Year 1 SyllabusTest
- Rationale
- Aims
- Content Structure
- English across Pre-primary to Year 12
- Achievement Standards
- Student Diversity
- Ways of Teaching
- Ways of Assessing
- General capabilities
- Cross-curriculum Priorities
- Links to other learning areas
- Implications for teaching, assessment and reporting
- Glossary
- English P–10 Scope and Sequence for teaching in 2024 (PDF)
English P–10 Scope and Sequence for teaching in 2024 (DOC)- Professional learning
- Revisions to the WA curriculum English P–6 Phonics and word knowledge (DOC)
- ABLEWA English Scope and Sequence
- ABLEWA English Scope and Sequence (PDF)
- EAL/D English Pre-primary to Year 10
Year 1 Syllabus
Year Level Description
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed.
In Year 1, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults and students from other classes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts designed to entertain and inform. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own texts.
The range of literary texts for Pre-primary to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia. Literary texts that support and extend Year 1 students as independent readers involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisably realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These include decodable and predictable texts which present a small range of language features, including simple and compound sentences, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a small number of high-frequency words and words that need to be decoded phonically, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support the printed text.
Students create a variety of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including recounts, procedures, performances, literary retellings and poetry.
Language
Language variation and change
Understand that people use different systems of communication to cater to different needs and purposes and that many people may use sign systems to communicate with others (ACELA1443)
Language for interaction
Understand that language is used in combination with other means of communication, for example facial expressions and gestures to interact with others (ACELA1444)
Understand that there are different ways of asking for information, making offers and giving commands (ACELA1446)
Explore different ways of expressing emotions, including verbal, visual, body language and facial expressions (ACELA1787)
Text structure and organisation
Understand that the purposes texts serve shape their structure in predictable ways (ACELA1447)
Understand patterns of repetition and contrast in simple texts (ACELA1448)
Recognise that different types of punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, signal sentences that make statements, ask questions, express emotion or give commands (ACELA1449)
Understand concepts about print and screen, including how different types of texts are organised using page numbering, tables of content, headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links (ACELA1450)
Expressing and developing ideas
Identify the parts of a simple sentence that represent ‘What’s happening?’, ‘What state is being described?’, ‘Who or what is involved?’ and the surrounding circumstances (ACELA1451)
Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs) (ACELA1452)
Compare different kinds of images in narrative and informative texts and discuss how they contribute to meaning (ACELA1453)
Understand the use of vocabulary in everyday contexts as well as a growing number of school contexts, including appropriate use of formal and informal terms of address in different contexts (ACELA1454)
Phonics and word knowledge
Segment words into separate phonemes (sounds) including consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of words (phonological awareness) (AC9E1LY09)
Orally manipulate phonemes in spoken words by addition, deletion and substitution of initial, medial and final phonemes to generate new words (phonological awareness) (AC9E1LY10)
Use short vowels, common long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs to write words, and blend these to read one- and two-syllable words (AC9E1LY11)
Understand that a letter can represent more than one sound and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound (AC9E1LY12)
Spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns (AC9E1LY13)
Read and write an increasing number of high frequency words (AC9E1LY14)
Recognise and know how to use grammatical morphemes to create word families (AC9E1LY15)
Literature
Literature and context
Discuss how authors create characters using language and images (ACELT1581)
Responding to literature
Discuss characters and events in a range of literary texts and share personal responses to these texts, making connections with students' own experiences (ACELT1582)
Express preferences for specific texts and authors and listen to the opinions of others (ACELT1583)
Examining literature
Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and explore some features of characters in different texts (ACELT1584)
Listen to, recite and perform poems, chants, rhymes and songs, imitating and inventing sound patterns including alliteration and rhyme (ACELT1585)
Creating literature
Recreate texts imaginatively using drawing, writing, performance and digital forms of communication (ACELT1586)
Innovate on familiar texts by using similar characters, repetitive patterns or vocabulary (ACELT1832)
Literacy
Texts in context
Respond to texts drawn from a range of cultures and experiences (ACELY1655)
Interacting with others
Engage in conversations and discussions, using active listening behaviours, showing interest, and contributing ideas, information and questions (ACELY1656)
Use interaction skills including turn-taking, recognising the contributions of others, speaking clearly and using appropriate volume and pace (ACELY1788)
Make short presentations using some introduced text structures and language, for example opening statements (ACELY1657)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Describe some differences between imaginative informative and persuasive texts (ACELY1658)
Read decodable and authentic texts using developing phonic and word knowledge, phrasing and fluency, and monitor meaning using context and grammatical knowledge
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (ACELY1660)
Creating texts
Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams (ACELY1661)
Re-read student’s own texts and discuss possible changes to improve meaning, spelling and punctuation (ACELY1662)
Write using unjoined lower case and upper case letters (ACELY1663)
Construct texts that incorporate supporting images using software including word processing programs (ACELY1664)
Year 1 Achievement Standard
Handwriting behaviours are not described in the year level achievement standard or the writing assessment pointers. Instead, the Authority has developed the Handwriting Continuum to support Western Australian teachers in the teaching and monitoring of student handwriting for Pre-primary through to Year 10. The Handwriting Continuum can be found under the Teaching menu in the K-10 section of this website. Teachers will need to log in to the Extranet to access this resource.
Reading and Viewing
At Standard, students understand the different purposes of texts. They make connections to personal experience when explaining information, characters and main events in short texts. They identify that texts serve different purposes and that this affects how they are organised. Students understand how characters in texts are developed and give reasons for personal preferences. They describe characters, settings and events in different types of literature. Students read aloud, with developing fluency. They read short texts with some unfamiliar vocabulary, simple and compound sentences, and supportive images. When reading, they use knowledge of the relationship between sounds and letters, high-frequency words, sentence boundary punctuation and directionality to make meaning. They recall key ideas and recognise literal and implied meaning in texts.
Writing and Creating
Students create texts that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images. They create short texts for a small range of purposes. When writing, students provide details about ideas or events, and details about the participants in those events. They accurately spell high-frequency words and words with regular spelling patterns. They use capital letters and full stops.
Speaking and Listening
Students listen to others when taking part in conversations, using appropriate language features and interaction skills. They understand how characters in texts are developed and give reasons for personal preferences. Students create texts that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images. They create short texts for a small range of purposes. Students interact in pair, group and class discussions, taking turns when responding. They make short presentations on familiar topics.
Year Level Description
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed.
In Year 1, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults and students from other classes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts designed to entertain and inform. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own texts.
The range of literary texts for Pre-primary to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia. Literary texts that support and extend Year 1 students as independent readers involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisably realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These include decodable and predictable texts which present a small range of language features, including simple and compound sentences, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a small number of high-frequency words and words that need to be decoded phonically, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support the printed text.
Students create a variety of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including recounts, procedures, performances, literary retellings and poetry.