Year 9 English

Core English Subjects (Year Long)	English Elective Subjects (Semester Based)
Core English	Literature
Enhanced English (E/A class only)	Philosophy

Core English

The Year 9 English course is based on the Victorian Curriculum which is organised into three interrelated strands: Language, Literature and Literacy. Together the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in Reading and Viewing, Speaking and Listening, and Writing. It is designed to broaden students' outlook on their world and increase their appreciation of a variety of texts. It enables students to analyse and explain how language choices and conventions are used to influence an audience. In addition, students will examine the Intercultural Capability which assists young people to become responsible local and global citizens.

Language

Students will learn:

To understand that Standard Australian English is a living and evolving language.
To understand how author’s innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects.

Literature

Students will learn:

To analyse texts from familiar and unfamiliar contexts.
To interpret and compare representations of people and culture in literary texts.
To reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary values.
To experiment with the ways that language features, images and sound can be adapted in literary texts and to create literary texts.
To create literary texts.

Literacy

Students will learn:

To review, edit and refine students’ own and others’ texts to improve clarity over content.
To plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content.
To apply an expanding vocabulary to read increasingly complex texts with fluency and comprehension.
To analyse and evaluate how authors combine language and visual choices to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts.
To create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts.
To use a range of software to publish texts.
To listen to spoken texts constructed for different purposes.

Enhanced English (EA Program Students - Core)

The Year 9 Enhanced Accelerated English course is based on the Victorian Curriculum which is organised into three interrelated strands: Language, Literature and Literacy. Together the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in Reading and Viewing, Speaking and Listening, and Writing. The course covers a combination of the Year 9 and Year 10 English coursework. Students study a range of texts and extend their contextual understanding through the examination of themes, issues and literary structures. They develop their ability to use formal language to construct responses for different purposes and audiences. In addition, students will examine the Intercultural Capability which assists young people to become responsible local and global citizens.

Language

Students will learn:

To understand that Standard Australian English is a living and evolving language.
To understand how authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects.
To compare and contrast the use of cohesive devices in texts.
To understand that roles and relationships are developed and challenged through language and interpersonal skills.

Literature

Students will learn:

To analyse texts from familiar and unfamiliar contexts, and discuss and evaluate their content and the appeal of an individual author’s literary style.
To interpret and compare how representations of people and culture in literary texts are drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts.
To reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary values.
To experiment with the ways that language features, images and sound can be adapted in literary texts.
To create literary texts.

Literacy

Students will learn:

To review, edit and refine students’ own and others’ texts to improve clarity over content.
To plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content.
To apply an expanding vocabulary to read increasingly complex texts with fluency and comprehension.
To analyse and evaluate how authors combine language and visual choices to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts.
To create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features.
To use a range of software to publish texts.
To listen to spoken texts constructed for different purposes and analyse how language features in these texts position listeners to respond in particular ways.

Literature

This Year 9 English elective is based on the Victorian Curriculum, which is organised into three interrelated strands: Language, Literature and Literacy. The unit aims to challenge and extend students who enjoy reading and writing through a study of classical and contemporary literary texts such as poetry, film and short fiction.

Language

Students will learn:

To understand that Standard Australian English is a living and evolving language
To investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, including allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor.
To identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effects.

Literature

Students will learn:

To analyse texts from familiar and unfamiliar contexts.
To interpret and compare representations of people and culture in literary texts.
To reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary value and how and why such notions vary according to context.
To investigate and experiment with language features.
To create literary texts.

Literacy

Students will learn:

To review, edit and refine students’ own and others’ texts for control of content.
To apply an expanding vocabulary to read increasingly complex texts with fluency and comprehension.
To analyse and evaluate how authors combine language and visual choices to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts.
To create imaginative and informative texts.
To use a range of software to publish texts.

Philosophy

This Year 9 Philosophy elective is based on the Victorian Curriculum, which is organised into three interrelated English elaborations: Language, Literature and Literacy. It also incorporates Critical and Creative Thinking. Students explore concepts related to reality, life and ethical problems that arise. This elective adds value to students’ study of philosophical questions arising from a variety of texts including literary and non-literary texts, print and non-print. The themes explored require maturity and willingness to discuss mainstream and non-mainstream ideas.

Questions and Possibilities

Students will learn to:

Investigate the characteristics of effective questions in different contexts to examine the information and test possibilities.
Suspend judgements to allow new possibilities to emerge and investigate how this can broaden ideas and solutions.
Challenge previously held assumptions and create new links by investigating ideas that provoke shifts in perspectives and cross boundaries to generate ideas and solutions.

Reasoning

Students will learn to:

Examine how to identify and analyse suppressed premises and assumptions.
Investigate the nature and use of counter-examples structured as arguments.
Consider ambiguity and equivocation and how they affect the strength of arguments.

Metacognition

Students will learn to:

Critically examine their own and others’ thinking processes and discuss factors that influence thinking.
Investigate how the use of a range of learning strategies can be monitored, evaluated and re-directed as necessary.