Catalyst • Junior Secondary Curriculum • Handbook 2021
Core
Subject
English
Year 8
In Year 8, students will develop their skills further and
study texts of increasing complexity.
Core English provides progressive instruction in the
wide range of language-based literacies required to
be a confident and critical communicator. The course
is constructed in accordance with the concepts of
Language, Literature and Literacy from the Western
Australian Curriculum.
Through the study of English, students will gain a
range of functional and critical skills, developing
their ability to examine texts, topics and express their
ideas. Students will also expand upon their use and
understanding of text types.
All students in Years 7 - 9 study the same core
program. However, from Semester 2 in Year 7
and in Years 8 - 9 they will be grouped by similar
learning needs, and given appropriate remediation or
extension, both individually and as a class.
For students with a diagnosed learning difficulty
and who require intervention and extra support in
developing their literacy skills, support is
available through our Learning Enrichment
program. For more details please contact Mrs Ullisa
Macdougall-Hull, Head of Learning Enrichment at
[email protected]
or 9377 8503.
Year 7
Students study English as a formal subject. The
focus in Year 7 is functional literacy, expression, text
analysis and forms of academic writing.
Topics covered are:
• Digital stories
• Film analysis
• Grammar and punctuation
• Poetry
• Structured paragraph writing
• Narrative and text conventions
• Essay writing
• Comprehension strategies
• Persuasive and argumentative writing
• Novels and short stories
Topics covered are:
• Autobiographical writing
• Opinionative and comparative essay writing
• Public speaking
• Picture books
• Report writing
• Film analysis
• The short story and novel
• Print advertising
• Poetry
• Library skills: fiction and non-fiction, research
• Interpretation and analysis: popular, cultural and
social artefacts
Year 9
The Year 9 English course aims to develop critical
skills through a range of more challenging texts
and topics. To facilitate this, the students’ study will
include three main areas: Asian studies and Asia’s
relationship with Australia; Rebellion and Protest; and
Technology and the Future. Students will also have a
greater element of choice in certain assessments to
help foster their growth as independent learners.
Skills and understandings covered are:
• Advanced academic essay writing, complex
sentence and argument construction
• Stereotypes and character representation,
representations of values and beliefs
• Conventions: audience, context and genre
• Personal author, text or topic study
• More complex generic conventions in a variety of
films, novels, drama texts and short stories covering
a more sophisticated range of issues and concepts
For additional details about the Core English courses,
please contact:
Mr Ben Nilsson
Head of English
(08) 9377 9265
[email protected]
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