Week 5 Term 3: English Department: Junior and Senior English Program for Term 3 (August 11 - August 15)

In this post I am going to highlight and outline the program that the English Department is going to offer our Junior and Senior English students. 

JUNIOR ENGLISH PROGRAM TERM 3

This term in English, we will be focusing on both written and visual texts. Some of our Junior English classes will delve into novels, while others will explore film. Across these different areas, we will be covering common assessment tasks such as formal writing, creative writing, and speech. 

Fostering strong oral communication skills is paramount, and by focusing on speech as a key assessment, we aim to equip our students with the confidence and ability to articulate their ideas effectively. This emphasis will allow students to develop crucial public speaking techniques, enhance their critical thinking through clear and concise expression, and prepare them for future academic and professional environments where persuasive and coherent verbal delivery is essential.

SENIOR ENGLISH PROGRAM TERM 3

As Week 7 and the Derived Grade Exams approach, our primary focus will be on ensuring all students successfully complete their NCEA internal assessments. We will dedicate class time to finalizing these crucial pieces of work, providing targeted support and opportunities for revision. Simultaneously, we will begin our concentrated preparation for the Derived Grade Exams, equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their best in these upcoming assessments.

Our current focus is on effectively introducing our NCEA Level 1 students to the new 91926 standard. We are guiding them through this unit by explicitly teaching various writing types, such as opinion columns, personal account writing, and descriptive writing, with a strong emphasis on student agency and independent text creation. Students will have dedicated time to plan and draft their work, and we will assess them on this new standard during Week 8 and Week 9, where they will independently craft a text based on provided prompts.