Week 1 Term 2 - English Department - English Department Starter Pack Term 2 (April 29 - May 3)

English Department 2024

The first 11 weeks of our academic year were super full on and busy. We walked into 2024 with a new timetable working through Week A and Week B. We started our new NCEA Level 1 English Course (in line with the new curriculum refresh) and we have spent time setting our class routines, getting to know and building strong relationships with our students. I am extremely grateful for each and every single member of the English Department - for your work, commitment, love, care and support that you have shown to both our team and to our students - I thank you. Thank you for making this term an easy and enjoyable term for our students. To Pravina, Christine, Faiyaz, Jeremy, Anahina and Francis - thank you for your commitment to the team and everything that we were called to do for our students and the department. I would also like to acknowledge Ms Amber George, Mr Marc Milford and Ms Vivienne Jenson-Jones for their work and support for the English Department this term.

Some of the highlights for our English Department this term were:

NCEA Level 1 English Course - We kicked off Term 1 with the launch of our new NCEA Level 1 English Course ‘Our Stories, Our Histories and Our Voices’. We have spent Term 1 going through ‘Our Stories + Our Histories (through Film)’ specifically looking at our primary text (NZ Film - The Dark Horse) and we are currently working through the new internal assessment 1.2 91925.

Asttle Writing + PAT Reading Junior English - We completed our Asttle Writing and PAT Reading tests with our students. There are a few students who did not complete the Asttle Writing, we are hoping to see that number decrease with follow up/catch up sessions with Mr Milford.

Exploring new texts - We have enjoyed looking at new texts this term, in particular in our Junior English Program we have been looking at the text ‘Kura Toa’ by Tim Tipene. We have enjoyed going through new texts like this with our students especially as they are local texts and they link it with the Te Mataiaho Big Ideas in that we want our students to understand that “The stories of Aotearoa New Zealand are unique taonga tuku iho.”

We will now review our Term 1 Junior and Senior English program.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: TERM 1 JUNIOR ENGLISH REVIEW

Term 1 Junior English Program

Our focus for Year 9 and Year 10 English ‘Our Voices’. We looked at local texts and how the writer’s used their ‘voice’ through writing to write about their experiences. We also encouraged our students to write about themselves through freelance writing. Our primary text for Term 1 was Tim Tipene’s ‘Kura Toa’. A huge thank you Mr Spruyt for sharing this text with our department and for collating the novel study work for our students.

Tim Tipene's 'Kura Toa'

Following the novel study, our students worked on our CAT (Common Assessment Task) Formal Writing. The formal writing tasks varied - from response to text type essays to text review essays. The students were engaged with the formal writing CAT and we are pleased with what they have done. Here are some examples of their writing from Term 1.

English Dept: Term 1: Year 9 English 'All About Me' Writing

English Dept: Term 1: Year 9 English Formal Writing

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: TERM 1 SENIOR ENGLISH REVIEW

NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 English Program Term 1

In Term 1 we launched our new NCEA Level 1 English program ‘Our Stories, Our Histories and Our Voices.’ The new NCEA Level 1 English course was designed in 2023 in preparation for the new curriculum refresh for NCEA Level 1 (Te Mataiaho). Our focus for Term 1 was ‘Our Stories and Our Histories’ through film. The primary text for this unit is James Napier’s ‘The Dark Horse’ - a New Zealand film released in 2014. We spent the first 7 weeks of Term 1 exploring and learning about our primary text (James Napier's film 'The Dark Horse'). Throughout this journey we were able to analyze the text and look at specific aspects of the text and see how they were developed. Specifically we looked at: Characterization - how character is developed in the film. Film Aspects (Techniques) - understanding and identifying key film techniques. Close Analysis - analyzing and close viewing of specific scenes in the text. Beyond the text - looking at the issues or context around 'The Dark Horse' and how this aligns with the film's overall message and the director's purpose.

This intensive period of learning was an important part of the learning as it helped to build a strong foundation for the students to launch off when they started the assessment. The students' response to the new internal assessment (91925) has been positive and we are excited by the work that they have produced so far. Our focus for Term 1 for our NCEA Level 2 and 3 students was the visual text study accompanied by the Close Viewing Assessment. For our NCEA Level 2 the visual text we studied was James Napier Robertson ‘The Dark Horse’ and for our NCEA Level 3 student’s we looked at Ron Howard’s ‘A Beautiful Mind’. We have enjoyed the 1 hour periods and the Week A/Week B timetable. We have had more time to explore the learning, get into the content and support our students through the learning and assessment phases.

We are looking forward to getting into the written text studies with our learners in Term 2. Please see some of our NCEA English student work below.

English Dept: Term 1: NCEA L1 Close Viewing Example

English Dept: Term 1: NCEA L3 Close Viewing Example

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: TERM 2 GOALS

As a department, we like to discuss what our priorities and goals are. Sometimes our priorities change as we journey through the term but we try to stick to our goals as best as we can.

Below are some of the goals that we would like to work towards in Term 2.

Literacy Co-Requisite - We are looking to prepare our students for this assessment (in May Term 2). We look at the students who achieved a High Level 4 to Level 5 of their PAT reading results in Term 1 2024 and hold after school classes in Week 1, 2, and 3 to prepare them for the assessment in Week 4. 

Redesign our NCEA Level 2 English Program - We have enjoyed working on our new NCEA Level 1 English program. In Term 2 I would like to work with the department in redesigning our NCEA Level 2 English Program. As the changes for the NCEA Level 2 Curriculum have yet to be confirmed, I want to use the opportunity to redesign it in a way that aligns with our new NCEA Level 1 English course.

Academic Push for NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 English students - We want to continue pushing all of our senior students through the learning in our NCEA English courses so that they are getting the required credits, especially our Level 2 and Level 3 students in their quest to gain University Entrance. 

STEPSWeb - This is a great literacy initiative that has been introduced to us by our Learning Support Team (Mrs Mary-Anne Wyatt and Ms Vivienne Jensen-Jones). We are looking forward to working with this online tool with our Year 9 and Year 10 English students.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: PROGRAM FOR JUNIOR + SENIOR ENGLISH TERM 2

Junior English Program Term 2

NCEA Level 1, 2 + 3 English Program Term 2

I am looking forward to documenting our journey in Term 2 for the English Department! 

Week 11 Term 1 - Teacher Practice: New Assessment for NCEA Level 1 English - 1.2: 91925 (April 8 - April 12)

In Week 8 Term 1, I reflected on how Term 1 is going so far for our new NCEA Level 1 English course. As we have started this new journey with the curriculum refresh, I have felt both excited and nervous (but more excited) about how the new curriculum and our interpretation of it. I reflected on the journey so far which you can see in my earlier post (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 17/03/24) In this post, I want to reflect on how the learning has gone and how the student's have applied the learning into the new assessment (1.1 - 91925). 

OUR STORIES + OUR HISTORIES (through film): AKO (Learning)

101ENG E Week 10 Term 1

We spent the first 7 weeks of Term 1 exploring and learning about our primary text (James Napier's film 'The Dark Horse'). Throughout this journey we were able to analyze the text and look at specific aspects of the text and see how they were developed. Specifically we looked at: 

• Characterization - how character is developed in the film. 
• Film Aspects (Techniques) - understanding and identify key film techniques
• Close Analysis - analyzing and close viewing of specific scenes in the text
• Beyond the text - looking at the issues or context around 'The Dark Horse' and how this aligns with the film's overall message and the director's purpose. 

As mentioned in my earlier post from Week 8, the students spent Week 6 and 7 in an intensive learning unit looking at the 3 major characters, focusing on 6 film aspects and learning and writing about the social issues that the film highlight (understanding the context) through persuasive writing. This intensive period of learning was an important part of the learning as it helped to build a strong foundation for the students to launch off when they started the assessment. 

OUR STORIES + OUR HISTORIES (through film): AROMATAWAI 91925 (Assessment)

We started the assessment mid way through Week 8. So far, the journey for the students and I has been positive. The response has been good and the students have settled in well with the assessment. The premise of the new assessment (1.1 - 91925) is for students to 'Demonstrate understanding of specific aspects of studied texts'. As a department, we have interpreted this as the students demonstrating and showing an understanding of the key elements in film which is why we looked at characterization, film aspects and the context as the specific aspects to focus on. 

With the new standard, we decided to use our current Close Viewing Assessment as the guide for 91925. This particular assessment (Close Viewing) is a strength for our department and we wanted to use as the structure and basis for 91925. With starting our new course in the new curriculum, we felt that starting with an assessment that is familiar would help us launch into the the new program easily. 

The students are currently working on the assessment and should finish anytime between the end of Week 11 to the end of Week 2 Term 2. We have given the assessment a 6 week period (Week 8 Term 1 - Week 2 Term 2) so that the students have the space and time to do it (even during the school holidays). The assessment is structured as: 

91925: Phase One

Phase One: 

• They choose a scene from the text (the scenes are selected and the students must choose ONE scene to focus on)
• They are to watch the scene and identify four film techniques that they want to focus on. 

91925: Phase Two Paragraph 1 + 2

Phase Two: 

In this phase they start writing their response to the Close Viewing. They can pull the learning from our film study and use it for the assessment. The Close Viewing is presented in an essay but the students have the option to present it via Google Presentation or as a Vlog (this is new territory for us so we are going to see how it goes for the students). 

• Introduction
• Paragraph 1 - Explaining how two techniques are used well in the scene. Linking to the Director's purpose and main message for the film. 
• Paragraph 2 - Explaining how two techniques are used well in the scene. Linking to the Director's purpose and main message for the film. 
• Paragraph 3 - Going beyond the text, the students will write about the social issue (one issue) that text has highlighted and how this helps them to understand the director's purpose and the film's message. The students again can pull the learning from their persuasive writing that they did in the film study for this paragraph. 
• Conclusion

91925: Phase Two Paragraph 3

The students are working through each phase and all of my students are in Phase two (with two having completed the entire assessment). Whilst the film study has been super helpful, especially the work they did on the social issues and persuasive writing they did, I have had to spend time going through: 

• Film Aspects
• Writing prompts

With some of my lower ability students to give them a head start. I am looking forward to seeing the final product from my class.