English (Mandatory)

English (Mandatory)

Course Description 

Stage 5 English will provide students learning opportunities that will allow them to continue to develop skills in reading, writing and comprehension through their engagement with increasingly complex and rich literature in a variety of forms including: Fiction, Poetry, Film, Non-Fiction and Drama. Their study in Stage 5 will include topics and texts such as:

• Shakespeare and other canonical literature
• Multicultural literature
• A Genre Study - such a Crime Fiction
• Multimodal literature such as film and documentary studies
• Media and Social Media
• Popular Fiction
• Satire
• Visual Texts
• Conceptual studies such as dystopian and utopian worlds

      as well as a range of 

• Workplace and everyday texts

Students will also participate in a range of activities to develop their communication skills in: speaking, listening, reading and writing, viewing and representing.

What will students learn about?

Through their study of a broad range of literature, students will develop their ability to interpret and create meaning through language, building their skills in reading, writing, comprehension, and their capacity to think in ways that are interpretive, critical, creative, and imaginative. 

Quality literature allows our students the opportunity to explore what it means to be human and through this, to learn about themselves as an individual and their relationship with their immediate family and friendship circles, as well as their local and global community. 

Reading also helps develop intrapersonal skills such as self-reflection and empathy, as we explore the world vicariously from an array of perspectives. Students will challenge and debate ideas relating to notions of justice, ethics, morality, and citizenship, and will learn about the evolutionary nature of language as well as the values, beliefs and traditions of people from the present, past and fictional worlds. Through this, they will learn to make deep and meaningful connections between literature and the real world. 

Concurrent to their learning of literature, students will continue to build on their knowledge of the processes of learning; transferable skills that will empower them to become effective and impassioned life long learners; skills and knowledge that will extend well beyond the schooling years.  

Success in English is key to the development of essential communication and language skills that will underpin student success in every other subject they undertake and in any career they decide to pursue. 

They will learn that the books they read today will shape the person they will become tomorrow.