Headings Rationale
The ACARA Year Level Descriptions advocate a program that is integrated and balanced across the strands of Literature, Language and Literacy. Further, the Year Level Descriptions identify literary texts and genres to be enjoyed, explored, discussed and analysed within each year level. Such explorations include studying the language forms and structures. The development of student learning, skills and understandings of the literacy processes of speaking, reading and writing is seen to be nurtured through extending these “explorations” of texts.
To facilitate the construction of a program based on the exploration of texts, the ACARA Content Descriptions from the ACARA strands and sub strands are re-aligned under classification headings that fit comfortably both with the Year Level Descriptions of learning development and the labels commonly recognised and used in classroom lesson timetabling i.e. Exploring Texts, Speaking and Listening, Language Words (Spelling), Language Text Structures (including Grammar), Reading and Creating Texts (including Oral Texts).
With the recursive and cumulative nature of English, this alignment is necessarily simplistic and subjective but because the program is required to be “integrated and balanced across the strands “ as per the recommendations in the ACARA Year Level Descriptions, the understandings and concepts of the Content Descriptions can find a place and be addressed within the units forming the program framework.
Indeed some Content Descriptions requiring development and reinforcement of understandings will be addressed under more than one classification heading within the one program unit.