English / Year 7 / Literature / Responding to literature

Curriculum content descriptions

Reflect on ideas and opinions about characters, settings and events in literary texts, identifying areas of agreement and difference with others and justifying a point of view (ACELT1620)

Elaborations
  • exploring concepts about the criteria for heroism and testing these criteria in a range of texts, including more complex ones where the hero may be flawed
  • establishing forums for discussing the relative merits of fiction and film texts
  • comparing personal viewpoints on texts and justifying responses in actual and virtual discussions
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Personal and social capability Personal and social capability
ScOT terms

Personal responses

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Wide Reading

Good advice for students encouraging them to read widely beyond the classroom, with useful links to ways to finding a good book

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Dirrarn: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the book Dirrarn. The book follows Mia as she finds herself at boarding school and the challenges of living thousands of kilometres away from home, family, and the big sky country she loves. Find themes relating to Identity, change, coming of age, bullying, Country and finding ...

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English Stage 4 – syllabus requirements planner

This sample syllabus requirements planner is aligned to the New South Wales English K–10 Syllabus (NESA 2022). This planner identifies key requirements for planning and implementing the Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8) English syllabus. It may be useful to teachers from other states and territories for comparative purposes in planning ...

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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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The Lost Thing: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support The Lost Thing, a quirky picture story book about finding your place in the world. It explores themes of belonging, bureaucracy, conformity, dystopia and friendship. This unit provides practical teaching ideas, an assessment task and an essay by Gary Crew.

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Film study – Finding Nemo

Using the film Finding Nemo as the starting point, students will describe the director’s approach to characterisation, and evaluate the ways in which characters, setting and the narrative arc work together in this film text.

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Core Concepts in English

The videos, posters and support information on this set of webpages support students from a range of year levels to understand the textual concepts in English. Find posters and student-friendly videos that define genre, intertextuality, literary value, style, character development, imagery and many others. They have been ...

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Sample scope and sequence – Year 7

This sample scope and sequence for Year 7 is aligned to the New South Wales English K–10 Syllabus (NESA 2022). It may be useful to teachers from other states and territories for comparative purposes.

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Ubby’s Underdogs: the Legend of the Phoenix Dragon: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the novel Ubby’s Underdogs: the Legend of the Phoenix Dragon. The novel, set in Broome of the late 1940s, is mostly concerned with the activities of two teenage gangs and explores themes of courage and bullying. As a graphic novel, it offers opportunities to teach about symbolism, ...

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Planning, programming and assessing English 7–10

Find comprehensive units of work, planning templates and other support resources for students in Stage 4 and 5 (years 7, 8, 9 and 10) of the curriculum. The resources have been created to support the New South Wales English K–10 Syllabus (NESA 2022). However, they may be useful to teachers from other states and territories ...

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Just Macbeth!: Unit of work

This unit of work has been written to support the novel Just Macbeth!. Using a group of Australian teenagers as the main characters, the novel plays with the themes of Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Macbeth. It explores themes of ambition, guilt and forgiveness, humour, trust and betrayal. This unit provides practical ...

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English concepts: Visual Representation Posters

These posters are designed to support students in a range of year levels to understand the textual concepts in English. Find posters that define genre, intertextuality, literary value, style, character development, imagery and many others. They have been designed to initiate discussion, challenge thinking, and deepen understanding. ...

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First Day Series 2

This resource contains five lessons which explore key themes in First Day series 2 including gender diversity, leadership, allyship, advocacy and media representation. Each lesson includes discussion starters, a relevant First Day clip to view and respond to, and suggested learning tasks to reinforce and demonstrate student ...

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From page to game: Multimodal narratives

This unit focuses on visual literacy and comprehending sequential art narratives such as online games. Multimodal texts, which would commonly be classified as popular culture, will be examined in such a way that their literary value will be revealed and appreciated. The driving question for this unit is How can we transform ...

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Work sample Year 7 English: Picture book

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 7 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 ...

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Creating a reading culture in a school community

This teacher resource describes how Proserpine State School in Queensland successfully responded to the need to improve student outcomes, especially in the area of reading, by implementing a whole-school approach that encouraged students to read more, and more widely. The resource is presented in eight sections: Summary; ...

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Reflective writing: the 3D format

This is a teacher resource describing a scaffolding strategy developed by New South Wales teacher Kerri-Jane Burke to help her students analyse texts and write reflective responses to them. The resource describes the three-dimensional writing strategy - Describe, Disclose, Decision - in more detail, outlining how it provides ...