English / Year 9 / Language / Expressing and developing ideas

Curriculum content descriptions

Explain how authors creatively use the structures of sentences and clauses for particular effects (ACELA1557)

Elaborations
  • identifying and analysing aspects of rhetoric in speeches drawn from contemporary and earlier contexts and students creating speeches of their own
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Sentences (Grammar)

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Syllabus bites: types of sentences

A web page resource with information, teacher guides and activities on types of sentences to support the Australian Curriculum in English K–10. It has detailed activities, links to resources and quizzes.

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This Day Tonight: Debating Vietnam: using counter-arguments, 1967

Imagine agreeing with your opponent in a debate. How could that possibly help your argument? Many successful speakers, however, realise that concession is an important persuasive technique. In this clip, explore how two speakers discussing the effectiveness of Vietnam War protest marches both use concession to improve their ...

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Writing a feature article

The resource contains information, activities and tasks on how to write a feature article. It includes writing and publishing templates for students for a print and online contexts. This resource supports the Australian Curriculum in English K–10.

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Syllabus bites: Visual literacy

A resource with information, study guides and resources on visual literacy to support the English K-10 Australian Curriculum in English. It provides a series of activities, guidelines and tasks about visual texts from a variety of sources. Contains writing scaffolds, templates and proformas for responding and composing ...

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Sentence combining

Sentence combining is an instructional technique used to improve sentence quality, complexity and variety. Students are taught how to combine two or more basic sentences to create more interesting, sophisticated and varied sentences. When sentence combining is taught explicitly and in a sustained way, it becomes one component ...

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Complex sentences: Creating agility and depth in your writing

Complex sentences are an important step in enabling students to produce more sophisticated writing. Mastering complex sentences allows students to have greater control when communicating. This resource provides information about topics such as Dependent clauses, Nominalisation and Subordinating conjunctions. This guide ...

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How to write in plain English

This guide looks at the main ways to make writing clearer, including keeping sentences short, and use of active verbs. It explores the types of words that contribute to clarity and provides tips about the use of lists. The guide then deals with some of the myths that can get in the way of clear communication. The guide ...

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Connecting Ideas

Help students to create well-structured sentences by developing their knowledge of compound sentences, compound complex sentences and ways to combine messages by using quoting as a device. This teacher resource will support your understanding of this topic and provide examples to use with students.

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Teaching with Videogames: Creative writing using Twine

In this unit, students deeply explore the features and context of interactive fiction (IF), developing their knowledge of core concepts including the role of the player as audience and how language can be structured and manipulated to achieve specific effects. These effects include the impact of language, devices, features ...

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Heywire: Tension in the air

In this Heywire audio story, explore how Marguerite Donaldson builds tension as she recounts a nerve-wracking incident that happened while she was flying one day. Find out what this incident has revealed to her and how she shares her thoughts. Could you write or record a similar story about yourself and/or your community? ...

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Can We Help?: Shakespeare words: the process of language change

Imagine being responsible for inventing over 1700 words! That is the legacy of William Shakespeare, one of the greatest writers in the English language. Most of these words were created through translations of Latin words or by combining words with prefixes and suffixes in original ways. In this clip, you'll discover the ...

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Syllabus bites: Exploring Asia-related texts

This resource has information, links and study guides on Asia-related texts to support the Australian Curriculum in English for Year 7, 8, 9, 10.

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Heywire: To disconnect or not to disconnect?

How often are you ever truly alone? Today's technology can mean that we're in constant contact with friends and family. In this Heywire audio story, Dayna Duncan shares a time when she both needed to be connected and to balance her use of social media with other priorities in her life.<br /><br /> Could you write or record ...

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Narrative structure with Gary Crew

Listen as Gary Crew talks about the narrative structure of his book, Strange Objects. What are the reasons he gives for incorporating so many different sorts of texts (from newspaper articles to diaries and archeological reports) into his narrative?

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Thinking about story themes

Noa and Francis are two young writers who've had their stories published. Listen as they talk about the main ideas they chose to explore in their stories. Find and watch the clips of Noa and Francis reading their pieces at the Melbourne Writers Festival (also found on Splash). How did they build their stories around the ...

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Heywire: Fortissimo frogs frustrate family

How could words convey the nightly racket of hundreds of croaking frogs outside your bedroom window? Can you think of ways to engage readers' senses so that they 'experience' the frog chorus? A use of imagery is one of them. It's something we'll explore in this humorous story about the perils of frogs. Could you write or ...

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Interviews With 10 Australian Authors, Ch 4: Poetry with Robert Adamson

Australian poet Robert Adamson speaks to Tom Tilley about his extraordinary life, including his experience of being sent to a boys' home as a teenager, of his life-changing discovery of Bob Dylan, and of the spiritual connection he feels with the Hawkesbury River. The Golden Bird is a collection of his poems written throughout ...

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Heywire: Sussing out the similes in a footy game

If you've ever tried to describe an experience to a friend and said, 'It was just like', you were using a simile. Similes and their close pals metaphors are figures of speech that writers of all sorts of texts use. As you listen to this Heywire audio story, explore Taylor Smith's use of them in his recount of a Saturday ...

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Heywire: Razia's refuge

Australia welcomes thousands of refugees from around the world every year, and Razia Gharibi is one of them. Her Heywire audio story about a journey from Afghanistan to Shepparton provides a personal perspective on Australia's refugee program. You could consider it in any discussion about whether or not Australia should ...

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Can We Help?: Vanishing words: the process of language change

The English language is full of strange contradictions and vanishing words. Have you ever wondered why we sometimes put words together that contradict each other, such as 'pretty awful' or 'terribly good'? If we can be 'ruthless', can we be 'ruthly' as well? Watch as Professor Kate Burridge explains these curious irregularities ...