1. Welcome to ‘An introduction to the English Curriculum and resources’
The webinar will start
promptly at 3:45pm on 4 June 2019.

2. Exploring the English Curriculum and resources
Victorian Curriculum F–10 English
Troy Potter, Senior Project Officer

3. Aims
To become familiar with the terminology and structure of the English curriculum
To learn how to map content descriptions to achievement standards
To explore resources available on the Victorian Curriculum and VCAA websites
Read through aims

4. Poll Are you predominantly teaching in a primary or secondary school?
From a scale of 0 to 5, what is your familiarity with the curriculum?
Poll
Also, as I’m speaking, if you have questions send them through. Craig will compile them and I’ll attempt to answer them throughout the webinar.

5. What is Curriculum? Student learning Curriculum (what) Pedagogy (how)
Assessment (how well)
Reporting (where)
One way to think about student learning is to consider the relationship between curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting.
Curriculum is ; this is what we will be looking at today, and the resources that help you to develop your understanding of the curriculum
Pedagogy is ; as professionals, you implement the curriculum as appropriate to your students
Assessment gives an indication of ; this can be both internal and external (NAPLAN, VCE exams)
Reporting is a form of communication. It is used to inform students, parents and careers, other teachers and the system about student achievement and progress, in other words, reporting where they are in the currently in the learning cycle.

6. Victorian Curriculum F–10 English
The curriculum documentation is available online. The aspects of the curriculum I’m going to take you through are all available on the Victorian Curriculum website. I’ll be showing you how to navigate the website, so you might like to click on the link and open it up in another window so you can follow me.
Alternatively, if you type “Vic Curriculum English” in a search engine, this website is usually the first hit, but you may need to click on the Introduction tab to go to the introductory material.

7. English Curriculum Structure
We’re going to skip the Rationale and Aims of the curriculum. You can read through this in your own time.
The first thing to notice is that there are two tabs: Introduction and Curriculum. To begin with, the information we’re accessing is in the Introduction tab. We’ll look at the Curriculum tab later; for now, all you need to know is that it enables you to navigate the curriculum and details the content descriptors and achievement standards, organised by Year Level, Mode and Strand.
The information covered in the next few slides comes from the Structure section under the Introduction tab on the website for the Victorian Curriculum English.

8. English Curriculum Structure
Modes
Strands
Sub-strands
Content descriptions
Achievement standards
Overview of structure.

9. English Language Modes
F–10 English
Speaking and Listening
Writing
Reading and Viewing
Reading and Viewing involves students engaging with texts, both print and non-print. This includes student’s fluency in reading, and recognising sentence and text structure in the lower levels. As students progress, the focus shifts to interpreting authorial intent and analysing how textual features position readers and viewers.
Writing, as the name suggests, focuses on students’ ability to create, edit and publish texts.
Speaking and Listening refers to formal and informal oral communication. Similar to reading and viewing, there is an emphasis on phonics and word knowledge in the early levels, which shifts to an analysis and evaluation of the purposes and effects of different oral language structures and features.
As indicated on the Victorian Curriculum website, the modes are interrelated. This means that the learning in one mode often supports and extends the learning in others. For example, learning about genre conventions in writing will support students to understand how other writers use those conventions to engage or persuade readers and/or viewers. So when creating and reviewing your teaching plans, you might want to make note of the learning opportunities where you can and, most likely already are, teaching more than one mode.

10. English Strands Language (VCELA) Literacy (VCELY) Literature (VCELT)
Students develop their knowledge of the English language and how it works
Literacy (VCELY)
Students interpret and create texts
Literature (VCELT)
Students appreciate, enjoy, study and interact with literary texts
One way to organise the curriculum is by Mode. Another way is by Strand.
Read three strands. Put simply:
the language strand focuses on the English language and how it works
the literacy strand aims to develop students’ ability to interpret and create texts
the literature strand is concerned with the study of literary texts.
Codes used in content descriptions in English all begin with five letters. Note: VCE here stands for Victorian Curriculum English, not Victorian Certificate of Education

11. Speaking and Listening
Language (LA) Level 2
Reading and Viewing
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Language
Understand that different types of texts have identifiable text structures and language features that help the text serve its purpose (VCELA212)
Understand how texts are made cohesive by the use of resources, including word associations, synonyms, and antonyms (VCELA224)
Understand that spoken, visual and written forms of language are different modes of communication with different features and their use varies according to the audience, purpose, context and cultural background (VCELA234)
Know some features of text organisation including page and screen layouts, alphabetical order, and different types of diagrams (VCELA213)
Recognise that capital letters signal proper nouns and commas are used to separate items in a list (VCELA225)
The three strands appear in all modes. This is because an understanding of elements of all three of these strands are developed in all of the modes. This slide, and the next two, show you examples of this in relation to particular threads through the curriculum. I’ll leave these slides for you to read, which will give me an opportunity to review and respond to your questions.

12. Speaking and Listening
Literacy (LY) Level 5
Reading and Viewing
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Literacy
Analyse the text structures and language features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet he purpose of the text (VCELY320)
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (VCELY329)
Participate in informal debates and plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (VCELY338)

13. Speaking and Listening
Literature (LT) Level 8
Reading and Viewing
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Literature
Explore the interconnectedness of Country and Place, People, Identity and Culture in texts including those by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors (VCELT404)
Experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts (VCELT418)
Share, reflect on, clarify and understand how conventions of speech adopted by communities influence the identities of people in those communities (VCELT424)
Understand and explain how combinations of words and images in texts are used to represent particular groups in society, and how texts position readers in relation to those groups (VCELT405)
Create literary texts that draw upon text structures and language features of other texts for particular purposes and effects (VCELT419)

14. English Strands To summarise:
the Language strand develops students knowledge of the English language and its use
the Literacy strand develops students’ ability to interpret and create texts
the Literature strand engages students in the study of literary texts.
All of these strands work across the three Modes, and we’ll do an activity about this in a minute.
Further information about each of the strands can be found in both the Structure section and the Learning in English section of the English Curriculum online.

15. Puzzling out the sub-strands
What are the sub-strands?
Which strands do they sit under?
To which modes do they link?
How might these considerations be important to your planning?
Strands are further divided into sub-strands. As with the strands, these sub-strands appear in multiple modes. The next slide lists all of the sub-strands. For each one, consider which strand it might appear under (Language, Literature or Literacy) and then allocate it to one or more modes (Reading & Viewing, Writing, and Speaking & Listening).

16. Strands Modes Language Literacy Literature Reading & Viewing Writing
Creating texts
Creating literature
Examining literature
Expressing and developing ideas
Interacting with others
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Language for interaction
Language variation and change
Literature and context
Phonics and word knowledge
Responding to literature
Text structure and organisation
Texts in context
Strands
Language
Literacy
Literature
Modes
Reading & Viewing
Writing
Speaking & Listening
For example, the first sub-strand listed is “Creating texts”.
Poll: which strand?
Poll: which mode?
This would belong to the literacy strand as it relates to students creating texts, and the writing mode. The creation of texts isn’t considered part of Speaking and Listening, as this mode focuses on the oral use of language to convey and receive meaning.
I’ll give you a few minutes to sort through some sub-strands. We don’t have time for you to go through all of them, but maybe choose three or four and decide to which strands and modes they map. And a hint: besides creating texts, there are only three other sub-strands that align to only one mode (one for Reading and Viewing only, and two for Speaking and Listening only). All of the others appear in two or three modes.

17. Reading & Viewing Speaking & Listening
Writing
Language
Literature
Literacy
Creating texts
Text structure and organisation
Creating literature
Expressing and developing ideas
Texts in context
Phonics and word knowledge
Language variation and change
Examining literature
Literature and context
Responding to literature
Here are the sub-strands organised by Mode across the entire F–10 Curriculum. Text colour indicates which strand they fit under. As you can see, most of the sub-strands occur in two or more modes.
Depending on your familiarity with the Curriculum and the levels you teach, you may have organised some of the sub-strands differently. For example, in the 7–10 Curriculum, “Expressing and developing ideas” does not appear in the Speaking and Listening mode; but it does in the F–6 Curriculum.
Similarly, “Language for interaction” is not in the F–6 Reading and Viewing mode, but it is located in that mode for levels 7–10.
Any questions about this? Send through and we can discuss them.
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Interacting with others
Language for interaction
Reading & Viewing
Speaking & Listening

18. So what? What does this mean for your planning and teaching of lessons
lesson sequences
units?
So what does this all mean? Hopefully, by understanding the structure of the curriculum, you will be able to draw together content descriptions with obvious links from across the modes and strands to develop comprehensive and engaging units or lesson sequences to promote student learning. Being familiar with the content descriptions will also enable you to identify which aspects of the curriculum are better suited to explicit teaching in a single lesson and then practised and revisited in various contexts. Conversely, there will be content descriptions that you will feel should be taught in an ongoing way with daily or regular practice and application.
And remember, not all content descriptions are the same in terms of how long you should be spending on them. For example, in Level F, one content description relates to the use and sound of upper and lower case letters; another relates to forms of texts and their purpose. The way these are taught, and how much time teachers would spend on these, would differ.

19. In short … The English modes are interrelated Cumulative curriculum
the learning in one often supports and extends learning in the others
content descriptions have been placed in the mode which is the major focus of its learning
Cumulative curriculum
students develop and build skills and knowledge over time
Spiralling curriculum
students apply skills and knowledge to different contexts and curriculum areas
Read
Moving to Achievement Standards. Are there any more questions about the content descriptions?

20. Achievement Standards
Describe what a student should be able to do at a given level
What students should be assessed on
Content descriptions feed into the Achievement Standards
Not all content descriptions have a clear link to the Achievement Standard

21. Level F Achievement Standard
By the end of the Foundation level, students use questioning and monitoring strategies to make meaning from texts. They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics. They understand that there are different types of texts and that these can have similar characteristics. They identify connections between texts and their personal experience. They read short predictable texts with familiar vocabulary and supportive images, drawing on their developing knowledge of concepts about print, and sound and letters. They identify all the letters of the English alphabet in both upper- and lower-case, and know and can use the sounds represented by most letters.
Here is the Level F Achievement Standard. Notice that I’ve highlighted the individual sentences within the Standard. You can use this method to identify which modes and strands relate to which part of the achievement. In other words, this is a mapping tool you can use when developing learning programs and assessment.

22. Mapping to a Mode
They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics.
Identify some features of texts including events and characters and retell events from a text (VCELT150, R&V)
Use comprehension strategies to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently (VCELY153, R&V)
Looking at the second sentence, for example, you can see how content descriptions in the Reading and Viewing mode must be taught for a student to achieve this action.

23. Integrating the Modes
They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics.
Identify some features of texts including events and characters and retell events from a text (VCELT150 (R&V)
Use comprehension strategies to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently (VCELY153) (R&V)
Retell familiar literary texts through performance, use of illustrations and images (VCELT159) (W)
Share feelings and thoughts about the events and characters in texts (VCELT171) (S&L)
Modify familiar texts (VCELT173) (S&L)
But other content descriptions feed into a student’s ability to achieve this action. This is a useful task to complete when you are auditing your learning programs, particularly as it allows you to bring in all of the modes within a unit of work to better address the curriculum and help your students achieve.
So, remember that you are assessing students on the Achievement Standards, not the content descriptions. The content descriptions detail the curriculum that must be taught and teaching students these components will enable your students to demonstrate their achievement.
Any questions with the overall structure? Move to navigate sites.

24. Let’s explore some more!
Curriculum tab
Scope and Sequence Documents
Focus areas in English
Glossary
Annotated English Samples
Literacy Learning Progressions
For the rest of this webinar, I’m going to take you through other resources that are found on both the Victorian Curriculum website and the VCAA website. As I show you how to navigate to them, you might like to do so in another window on your computer.
The documents that I would like to show you are …

25. Victorian Curriculum F–10 English
Follow this link to start the tour.

26. Curriculum support
For advice regarding the F-10 curriculum, contact VCAA F-10 Unit: E. T