English / Year 10 / Language / Expressing and developing ideas

Curriculum content descriptions

Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of sentence and clause structures as authors design and craft texts (ACELA1569)

Elaborations
  • recognising how emphasis in sentences can be changed by reordering clauses (for example, ‘She made her way home because she was feeling ill’ as compared with ‘Because she was feeling ill, she made her way home’) or parts of clauses (for example, ‘The horses raced up from the valley’ as compared with ‘Up from the valley raced the horses’)
  • recognising how the focus of a sentence can be changed through the use of the passive voice (for example compare active, ‘The police had caught the thief.’ with passive ‘The thief had been caught.’)
  • observing how authors sometimes use verbless clauses for effect (for example, ‘And what about the other woman? With her long black eyelashes and red lipstick’)
  • understanding that a sentence can begin with a coordinating conjunction for stylistic effect (for example, ‘And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it’)
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Sentences (Grammar)

Interactive

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.

Interactive

Samuel Wagan Watson

This sequence of videos is an interactive resource for Stage 4/5 English and or Stage 4/5 Aboriginal Studies. It assists students to develop knowledge and understanding about Indigenous cultures of Australia. Students will respond to the poet, his texts, and at least one other Aboriginal poet, as well as composing at least ...

Interactive

Syllabus bites: Active and passive voice

A web page with information, teacher guides and activities on writing sentences using the active and passive voice. This resource supports the BOS NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum in English K–10.

Interactive

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 ...

Text

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.

Text

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 ...

Text

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 ...

Text

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 ...

Text

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.

Text

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 ...

Text

Slessor: Selected Poems: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the poetry collection Slessor: Selected Poems which explores the themes of art, death and time. This unit provides practical teaching ideas, an assessment task and an essay by Peter Kirkpatrick.

Text

It’s Raining in Mango: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the novel titled It’s Raining in Mango. Set in nineteenth century Queensland, it explores the theme of Aboriginal dispossession. This unit of work enables students to develop an appreciation of the relationship between critical analysis and the craft of writing. This unit provides ...

Text

The 7 Stages of Grieving: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the play script 7 Stages of Grieving. This one-woman show follows the journey of an Aboriginal ‘Everywoman’ as she tells poignant and humorous stories of grief and reconciliation. This unit provides practical teaching ideas, an assessment task and an essay by Melissa Lucashenko.

Text

Learning From Lyrics

In this lesson, students will research the lyrics of contemporary songs to analyse how social issues, are expressed through music and other art forms. Students will interpret song lyrics to create original art expressing the theme, issue, point of view, and/or facts from the song.

Text

Performing a Haiku: How can spoken word transform a poem?

In this lesson, students will reflect on small moments of peace or happiness to write an original haiku. Students will demonstrate spoken word to perform a haiku for an audience.

Text

Death Sentence: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the non-fiction book Death Sentence which explores the power of language to shape our imagination and, therefore, our world. It is a text about how language is used and misused. This unit provides practical teaching ideas, an assessment task, an essay by Bernadette Brennan and ...

Text

The Book That Made Me: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support The Book That Made Me which is a collection of interviews with writers identifying the books that stimulated their love of writing. The book can be used to support any close study of books, alongside a wide reading unit or as part of a Reading to Write unit. This unit provides ...

Text

Away: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the script of the play Away. The play explores the themes of Australian identity, belonging, coming of age, connection to place, death, family, reconciliation and redemption. This unit provides practical teaching, an assessment task and two essays about the text.

Text

Work sample Year 10 English: Essay on the Romantic poetry movement with visual representations

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 10 English. The primary purpose for the work sample is to demonstrate the standard, so the focus is on what is evident in the sample not how it was created. The sample is an authentic representation of ...

Video

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? ...