Subject in Focus – English
It has been a busy start to the year in the English learning area. Grade 7’s in Term 1 have focused on Making Meaning, reading a range of short stories and responding with creativity and insight through written and visual tasks. Term 2 shifted to Persuasive Writing and Speaking, where students developed strong arguments and delivered passionate speeches on topics close to their hearts. It’s been fantastic to see so many thoughtful ideas and confident voices - Grade 7 is full of great minds!
In Year 8, we started with a short story unit where students read a range of texts from both local and international authors. Students were challenged with creative tasks such as making comics, re-writing the story, and writing newspaper articles about a fictional crime. In Term 2, students completed an advertising unit, creating both print and video advertisements for their own designed product, showcasing their knowledge of persuasive techniques.
Year 9 started with a gothic narrative task in which students were asked to write a short story following the conventions of the gothic genre. This was followed by a Visual Literacy unit where students learned to decode visual messages of the world around them and make sense of colour, emotion, message and theme in visual texts. In Term 2, students have studied a movie text, exploring ‘The Hunger Games' and ‘The Hate U Give’ reflecting on the themes of the text by crafting an inquiry question relating to the themes and discussing this in a podcast or video essay format.
The Year 10’s spent Term 1 completing tasks connected to a detailed study of a major text. These texts included documentaries (Bowling for Columbine and The Cove), films (The Great Gatsby) and novels (Animal Farm and Lion: The Long Way Home). In Term 2, units were competed on Visual Texts and Poetry, with a focus on War Poetry. This work will be further evaluated in the Year 10 exams, scheduled in week 2 of Term 3. In addition, Year 10’s will experience a Poetry in Action performance on War Poetry to bookend their work War Poets.
This week the Year 9’s and 10’s attended a performance of Bell Shakespeare – The Players, who presented two informative and engaging plays. ‘Such Sweet Sorrow’ (Year 9) and ‘Macbeth the Rehearsal’ (Year 10). These plays provided valuable exposure to the Shakespeare plays these grades will study in Term 3.
Ben Gadsby
Assistant Principal
