Week 2 Term 2 - English Department: Review of Junior and Senior English Program Term 1 (May 05 - May 09)

TERM 1 JUNIOR ENGLISH REVIEW

Term 1 Junior English Program

Our focus for Year 9 and Year 10 English for Term 1 was “Who am I?” Our primary text for Term 1 was Tim Tipene’s ‘Kura Toa’. The Common Assessment task that our Year 9 and Year 10 English students have been working on is Formal Writing. We are really happy with how our students have responded to the assessment. We continue to use the online literacy app - StepsWeb. The students spend ONE period a week in the library on StepsWeb. We also use the library period for our students to read (the shared class text or a text of their own choice). This aligns with one of our Department goals in our Junior English program ‘Read for Pleasure.’ Some of our Junior English classes have also been working on the Literacy Essentials Book. In particular with our Year 10 English students, who will be sitting the CAA in Term 2.

Junior English Year 9 Student Writing Exemplar - Term 1

Junior English Year 9 Student Character Study Exemplar - Term 1

TERM 1 SENIOR ENGLISH REVIEW

Term 1 Senior English Program

In Term 1 our main focus for our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English students was to make sure that they understood our curriculum and what it means for them. We held introduction assemblies for our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English students in the beginning of Term 1 to go through our program, the curriculum and assessment schedule. This was our time to set our expectations to the students and make sure that they understood the curriculum and assessment timeline of the year. 

For our NCEA Level 1 English program, our focus was the film study for ‘The Dark Horse’. There are no credits offered in Term 1 for our NCEA Level 1 English students however following the film study, the students worked on crafting a response text to the external assessment (91925) which is a response to a studied text essay. Our NCEA Level 2 English program focused on the film ‘Muru’ and the students started working on the 91101 (Writing Portfolio - 6 Credits) and 91106 (Reading Responses - 4 Credits). Both internal assessments are due in Term 3 but our Year 12 cohort have used Term 1 to get a head start on these assessments. Our NCEA Level 3 English program saw our Year 13 students through their film study of ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and they completed their first internal assessment for 91480 (Close Viewing - 3 Credits). We are looking forward to getting into the written text studies with our learners in Term 2. Please see some of our NCEA English students from Term 1.

NCEA Level 1 English Student Exemplar - 91925 - Term 1

NCEA Level 3 English Student Exemplar - 91480

In my next post I will share the English Department's goals for Term 2.