Introducing AusVELS English: Working with texts

1. Introducing AusVELS English:Working with texts

2. Goals • Read and engage with the English content descriptions. • Develop confidence selecting English content descriptions for teaching and learning activities. • Consider ways that English content descriptions can be combined to support teaching and learning.

3. What you will need The English content descriptions for the following Levels: • Level 1 • Level 2 • Level 4 • Level 8 • Level 9 • Level 10

4. How to complete the activities Complete these steps for each text provided: • Read/view the text. • Select content descriptions. • Share your ideas • Compare your content descriptions with those provided.

5. Level 1At the zooWritten by William Makepeace Thackeray Access through the Story It website: http://www.storyit.com/Classics/JustPoems/atzoo.htm • Navigate directly to the poem at the link above.

6. Possible content descriptions At the zooWritten by William Makepeace Thackeray(Level 1) Listen to, recite and perform poems, chants, rhymes and songs, imitating and inventing sound patterns including alliteration and rhyme (ACELT1585) Understand patterns of repetition and contrast in simple texts (ACELA1448) Read supportive texts using developing phrasing, fluency, contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge and emerging text processing strategies, for example prediction, monitoring meaning and rereading (ACELY1659) Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs) (ACELA1452)

7. Level 2Dear Peter Rabbit Written by Alma Flor Ada Illustrated by Leslie Tryon Access through the State Library of Queensland website: http://jabberwock.slq.qld.gov.au/tumblebooks/ • Navigate to the link above. • Select ‘Next’. • Select ‘Click here’. • Select ‘Index’ from the menu which runs along the top of the screen • Use the alphabetised list of book authors to select ‘Ada, Alma Flor’. • Scroll down the list until you find ‘Dear Peter Rabbit’. Select ‘Read online’. A new window will open and the book will begin to play. • You can pause at any time, skip forward or back, and turn the audio on or off.

8. Read less predictable texts with phrasing and fluency by combining contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge using text processing strategies, for example monitoring meaning, predicting, rereading and self-correcting (ACELA1543) Possible content descriptionsDear Peter Rabbit Written by Alma Flor Ada Illustrated by Leslie Tryon(Level 2) Compare opinions about characters, events and settings in and between texts (ACELT1589) Understand that different types of texts have identifiable text structures and language features that help the text serve its purpose (ACELA1463) Identify visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and consider how these images add to or contradict or multiply the meaning of accompanying words (ACELA1469) Discuss the characters and settings of different texts and explore how language is used to present these features in different ways (ACELT1591)

9. Level 4Birthday Boy: Manuk’s magnetic boltWrittenanddirected by Sejong Park Access through the Australian Screen website: http://aso.gov.au/titles/shorts/birthday-boy/clip1/ • Navigate to the link above. • Select the play button. The film will start shortly. • You can pause or replay at any time.

10. Possible content descriptions Birthday Boy: Manuk’s magnetic boltWritten and directed by Sejong Park(Level 4) Identify characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text (ACELY1690) Explore the effect of choices when framing and image, placement of elements in the image, and salience on composition of still and moving images in a range of types of texts (ACELA1496) Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, intergating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692) Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension (ACELT1605)

11. Level 8 See Me:The media, my world and me The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust Access through the SeeMe website: http://www.seeme.org.au/activity-6-advertising-in-the-21st-century.html • Navigate to the link above. • Scroll down until you find links to Images A-D. • Select ‘Image A’. A new window will open and you will be able to view the image. • Repeat for Images B-D.

12. Possible content descriptions See Me:The media, my world and me The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust (Level 8) Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures and individuals and concerns represented in texts (ACELT1807) Analyse how the text structures and language features of persuasive texts, including media texts, vary according to the medium and mode of communication (ACELA1543) Analyse and explain how language use has evolved over time and how technology and the media have influenced language use and forms of communication (ACELY1729) Explore the ways that ideas and viewpoints in literary texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts may reflect or challenge the values of individuals and groups (ACELT1626)

13. Level 9 The Mother Written by Rosemary Dobson Access through the Australian Poetry Library website: http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/dobson-rosemary/the-mother-0192057 • Navigate directly to the poem at the link above.

14. Possible content descriptions The Mother Written by Rosemary Dobson(Level 9) Present an argument about a literary text based on initial impressions and subsequent analysis of the whole text (ACELT1771) Investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, for example allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor (ACELA1552) Compare and contrast the use of cohesive devices in texts, focusing on how they serve to signpost ideas, to make connections and to build semantic associations between ideas (ACELA1770) Analyse text structures and language features of literary texts, and make relevant comparisons with other texts (ACELT1772) Identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effectiveness (ACELA1561)

15. Level 10Alchymical RomanceWritten by Lee Battersby The streets north of Perth wither and die in the winter rain, leaving behind slick tarmac and an occasional oasis of sodium light. Residents close their curtains and hide before televisions, ignoring the rolls of thunder as best they can. Markus’ black Audi slid along unnoticed, undisturbed, a metal shark cruising an empty ocean. Markus barely noticed the lack of humanity. Their absence meant only a lessening of white noise, a drop in the background level of static, a slight reinforcement of the link between his subconscious and the muted hum of the city. He glided along black tracks: a tiny spark within a vast, dormant machine; a single atom within a city-wide accelerator.

16. Possible content descriptions Alchymical Romance Written by Lee Battersby(Level 10) Identify, explain and discuss how narrative viewpoint, structure, characterisation and devices including analogy and satire shape different interpretations and responses to texts (ACELT1642) Compare and evaluate a range of representations of individuals and groups in different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1639) Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of sentence and clause structures as authors design and craft texts (ACELA1569) Identify and analyse implicit or explicit values, beliefs and assumptions in texts and how these are influenced by purposes and likely audiences (ACELY1752) Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)