Week 2 Term 3: English Department - English Department Starter Pack Term 3 (July 29 - August 2)

Junior English Exam (Year 9) Term 2 2024

From the get go, Term 2 has been a full on. We have covered so much this term from the Literacy Co-Requisite, Junior mid term exams, the roll out of a new unit for our NCEA Level 1 English program, our extended text studies and everything in between - Term 2 has been a very busy time for our department. There were a few sudden changes that we had to work through for our NCEA Level 1 English program. It was definitely a spanner in the works, but I am so grateful to the team for their patience and understanding. This term I also had the privilege of observing the English Department teachers in action for their classroom observation for their Professional Growth Cycle. I always enjoy classroom observations because I learn so much about the team, I am always inspired by what I see and to see them in action with the students. I am very proud to work alongside a team of dedicated staff who are committed to providing and creating an inclusive, safe and exciting learning space and experience for our akonga.

To Mrs Pravina Harde, Mrs Christine Williams, Mr Faiyaz Hoosein, Mr Jeremy Spruyt, Ms Anahina Latu and Ms Francis Kolo - thank you for your dedication to the department and to our students. I am extremely grateful to work alongside an awesome team of teachers. I would also like to acknowledge Mrs Vivienne Jenson-Jones, Mrs Maryanne Wyatt and Mr Marc Milford 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: Our Stories and Our Histories (through poetry) - We have spent Term 2 going through the second phase of our new course for NCEA Level 1 English ‘Our Stories and Our Histories (through poetry)’. We have enjoyed our new text study - Tusiata Avia’s ‘The Savage Coloniser Book’. It has been refreshing to study a text that is complex yet relevant like Avia’s ‘The Savage Colonizer Book’. Our students are currently working through the new internal assessment (1.1 - 91924). We are excited to see the work they produce for this assessment.

• STEPSWebb - Mrs Wyatt and Mrs Jenson-Jones have helped to integrate the literacy tool (STEPSWebb) into our Year 9 and Year 10 English classes. Our Year 9 and Year 10 English classes now have ONE period a week where they work on STEPSWebb. The response for our Junior school has been positive and we look forward to carrying this into Term 3.

We will now review our Term 2 Junior and Senior English program.

TERM 2 JUNIOR SCHOOL ENGLISH REVIEW: 

This term our Year 9 and Year 10 students focused on a short text study and the common assessment task was Creative Writing. This term our theme was ‘Our Stories’ specifically looking at stories and texts that reflect the experiences of those in our community and globally. Some of the texts that featured in our Junior English program in Term 2 were:

Trash (Andy Mulligan)

On the Sidewalk Bleeding (Evan Hunter)

P.O.W (Alicia Keys)

Love letters for Iona (Sia Figel)

Dear Ex Dad (Jillian Sullivan)

We are excited to see our akonga craft creative texts inspired by the texts that we have covered in class. Many of our students have responded well to the short text study and the creative writing assessment that we have offered.

Term 2 Junior English Student Exemplar 1

Term 2 Junior English Student Exemplar 2 

TERM 2 SENIOR SCHOOL ENGLISH REVIEW: 

In Term 2, we have been focusing on our extended text study. For our NCEA Level 1 English course, our central theme was ‘Our Stories and Our Histories (through poetry).’ The primary text was Tusiata Avia’s ‘The Savage Colonizer Book’ and we looked specifically at the three poems ‘Jacinda goes to the Pacific Forum in Tuvalu and my family colonizes her house’, ‘BLM’ and ‘Covid in the time of Priminiscinda.’ For our NCEA Level 2 English program we looked at Doris Lessing’s ‘The Grass is Singing’ and for our NCEA Level 3 English course we focused on Tim O’brien’s ‘The Things They Carried.’ The students spent Week 3 to Week 7 reading through their respective text going through the text study. The last part of Term 2 saw our students work on the following assessments:

91924 - New NCEA Level 1 English internal assessment

91104 - NCEA Level 2 English internal assessment (Connections Essay)

91106 - NCEA Level 2 English internal assessment (Reading Responses)

91478 - NCEA Level 3 English internal assessment (Connections Essay)

I am really pleased with the extended text study that we have offered in Term 2. We want to continue to grow this area in our subject, where we can explore texts that are rich and meaningful to our young people.

Term 2 Senior English Student Exemplar 1

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT GOALS FOR TERM 3

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 3.

• NCEA Level 1 English change up - In Term 3, we will be making some changes to our NCEA Level 1 English course. We will be working with 91 students across our NCEA Level 1 cohort in assessing their 91925 assessment to the Level 2 English standard (91107). We will also be working with 78 students in our Level 1 cohort in helping them complete 91925. Initially we were going to do the submitted external assessment 91926 which runs in Term 3. Now we will use Term 3 to finish internal assessments and prepare the students for their external assessment in Term 4 (91927)

• Redesign our NCEA Level 2 English Program - This is something that I wanted to do in Term 2 but did not get the chance to. I am hoping to look at our current NCEA Level 2 English course and see what we can do to revamp it. We will be making changes to our assessment schedule next year and I am looking to add different theme units to our Level 2 program. Hopefully we can work on this together in Term 3.

• 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.

• Our Voice Vol.2 - We are aiming to publish and release our next volume of ‘Our Voices’. Mr Spruyt has started to collate the next publication. We are excited about this and we look forward to releasing it in Term 3.

We are aware that this term is going to be very busy, especially in getting through our programs with our senior students. But we are excited to close the loop with our students with their internals, get them ready for their externals and continuing to create and share with our Junior English students. I look forward to documenting our journey. As a department, we have worked together for 5+ years, we are experienced and know how to navigate our students through our curriculum. I am excited to journey with my team and students this term.