Year 5 English Syllabus
Year 5
Year level description
In the middle to late childhood phase of schooling, students develop a sense of self, their world expands, and they begin to see themselves as members of larger communities. Learning experiences emphasise and lead to an appreciation of both the commonality and diversity of human experience and concerns.
English provides opportunities for students to develop a sound grasp of spoken, written and visual language and use this in a range of different learning situations in purposeful ways to achieve outcomes across all learning areas.
In Year 5, students use spoken, written and visual communication to interact with audiences for different purposes. The ability of students to work collaboratively and to develop their interaction skills should be fostered by activities that require group planning and decision-making, and interaction with people inside and outside their classroom.
Critical literacy is integral to the English curriculum. It is developed when students actively question, analyse and evaluate the texts they engage with. In Year 5, students learn that texts reflect different contexts, such as how they reflect the time and place in which they are created. They present opinions about literary texts and reflect on the viewpoints of others. Students learn how literary devices shape meaning.
Students engage with a range of texts for enjoyment and learning. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts whose purpose may be imaginative, informative and persuasive. The range of texts includes imaginative and informative picture books; various types of print, oral and digital stories; novels; poetry; various types of media; online and digital texts; non-fiction texts; dramatic performances or texts; and conversations and discussions. The features of these texts may be used by students as models for creating their own texts. Texts that support and extend students as independent readers include:
- texts that enable students to actively build literal and inferred meaning to evaluate information and ideas
- texts with structures, such as chapters, headings and subheadings, table of contents, indexes and glossaries
- texts with language features, such as complex sentences, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, figurative language, and information presented in various types of images and graphics
- literary texts that may include complex sequences of events, elaborated events and a range of characters, and may explore themes of interpersonal relationships and ethical dilemmas
- informative texts that may supply technical information and/or content about a wide range of topics of interest as well as topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum
- texts that may reveal that the English language is dynamic and changes over time.
Students create spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts whose purpose may be imaginative, informative and persuasive. These may include narratives, procedures, dramatic performances or texts, reports, responses (including reviews and personal reflections), poetry, argument, including persuasive expositions and/or discussions, and explanations for particular purposes and audiences. Students make choices about texts according to their interests.
Year 5
Achievement standard
By the end of the year:
Speaking and Listening
Students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken and/or multimodal texts, including literary texts. For particular purposes and audiences, they share, develop and expand on ideas and opinions, using supporting details from topics or texts. They contribute actively to class and group discussions, taking into account other perspectives. They use different text structures to organise, develop and link ideas. They use language features, topic-specific vocabulary and literary devices, and/or multimodal features and features of voice.
Reading and Viewing
Students listen to, read, view and comprehend texts created to inform, entertain or persuade audiences. When reading, they decode unfamiliar words, integrating phonic, grammatical, semantic and contextual knowledge. They use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning in written and visual texts with less familiar and more varied topics. They read and navigate texts for specific purposes and begin to evaluate the ideas and information presented in them. They explain how ideas are developed, including through characters, settings and/or events, and how texts reflect contexts. They explain how characteristic text structures support the purpose of texts. They explain how language features, literary devices and visual features contribute to the effect and meaning of a text.
Writing and Creating
Students create written and/or multimodal texts, including literary texts, for particular purposes and audiences, developing and expanding on ideas with supporting details from topics or texts. They use paragraphs to organise, develop and link ideas. They use language features, a variety of sentence types, including complex sentences, tenses, topic‑specific vocabulary and literary devices, and/or multimodal features. They spell words, including more complex words using phonic, morphemic and vocabulary knowledge.
Year 5
Content descriptions
Language for interacting with others
Understand that language is selected for social contexts and that it helps to signal social roles and relationships
WA5ELAI1
For example:
- maintaining and experimenting with formal speaking conventions during oral presentations or role-play, such as taking on the role of a politician in parliament
Understand how to move beyond making bare assertions by taking account of differing ideas or opinions and authoritative sources
WA5ELAI2
For example:
- making statements that take account of other opinions, such as Many people may disagree; however, …
- identifying bare assertions, such as it is the best film ever, or he is the greatest footy player in history and suggest phrases that temper them
- using phrases that temper bare assertions, such as Many people may enjoy swimming; however, … or Many people believe …
Text structure, organisation and features
Compare how texts across learning areas are typically organised into characteristic stages and phases and use language features depending on purposes in texts
WA5ELAT1
For example:
- comparing the phases contained in the opening stage (the thesis or position) of a number of expositions, such as an appeal, problem and/or a proposal
- comparing the phases in the descriptive stages of different types of information reports, such as flora and fauna in a report about a place, and diet and habitat in a report about an animal
- identifying why cause and effect conjunctions are used across a number of informative texts, such as explanations, reports and expositions
Understand how texts can be made cohesive by using the starting point of a sentence or paragraph to give prominence to the message and to guide the reader through the text
WA5ELAT2
For example:
- describing how the start of a sentence can change its emphasis, such as Snakes are reptiles. Reptiles include snakes and lizards.
- identifying the topic sentence of paragraphs in informative texts and using these to summarise the text
Language for expressing and developing ideas
Understand that the structure of a complex sentence includes an independent clause and at least one dependent clause, and understand how writers can use this structure for effect
WA5ELALA1
For example:
- expanding simple sentences through the use of subordinating conjunctions, such as Lea was a great singer although she needed to practise.
- replacing simple and/or compound sentences with a complex sentence for effect, such as I get frightened. Loud noises make me frightened. / I get frightened whenever I hear loud noises.
Understand how noun groups can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of a person, place, thing or idea
WA5ELALA2
For example:
- adding appropriate adjectives, classifying nouns and/or prepositions to a noun to enhance writing, such as the strange sea creature with the long black fur
Explain how the sequence of images in print, digital and film texts has an effect on meaning
WA5ELALA3
For example:
- interpreting a sequence of images in an infographic or short film
- explaining how the layout of text and visual elements in picture books creates salience or reading paths
Understand how vocabulary is used to express greater precision of meaning, including through the use of specialist and technical terms, and explore the history of words
WA5ELALA4
Use commas to indicate prepositional phrases, and apostrophes where there is multiple possession
WA5ELALA5
For example:
- including a comma after prepositional phrases that start a sentence, such as Later that same morning, Joe crept into the garden.
- using an apostrophe after the <s> in a plural, such as the boys’ jumpers (more than one boy owns a jumper)
Phonic and word knowledge
Use phonic, morphemic and vocabulary knowledge to read and spell words that share common letter patterns but have different pronunciations
WA5ELAP1
For example:
- reading and spelling words with common letter patterns but different pronunciation, such as <ough> cough, though, plough; <our> your, journey, hour
- reading and spelling words where the consonant sound changes with the addition of a suffix, such as the <t> in invite is sounded as a [sh] when the suffix <ion> is added, as in invitation
- identifying morphemic word families with common letter patterns and different pronunciations, such as sign, signature, signal
- providing definitions for common heteronyms (where words are spelled identically but have different pronunciations and meanings), such as graduate (noun, verb), read (past and present tense), wind, bow, record
Build and spell new words from knowledge of known words, base words, prefixes and suffixes, word origins, letter patterns and spelling generalisations
WA5ELAP2
For example:
- applying knowledge of base words, and prefixes and suffixes to spell new words, such as unhappiness and uncontrolled
- applying knowledge of word origins to spell new words, such as <circum> meaning around, in words, such as circumference
Explore less common plurals, and understand how a suffix changes the meaning or grammatical form of a word
WA5ELAP3
For example:
- spelling words with less common plurals, such as child/children, ox/oxen, deer/deer, half/halves
- changing the form of a word, such as
- from an adjective to a noun happy/happiness
- an adjective to an adverb slow/slowly
- a noun to an adjective beauty/beautiful
- verb tense, such as walks, is walking, walked
Literature and contexts
Identify aspects of literary texts that represent details or information about historical, social and cultural contexts in literature by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, wide‑ranging Australian and world authors
WA5ELICO1
For example:
- recording factual information found in texts, such as historical narratives
- exploring how the ideas portrayed in texts, such as Australian bush ballads, represent a historical context, and identifying how attitudes or contexts have changed
- identifying the words and images that an author uses to portray details of a culture or community in a text
Engaging with and responding to literature
Present an opinion on a literary text using specific terms about literary devices, text structures and language features, and reflect on the viewpoints of others
WA5ELIEN1
For example:
- referring to literary devices and language features when reviewing a text
- discussing own and others’ opinions about a text, such as the portrayal of characters or ideas
Examining literature
Recognise that the point of view in a literary text influences how readers interpret and respond to events and characters
WA5ELIEX1
For example:
- discussing how point of view has an effect on the reader’s interpretation of the text, such as changing from third to first person
- considering alternative points of view in a text, such as a text told in the first person from a protagonist’s point of view and considering the point of view of the antagonist
Examine the effects of imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification, and sound devices in literary texts, such as narratives, poetry and songs
WA5ELIEX2
Creating literature
Create and edit literary texts, experimenting with figurative language, storylines, characters and settings from texts students have experienced
WA5ELICR1
For example:
- reimagining characters from a familiar text by experimenting with the language and setting used
- using the structure and language features of a poem as a model to create a new poem
Texts in context
Describe the ways in which a text reflects the time and place in which it was created
WA5ELYT1
For example:
- commenting on the social norms that are portrayed in a historical movie or novel
- identifying and discussing patterns of speech or vocabulary that are used in a novel set in another place or time
- describing the ways that a character from another time is similar to or different from contemporary characters or people
Interacting with others
Use appropriate interaction skills, including paraphrasing and critical literacy questioning to clarify meaning, make connections to own experience, and present and justify an opinion or idea
WA5ELYI1
Analysing, interpreting and evaluating
Explain characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text
WA5ELYA1
For example:
- evaluating authors’ choices, such as why an author has used figurative language in a poem or included photographs of cute animals in a persuasive text about saving the rainforest
- describing the effect audio or visual techniques have on the viewer of a documentary or film, such as sad music or slow motion
Navigate and read texts for specific purposes, monitoring meaning using strategies, such as skimming, scanning and confirming
WA5ELYA2
For example:
- knowing the purpose for reading and adjusting the reading strategy to suit, such as scanning a text to evaluate its suitability for a project or skimming to find specific information
- setting questions before reading and reading to confirm predictions or find information
- discussing reading with others to monitor and confirm meaning, such as when discussing the motives of a character
- using topic sentences, subheadings and other text structures to read efficiently for a purpose
Use comprehension strategies, such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning when listening, reading and viewing to build literal and inferred meaning to evaluate information and ideas
WA5ELYA3
For example:
- making predictions about text structures in genres to help understanding and choices for reading
- making connections between literary texts to build inferential comprehension
- setting literal and inferential questions for research purposes, and drawing on a number of texts to evaluate the accuracy of information or ideas
- monitoring for understanding, drawing on explicit and implied meaning, and crosschecking within and across texts
- visualising an event or process to build implied meaning
- determining the importance of key ideas in texts when summarising
Creating texts
Plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, developing ideas using visual features, text structure appropriate to the topic and purpose, text connectives, expanded noun groups, specialist and technical vocabulary, and punctuation, including dialogue punctuation
WA5ELYC1
Plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include relevant, elaborated ideas, sequencing ideas and using complex sentences, specialist and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features
WA5ELYC2
Use features of digital tools to create or add to texts for a purpose and audience
WA5ELYC4
For example:
- manipulating an image using digital tools to make it suit a particular audience, such as editing an image to include in a children’s picture book
- selecting features of a slideshow to enhance a presentation, considering purpose