Units – Stage 1 – First year – English
Twenty sample units for Stage 1 will be available for download, released in a phased manner across 2022 and 2023.
NSW students in Years 1 and 2 may be working towards Stage 1 outcomes from the English K-2 Syllabus. Teachers should exercise professional judgement in determining the suitability of teaching and learning experiences in meeting the needs of your students.
Twenty sample units for Stage 1 – first year will be available for download, released in a phased manner across 2022 and 2023.
Syllabus
Syllabus outcomes and content descriptors from English K-10 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2021.
These units are cumulative and are designed to be taught in numerical order.
A suggested term-by-term approach, aligned with the department’s scope and sequence is outlined below, including the mentor textual concept(s) and unit description.
Unit 1 – Context
Students explore how personal experiences shape their understanding of texts. They also consider how an author’s context shapes texts. Students create a range of simple descriptive texts that represent their own culture, setting and experiences.
Stage 1 First year Unit 1 – Context (DOCX 1.1 MB)
Unit 2 – Narrative
Students learn about narrative elements including character, setting and story structure through a range of texts. Students explore a range of simple maps and their features to create ‘story’ maps to support oral narrative and comprehension development, and as a planning tool for writing.
Stage 1 First year Unit 2 – Narrative (DOCX 688 KB)
Unit 3 – Representation
Students investigate amazing animals to learn that objects, people and ideas can be represented in different ways. This could include reflecting the natural world as realistically as possible, imagined worlds, or a combination of both.
Stage 1 First year Unit 3 – Representation (DOCX 6.3 MB)
Unit 4 – Character; Imagery, symbol and connotation
Students explore the central role that characters occupy in texts, including how they can be objects, and whether they have a personality with emotions, wants, and needs. Students also explore how characters can be described using wordplay and figurative language, including idioms.
Stage 1 First year Unit 4 – Character; Imagery, symbol and connotation (DOCX 841 KB)
Unit 5 – Perspective and argument
Students identify persuasive techniques used in a range of humorous metafiction picture books. These techniques will then be used as students create their own texts to persuade a familiar audience.
Stage 1 First year Unit 5 – Perspective and argument (DOCX 545 KB)
Unit 6 – Representation
Students explore the way objects, events and ideas are represented in narrative texts. They retell and sequence stories to support reading comprehension and text creation.
Stage 1 First year Unit 6 – Representation (DOCX 845 KB)
Unit 7 – Context
Students explore how different aspects of the world are reflected and represented. They make text-to-self and text-to-world connections to support comprehension and build mental models to support vocabulary activation.
Stage 1 First year Unit 7 – Context (DOCX 170 KB)
Unit 8 – Narrative
Students explore narratives where images play a crucial role in telling the reader the ‘whole story’ and create their own multimodal text as a response.
Stage 1 First year Unit 8 – Narrative (DOCX 341 KB)
Unit 9 – Character
Students learn how authors describe both the internal and external characteristics of characters. They make text-to-self connections with characters and their own lived experiences.
Stage 1 First year Unit 9 – Character (DOCX 381 KB)
Unit 10 – Imagery, symbol and connotation
Students learn how visual and written elements combine to bring deeper meaning to imaginative texts. This includes symbolic representations and figurative language. They then identify how language changes when factual information is presented, including in a range of digital texts.
Stage 1 First year Unit 10 – Imagery, symbol and connotation (DOCX 2 MB)
Unit 11 – Perspective and argument
Students will learn how written language and images contribute to meaning and how authors can influence their audience. They collaboratively create texts using different modes and media.
Stage 1 First year Unit 11 – Perspective and argument (DOCX 1.6 MB)
Unit 12 – Representation
Students will explore how characters and their personalities are represented in narrative texts. They will create a reader’s theatre in 2 parts, adapting the mentor text for a different audience and purpose.
Stage 1 First year Unit 12 – Representation (DOCX 1.8 MB)
Unit 13 – Context
Students will learn how the lived experiences of groups, including those with disability, are represented in a range of texts. They will apply their understanding of how language and form change according to purpose to create a text that meets the needs of a specific audience.
Stage 1 First year Unit 13 – Context (DOCX 572 KB)
Unit 14 – Narrative
Students will make connections to a character and visualise their experiences throughout a text. They will write a letter describing their favourite treasure, ensuring correct paragraph structure is used throughout.
Stage 1 First year Unit 14 – Narrative (DOCX 860 KB)
Unit 15 – Character
Students will identify how authors use animals as characters in stories. This includes using factual information to base descriptions of appearances and personality characteristics. Students will compare informative and literary texts focusing on language and form.
Unit 16 – Perspective and argument
Students will engage with a range of texts to identify arguments and the way that structure and images can be used to reinforce a point of view. They will explore print and digital texts and learn how information can be used to support opinions.
Stage 1 First year Unit 16 – Perspective and argument (DOCX 852.7 KB)
Unit 17 – Narrative
Students will have the opportunity to review narrative text elements through engaging with a range of texts created by the popular author and illustrator, Oliver Jeffers.
Stage 1 First year Unit 17 – Narrative (DOCX 354.3 KB)
Unit 18 – Context
Students will learn about the concept of ‘context’ through considering how language and form vary according to purpose, audience and mode. They will explore a range of texts including narratives, factual descriptions, procedures and explanations.
Stage 1 First year Unit 18 – Context (DOCX 1.1 MB)
Unit 19 – Representation
Students will learn how culture is represented in texts through colour, celebrations and ceremonies. They will compare and connect ideas between texts, as well as with their own experiences.
Stage 1 First year Unit 19 – Representation (DOCX 2.7 MB)
Unit 20 – Imagery, symbol and connotation
Students will unravel the layers that exist within a range of picture books to explore how elements such as colour, line and imagery evoke emotion and help enhance storylines to bring deeper meaning to texts.
Stage 1 First year Unit 20 – Imagery, symbol and connotation (DOCX 2.14 MB)