Year 4 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 4 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 Years 3 and 4, students experience learning in familiar contexts and a range of contexts that relate to study in other areas of the curriculum. They interact with peers and teachers from other classes and schools in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of print and digital texts, simple chapter books, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own work.
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 students in Years 3 and 4 as independent readers describe complex sequences of events that extend over several pages and involve unusual happenings within a framework of familiar experiences. Informative texts include content of increasing complexity and technicality about topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These texts use complex language features, including varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and words that need to be decoded phonically, and a variety of punctuation conventions, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support and extend the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts including narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, poetry and expositions.
Language
Language variation and change
Understand that Standard Australian English is one of many social dialects used in Australia, and that while it originated in England it has been influenced by many other languages (ACELA1487)
Language for interaction
Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others; for example, when exploring and clarifying the ideas of others, summarising their own views and reporting them to a larger group (ACELA1488)
Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording (ACELA1489)
Text structure and organisation
Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the intended audience (ACELA1490)
Understand how texts are made cohesive through the use of linking devices, including pronoun reference and text connectives (ACELA1491)
Recognise how quotation marks are used in texts to signal dialogue, titles and quoted (direct) speech (ACELA1492)
Identify features of online texts that enhance readability, including text, navigation, links, graphics and layout (ACELA1793)
Expressing and developing ideas
Understand that the meaning of sentences can be enriched through the use of noun groups/phrases and verb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases (ACELA1493)
Investigate how quoted (direct) and reported (indirect) speech work in different types of text (ACELA1494)
Understand how adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases work in different ways to provide circumstantial details about an activity (ACELA1495)
Explore the effect of choices when framing an image, placement of elements in the image, and salience on composition of still and moving images in a range of types of texts (ACELA1496)
Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources into students’ own texts including vocabulary encountered in research (ACELA1498)
Phonics and word knowledge
Understand how to use and apply phonological and morphological knowledge to read and write multisyllabic words with more complex letter combinations, including a variety of vowel sounds and known prefixes and suffixes (AC9E4LY09)
Understand how to use knowledge of letter patterns, including double letters, spelling generalisations, morphological word families, common prefixes and suffixes, and word origins, to spell more complex words (AC9E4LY10)
Read and write high-frequency words including homophones and know how to use context to identify correct spelling (AC9E4LY11)
Literature
Literature and context
Make connections between the ways different authors may represent similar storylines, ideas and relationships (ACELT1602)
Responding to literature
Discuss literary experiences with others, sharing responses and expressing a point of view (ACELT1603)
Use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features of literary texts (ACELT1604)
Examining literature
Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’ interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension (ACELT1605)
Understand, interpret and experiment with a range of devices and deliberate word play in poetry and other literary texts, for example nonsense words, spoonerisms, neologisms and puns (ACELT1606)
Creating literature
Create literary texts that explore students’ own experiences and imagining (ACELT1607)
Create literary texts by developing storylines, characters and settings (ACELT1794)
Literacy
Texts in context
Identify and explain language features of texts from earlier times and compare with the vocabulary, images, layout and content of contemporary texts (ACELY1686)
Interacting with others
Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and information (ACELY1687)
Use interaction skills such as acknowledging another’s point of view and linking students’ response to the topic, using familiar and new vocabulary and a range of vocal effects such as tone, pace, pitch and volume to speak clearly and coherently (ACELY1688)
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular purposes and audiences (ACELY1689)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Identify characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text (ACELY1690)
Read different types of texts, integrating phonic, semantic and grammatical knowledge to read accurately and fluently, re-reading and self-correcting when needed (AC9E4LY04)
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)
Creating texts
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features (ACELY1694)
Re-read and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure (ACELY1695)
Write using clearly-formed joined letters, and develop increased fluency and automaticity (ACELY1696)
Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1697)
Year 4 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 that texts have different text structures depending on purpose and context. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to engage the interest of audiences. They describe literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different texts. They express preferences for particular types of texts, and respond to others’ viewpoints. They fluently read texts that include varied sentence structures and unfamiliar vocabulary, including multisyllabic words.
Writing and Creating
Students use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. They understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to extend key ideas. Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, select vocabulary from a range of resources and use accurate spelling and punctuation, editing their work to improve meaning.
Speaking and Listening
Students listen for and share key points in discussions. They use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. Students understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to extend key ideas. Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, varying language according to context.
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 Years 3 and 4, students experience learning in familiar contexts and a range of contexts that relate to study in other areas of the curriculum. They interact with peers and teachers from other classes and schools in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of print and digital texts, simple chapter books, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own work.
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 students in Years 3 and 4 as independent readers describe complex sequences of events that extend over several pages and involve unusual happenings within a framework of familiar experiences. Informative texts include content of increasing complexity and technicality about topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These texts use complex language features, including varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and words that need to be decoded phonically, and a variety of punctuation conventions, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support and extend the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts including narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, poetry and expositions.