Close message Due to scheduled maintenance on Thursday 20th March 2025 between 7.00 pm until 9.00 pm AEDT, Scootle may face a disruption in service. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

English / Year 8 / Literacy / Texts in context

Curriculum content descriptions

Analyse and explain how language has evolved over time and how technology and the media have influenced language use and forms of communication (ACELY1729)

Elaborations
  • identifying and explaining how mobile technologies are influencing language uses and structures
  • analysing the ways that identity may be created in digital contexts
  • identifying how meanings or words change or shift depending on context, for example the word ‘cool’ is used to describe temperature or to express approval when used in informal contexts
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT capability Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
ScOT terms

Language conventions,  Telecommunications

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

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

Science Fiction: Radio Dramas

This resource for students is one in a series of three on science fiction. The introduction contains links to old radio dramas as great examples of story telling. Students are then asked to produce their own two minute science fiction radio drama. A link is provided to Celtx, an application which allows you to write the ...

Text

13 conversation starters inspired by ‘being 13’

Based on a New York Times article about what life is like for teenage girls in the era of social media, this resource includes a set of questions that can be used with this age-group to generate conversations about mental health, social media usage, identity and other topics related to wellbeing.

Text

Lesson Plan: On ‘Being 13’

Based on a New York Times article about what life is like for teenage girls in the era of social media, this lesson plan generates conversations about the issues raised, including canvassing healthy phone and social media habits.

Text

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 ...

Text

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.

Text

Cartooning Political and Social Issues

In this lesson, students will examine the role of cartoons play in presenting viewpoints about political or social issues. Students gather and organize information about a current or past issue and analyze the different sides. They plan, design, and illustrate a political cartoon that presents a position on a political ...

Text

Work sample Year 8 English: Creative responses to a poem

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 8 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 ...

Interactive

Aim to sustain: A world of difference

Students explore what is happening at an individual, community and global level and plan actions they will take. These may range from taking a quiz to sharing knowledge about being 'green' at home, through to planning a conference session to deliver to other students. The resource includes videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets ...

Video

Learn 60 new vocabulary words with these imaginative student videos

This resource showcases short videos made by students in which they define a Word of the Day in under 15 seconds. Sixty videos are organized into three compilations by part of speech. Use the videos as inspiration for your students to create their own vocabulary-related video. The resource includes an interactive Vocabulary.com ...

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

Learn vocabulary all year

Find a schedule of challenges that can help students engage with words and new vocabulary through writing, drawing and video-making, and connect their language study to what they might read in newspapers and observe in their own lives.

Text

Writing Rich Reading Responses

Using writing submitted by teenagers for a New York Times competition, this article outlines four key elements that can make a short written response sing. This resource aims to help students improve the engagement levels of their writing. Each of the four elements includes some focus questions and examples of what works.

Text

142 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing

Find a year’s worth of short, accessible, image-driven posts that invite a variety of kinds of writing.

Text

Punctuation – What’s the point

This practice guide offers an overview of essential punctuation for writing across primary and secondary school. While an effective combination of sentence types adds depth and variety to a piece of writing, correct punctuation is equally vital for clarity and coherence. This guide aims to provide clear examples to support ...

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

Improving the formality of students’ writing – nominalisation

This blog post explains how a practising teacher supports students to develop a confident and formal tone by teaching them to nominalise in their writing.

Text

Using ‘signpost’ words and phrases

This guide explains the use of words and phrases that connect ideas into a logical argument and signal to the reader the structure of that argument. Find examples of specific words and phrases associated with the purpose: sequencing, adding an idea, generalising, introducing a fact; rephrasing and introducing a reason or proof.