English / Year 8 / Literacy / Creating texts

Curriculum content descriptions

plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts, organising and expanding ideas, and selecting text structures, language features, literary devices and visual features for purposes and audiences in ways that may be imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive and/or analytical (AC9E8LY06)

Elaborations
  • experimenting with and editing text structures and language features; for example, paragraph order and content, and language choices to refine and clarify ideas
  • selecting vocabulary to position and persuade the reader; for example, adjusting language to show or acknowledge power
  • editing for accuracy of grammar, spelling and punctuation, and for meaning by experimenting with different order of ideas, a range of sentence structures, literary devices and vocabulary to clarify meaning for academic texts where appropriate
  • using conceptual maps or journals to plan and reflect on each stage of creating a written or multimodal text
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Editing,  Creating texts,  Language conventions

Text

Writing in Science

This practice guide focuses on the types of sentences students should use in their writing in Science. It has been developed for secondary teachers of this learning area. This guide offers guidance for analysing and providing targeted feedback on your students’ sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. Examples and teaching ...

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Writing in Health and Physical Education

This practice guide focuses on the types of sentences students should use in their writing in Health and Physical Education. It has been developed for secondary teachers of this learning area. This guide offers guidance for analysing and providing targeted feedback on your students’ sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. ...

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Us Mob Walawurru: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the book Us Mob Walawurru. The book is set in the 1960s in an Aboriginal community in Central Australia and follows the life of a young Luritja girl. It explores the cultural challenges faced by both the community members and non-Indigenous people. The story touches on various ...

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47 Degrees: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support 47 Degrees, an account of the experiences of writer Justin D'Ath during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. Explore themes of belonging, bravery, community, grief, resilience and the environment. This unit provides practical teaching ideas and an assessment task

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Evil Genius: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the coming-of-age novel Evil Genius. It explores themes of belonging, identity, being gifted and morality. This unit provides practical teaching ideas, an assessment task and an essay by Beth Driscoll.

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The ABC Book of Australian Poetry: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support this anthology of Australian poetry. Compiled by Libby Hathorn, it contains over eighty poems dating from 1885 to the present day representing the diversity of Australia. This unit provides practical teaching ideas for teaching specific poems and an assessment task.

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Game design: Level 1

Designed for students who have had little to no experience making a videogame, they begin by thinking critically about games and the elements that work to facilitate a quality game experience. They then explore game mechanics, narrative, 2D game artwork, coding, Chiptune music and the area of testing and improvement.

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Game builder: Level 2

Designed for students with some experience of creating digital games, the sequence builds on skills developed in Game builder: Level 1. Students explore ideas for games. They then move through the more advanced aspects of making a video game including detailed ideation and structuring methods, creation of complex systems ...

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How to write a ‘how-to’

In this step-by-step guide, students will learn about the “how to” genre with examples drawn from the New York Times. They will use writing prompts to come up with a task they’d like to explain; find and interview an expert; then edit what they have into a clear and interesting explanation.

Video

Image and Text: Creative Lesson Plans for Personal Storytelling

Students learn about how photographers work with images and text with a goal to inspire students to use text—whether captions or longer prose or poetic pieces—to enlarge upon the story in an image.

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A Fortunate Life: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the autobiography A Fortunate Life which explores the life of Albert Facey in surviving Gallipoli, raising a family through the Depression and managing several family challenges. This unit provides practical teaching ideas, an assessment task and an essay by Geordie Williamson.

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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Worldbuilding

In this lesson, students will explore the intersection of science fiction and fantasy from the works of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time Trilogy. Students will create an original character, thing, ability, and/or place using worldbuilding elements. Students will choose between dramatizing, making a book trailer, or ...

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A Way with Words

In this teaching activity students will collaborate in teams to draw and pantomime the meaning of Shakespeare's words and phrases. Students will be introduced to etymology, the study of words, and write a story using “The Bard’s” words, lines, and phrases.

Online

Persuasive Language

This PDF provides a valuable reference guide and teaching and learning resource for students and teachers on the purpose, features and influence of written and visual persuasive texts. The text provides the reader with information on the techniques employed in creating persuasive texts including appealing to emotions through ...

Video

Creating characters with Sally Rippin

Listen as Sally Rippin talks about how her characters come to life. What does she say about the link between the writer and the characters they create? Why does she say that imagination is like a muscle?

Video

Rebecca Lim's advice for writers

Do you want to be a writer? Watch this clip to get some tips from author Rebecca Lim. What are some of the things she suggests? Find out about writing competitions - and enter one!

Video

Heywire: When mining comes to town

Imagine living in your own little piece of paradise, only to have a mining company move in and start changing it in ways you don't like. On the other hand, imagine the benefits that a mining company would bring to struggling businesses in the area! There are always different perspectives on any issue. As you listen to this ...

Interactive

Writing an exposition

The resource contains information, activities and tasks on how to write an exposition or argument. It includes writing and publishing templates for students for a variety of purposes and contexts. This resource supports the Australian Curriculum in English K–10.

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Science Fiction: Short Stories

This resource for students presents information on how to respond to short answer questions on texts. Using textual evidence is discussed, with details on the use of ellipses and full stops. A sample answer is provided to a short answer question on Louise Lawrence's story 'Extinction is Forever'. Students are then asked ...

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Book Review

This resource provides advice to students on how to present a three-minute book review, with advice on how to write the review, and how to present it orally.