At Year 10 students continue to practise, consolidate and extend what they have learned from previous levels. They also extend their understanding of how language works, and learn to transfer this knowledge to different contexts. To achieve this, students develop an understanding of the requirements of different types of texts; they are introduced to increasingly sophisticated analyses of various kinds of literary, popular culture, and everyday texts, and they are given opportunities to engage with the technical aspects of texts, including those of their own choosing – and to explain why they made that choice.

The notion of valuing certain texts as ‘literature’ is introduced. Students learn how such texts can be discussed and analysed in relation to themes, ideas and historical and cultural contexts.

Students engage with a variety of genres and modes. They re-enact, represent and describe texts in order to display their understanding of narrative, theme, purpose, context and argument and to defend their ideas in written and oral modes. Students are given further opportunities to create increasingly sophisticated and multimodal texts in groups and individually.

The sudy of English is organised around three language modes:

Reading and Viewing
Reading and viewing involves understanding, interpreting, reflecting upon, and enjoying written and visual, print and non-print texts. Reading involves active engagement with texts and the development of knowledge about the relationship between them and the contexts in which they are created. This dimension encompasses reading and viewing a wide range of texts and media, including fiction and non-fiction works, newspapers and magazines, illustrations, posters and charts, film and television and the texts associated with information and communications technology.
Click on the reading and viewing page link (left) to find out about the knowledge, understanding, skills and processes that the Year 10 course covers and students are expected to learn.

Writing
Writing refers to the active process of conceiving, planning, composing, editing and publishing fiction and non-fiction texts. Writing involves using appropriate language for particular purposes or occasions to represent and reflect on ideas, issues, arguments, events, experience, character, emotion and information. It involves the development of knowledge about writing strategies and conventions and includes writing for print and electronic media and performance.
Click on the writing page link page link (left) to find out about the knowledge, understanding, skills and processes that the Year 10 course covers and students are expected to learn.

Speaking and Listening
Speaking and listening refers to the various formal and informal ways oral language is used to convey and receive meaning. It involves the development and demonstration of knowledge about the appropriate oral language for particular audiences and occasions, including body language and voice. It also involves the development of active listening strategies and an understanding of the conventions of different spoken texts including everyday communication, group discussion, formal presentations and speeches, storytelling and negotiating.
Click on the speaking and listening page link (left) to find out about the knowledge, understanding, skills and processes that the Year 10 course covers and students are expected to learn.

Content Structure
The Year 10 English curriculum is organised into three interrelated strands that support students' growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English. Together the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking and writing. The three strands are:

Students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in reading, writing viewing, listening and speaking are developed through three interrelated strands that support students’ growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English. The three strands are:

Language: knowing about the English language
Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding to, analysing and creating literature
Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage.

Each strand is grouped into sub-strands that, across the year levels, present a sequence of development of knowledge, understanding and skills. The sub-strands are:

Each strand contributes to the study of Year 10 English its own distinctive goals, body of knowledge, history of ideas and interests, and each relates to material worth studying in its own right. Teaching, learning and assessment programs balance and integrate the three strands in order to support the development of knowledge, understanding and skills. The key focal point for a unit of work or a learning activity may arise from any one of the strands, but the intention is that units and activities draw on all three strands in ways that are integrated and clear to learners.

Overview

The Year 10 English course provides students with a broad range of closely connected learning experiences designed to encourage them to become more confident, thoughtful, discriminating and imaginative communicators as readers, viewers, writers, speakers and listeners in both formal and informal situations. They are encouraged to recognise and value the diversity of social and cultural backgrounds and opinions in our community and to enhance their self-esteem through confident use of the English language in a variety of contexts for a variety of purposes and addressed to a variety of audiences. The course aims to develop students' critical understanding and control of the English language through the development of specific skills required for clear communication while providing opportunities for creative self-expression through speaking and listening in a variety of contexts, creative and formal writing, analysis of issues, analytical and persuasive essays, the reading and writing of poetry, and in-depth analysis of different text types. The course also aims to extend, challenge, and enrich student learning through extension and enrichment programmes, and through a range of information and communications technology that include webquests, theme studies, and wide reading projects. Students demonstrate their achievement against the standards from all three strands of Personal and Social learning, Discipline-based learning and Interdisciplinary learning.

Learning in English is recursive and cumulative, and builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years. The content descriptions for each language mode have been written to ensure that learning is appropriately ordered and that unnecessary repetition is avoided. However, a concept or skill introduced at one year level may be revisited, strengthened and extended at later year levels as needed. Students are set both short and long term assignments which require drafting and revision; tasks are undertaken during class time with homework spent preparing and polishing the task. Parents are encouraged to assist their son to develop sound study habits by regularly monitoring their work and in particular, noting when work is due. To assist in this process, assignments are accompanied by checklist and progress record sheets. Students may not necessarily have nightly English homework due the following day, but they will often have an on-going assignment to work on, and they are expected to regularly engage in nightly wide-reading.

Level 10 English Achievement Standard

The Level 10 achievement standards indicate the quality of learning students should typically demonstrate by the end of Year 10.

An achievement standard describes the quality of learning (the extent of knowledge, the depth of understanding and the sophistication of skills) that would indicate the student is well placed to commence the learning required at the next level of achievement.

Reading and viewing

Writing

Speaking and Listening