Units – 3–6 multi-age Year B – English
Teachers of multi-age classes have the flexibility to select the Year B sample units below, or the Year A sample units to reflect their cycle of programming.
These units are cumulative and 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 and unit description.
Syllabus
Syllabus outcomes and content descriptors from English K–10 Syllabus (2022) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024.
Unit 1 – narrative
Students will explore the textual concepts of narrative and characterisation. They will consider how the mentor text sets up expectations and then diverts from expectations to suit the author’s purpose and audience. Students will analyse the creation of characters and how characterisation can be used to drive the plot. They will write a narrative providing details about setting, characters, and actions.
3–6 multi-age Year B – Unit 1 Narrative (DOCX 2.4 MB)
Unit 2 – argument and authority
Students will develop their understanding of argument and authority and genre through a deep text analysis. Students will learn that an author’s perspective is highlighted by the points of view that they present within a text, while also considering the credibility of sources of information. They will draft, revise, edit and publish a multimodal persuasive text that includes persuasive and rhetorical devices, arguing the existence or non-existence of an elusive creature people have reported to have encountered.
3–6 multi-age – Unit 2 – Argument and authority (DOCX 7.11 MB)
Unit 3 – genre
Students will gain a deeper understanding of the textual concepts of genre and perspective and context. Students will apply their understanding of genre to analyse texts and identify their purpose, subject matter, form, structure and language choices. Students will experiment with creating a variety of texts using their understanding of structure and language choices to suit a text’s purpose.
3–6 multi-age Year B – Unit 3 Genre (DOCX 9.2 MB)
Unit 4 – imagery, symbol and connotation
Students will gain a deeper understanding of the textual concepts of imagery, symbol and connotation and narrative. Students will explore how authors use imagery and symbols in literature and identify how figurative language can influence meaning. Poetry is also a focus for this unit. Students will deepen their understanding of imagery, symbol and connotation as they analyse language features in spoken texts and use figurative language to compose a poem that they will recite.
3–6 multi-age Year B – Unit 4 Imagery, symbol and connotation (DOCX 8.1 MB)
Unit 5 – characterisation
Students will gain a deeper understanding of the textual concepts of ‘characterisation’ and ‘narrative’. They will explore how authors use narrative conventions such as dialogue and rhetorical questions to reveal characters’ appearance, actions, words or thoughts. Students will apply their understanding of characterisation, narrative structure and conventions to compose a narrative.
3–6 multi-age Year B – Unit 5 Characterisation (DOCX 947 KB)
Unit 6 – theme
Students will develop their understanding of the textual concepts of theme, perspective and context and narrative. They will explore how an author expresses themes in a text and describe how perspective and context influence writing. Students will draw upon their personal and social context to compose thematic poems and a narrative.
Unit 7 – perspective and context
Students will broaden their understanding of textual concepts ‘perspective and context’, ‘theme’ and ‘argument and authority’. They will identify themes in non-fiction texts and explore how personal, social and cultural contexts shape perspective. Students will make appropriate structural and language choices to create informative and persuasive texts with authority. They will also publish a multimodal text using digital technologies.
3–6 multi-age Year B – Unit 7 Perpective and context (DOCX 1.6 MB)
Unit 8 – genre
Students will gain a deeper understanding of the textual concepts of genre, imagery, symbol and connotation and characterisation. They will explore fairy tale codes and conventions and symbols that convey similar themes and moral lessons. Students will apply their understanding of the textual concepts to write an adapted fairy tale to suit a modern context and audience.