ENGLISH

Term 1

With introductory lessons now completed, and the routine of school life returning, English classes across the school are working through their first unit of work for the year, as well as establishing the Writing Folio program for the semester.

The last fortnight will have involved all students from Years 7 to 9 beginning their Writing Foliosfor Semester 1.   All students should have a display book with the appropriate resources included within.

Parents can assist students with their writing by discussing the piece that their child is currently working on and encouraging drafting at home, as well as the entry of ideas into the Writer’s Notebook.

The folio is an ongoing piece of work, that is submitted at the end of each semester. It can therefore be seen as a homework task throughout the year, as there will always be drafts to ‘polish’ and new ideas to be explored.

Students will also have received a resources book which contains engaging lessons covering our ‘Six Traits of Writing’. This is to come with students to class each time they have their writing folio period.

Our Year 8 students will soon begin their Significant Person Project; a cross curricular project that spans both the English and The Arts faculties. From an English perspective, the project aims to have students use their writing folio time to think about a special person and then express ideas and information about that person in a creative fashion.

Students will be beginning this project soon in their writing folio classes and could definitely utilise parents and guardians as part of the process of research and finding information on their chosen person.

It has been a dynamic beginning to 2017 in English classes across all year levels. On a pleasing note, there has been very positive feedback regarding the holiday reading tasks completed by students in the senior years. Having a strong familiarity with the studied texts is an integral part of success in the English classroom and it’s extremely pleasing to see so many students putting in the effort to begin their year so positively.

Our VCE students have received their IPT timetables, which include the dates and times for their English SACs. 

Students in Year 12 have been notified that on Thursday 9 March, they will be completing their first SAC and that it will run until 3.30 pm.

Ben Taylor

Head of English