Year 11 Subject Selection – Foundation English

Course Description The Foundation English course is designed for students who need additional time and assistance to strengthen and refine their literacy skills to support their study in VCE English. The study design draws on and strengthens the skills gained and the knowledge students have acquired about texts and language in the English domain of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards. It integrates speaking, listening, reading, viewing and writing across all areas of study to enhance students’ knowledge about the structures and functions of written and oral language. The course allows students to improve their skills in comprehending and responding to a variety of texts, and to enhance their communication skills. The course mirrors the Unit 1 and 2 English course but simplifies the skills to help students’ gain confidence with their writing.

Why Study this? Work Tasks Assessment tasks Reading a number of texts Discussion Questions Analysis activities Creative Writing Watching films Analysing scenes and elements from the novel / film Comparing and contrasting novels and films Class discussions / presentations In Foundation English the assessment tasks are designed to allow students to respond critically and creatively to texts. Students will be scaffolding tasks and differentiated tasks to help them build the key skills needed in Units 3 and 4 English. Students will explore, interpret and reflect on different ideas and values represented in literary texts and use evidence from the texts to support a response. Students will also write creatively using the text as a basis for writing. Students analyse persuasive language and deliver an oral presentation arguing a point of view. The different forms of assessment include:: An analytical essay an imaginative piece of writing responding to a text/s studied an oral presentation A comparison of two texts. Analysis of persuasive language and argument.

Subject pathway…. The skills students gain through analysis, planning, responding, proof-reading are skills needed for higher education, small or large business and life in the world today. The ability to explore, interpret and reflect on different ideas and values represented in literature also allows students to apply these skills in their every day lives. The study of English allows students to express themselves in a number of ways – analysis, creative and orally – in order to interpret and present their own views on the novels and films studied in class.

Extra activities/costs? Foundation English students are given the opportunity to spend time with an author in residence. This gives them a unique insight into the world of an author, their motivations and processes for writing. A still from ‘The Weir’, a play that Literature students went to see in 2015.

More information…. Staff contacts Mrs Paterson: spaterson@nagle.vic.edu.au Mrs Greenland: ggreenland@nagle.vic.edu.au