for pleasure in our junior students, we are running reading challenges once again this year during semester one. 

• Year 7 - Each core group is challenged to read at least 15,000 pages between them. 
• Year 8 - Each group’s challenge is to read at least 3 million words between them.

To facilitate this, all students will have an opportunity to read at the start of every timetabled English lesson and at the start of every afternoon lesson, with the exception of PE lessons.

As parents, you can take an interest in your child’s reading habits by asking what they are reading, discussing what they like or dislike about whatever they are reading, and by sharing thoughts about whatever you are reading.

English Help

Beginning next week, additional English assistance will be available for all students. 

Whether they are seeking help with a particular skill, assistance with classwork or homework, or an opportunity to brainstorm before an assessment task, they can drop into Room 12 for part or all of the following lunchtimes: 

• Tuesdays - Years 7-10
• Thursdays - Years 11 & 12