Year 6 English Syllabus
Year 6
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 6, students use spoken, written and visual communication to interact with audiences for particular 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 6, students learn about the uses of subjective and objective language across a range of texts and identify bias. They learn how literary devices create meaning and effect, and how authors adapt structures and language devices for effect.
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 stories; novels; poetry; dramatic performance; conversations and discussions; non-fiction texts; and media, online and digital texts created for a range of purposes. 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:
- literary texts that may include complex sequences, such as shifts in time, and a range of less predictable characters, and may explore themes of interpersonal relationships and ethical dilemmas
- texts that enable students to actively build literal and inferred meaning, and connect and compare content
- texts with structures which may include chapters, headings and subheadings, table of contents, indexes and glossaries
- texts with language features, such as complex sentences, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, figurative and idiomatic language, and information presented in various types of images and graphics
- texts that may support students’ understanding of authors’ styles
- informative texts that may include 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.
Students create a range of spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts whose purpose may be imaginative, informative and persuasive. These may include narratives, dramatic performances or texts, spoken texts, reports, reviews, poetry, persuasive discussions and/or explanations for particular purposes and audiences. Students make choices about texts according to their interests.
Year 6
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, explain and elaborate on ideas from topics or texts. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions. They use and vary text structures to organise, develop and link ideas. They use and vary 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 different texts created to inform, entertain or persuade audiences. They use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning, and to connect and compare information and ideas from a range of texts with more complex text structures, language features, and challenging vocabulary. They identify similarities and differences in how ideas are presented and developed, including through characters, settings and/or events, and how texts reflect contexts. They identify how texts have similar and different text structures to reflect purpose. They explain how language features, literary devices, and visual features influence audiences.
Writing and Creating
Students create written and/or multimodal texts, including literary texts, for particular purposes and audiences, developing, explaining and elaborating on relevant ideas from topics or texts. They use text structures and vary paragraphs to organise, develop and link ideas. They use and vary language features, sentence structures, topic-specific vocabulary and literary devices, and/or multimodal features. They spell more complex words, including some technical words using phonic, morphemic and vocabulary knowledge.
Year 6
Content descriptions
Language for interacting with others
Understand that language varies as levels of formality and social distance increase
WA6ELAI1
For example:
- analysing the use of speech in communities and groups that students belong to, and discussing how the formality of speech changes between them
Understand the uses of objective and subjective language, and identify bias
WA6ELAI2
For example:
- identifying subjective and objective statements, and bias found in texts, such as feature articles, newspaper reports, advertisements and debates
Text structure, organisation and features
Explain how texts across learning areas are typically organised into characteristic stages and phases depending on purposes, recognising how authors often adapt text structures and language features
WA6ELAT1
For example:
- identifying the adaptations authors make to stages and phases when creating texts, such as including links to shopping hints and health advice or describing the history of the food in online recipes
- explaining how an author could adapt the language features of a persuasive text to appeal to different audiences
Understand that cohesion can be created by the intentional use of repetition, and the use of word associations
WA6ELAT2
For example:
- identifying and using repetition for effect, such as I love everything about the beach. I love the sea. I love the sand. I love the wind.
- identifying word associations found in texts, such as I walked the length of the track. I trudged wearily, shuffling and limping along.
Language for expressing and developing ideas
Understand how embedded clauses can expand the variety of complex sentences to elaborate, extend and explain ideas
WA6ELALA1
For example:
- adding embedded clauses to extend the noun group in sentences, such as The weavers, who were well-known tricksters, promised to make the Emperor new clothes even though they had no intention of doing so.
- adding embedded clauses to explain content, such as If we are to save the numbat, a highly endangered Western Australian marsupial, we must act to preserve their habitat.
Understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaborated tenses and a range of adverb groups
WA6ELALA2
For example:
- exploring the use of precise verbs and adverbs in texts, such as slice thinly, fold carefully into quarters
- using adverb groups to expand ideas, such as she arrives next week or to indicate place, such as he walked under the bridge
Identify and explain how images, figures, tables, diagrams, maps and graphs contribute to meaning
WA6ELALA3
For example:
- selecting visual elements which expand ideas or information when creating texts, such as including the results of a survey in a Geography report
Identify authors’ use of vivid, emotive vocabulary, such as metaphors, similes, personification, idioms, imagery and hyperbole
WA6ELALA4
Understand how to use a comma for lists, to separate a dependent clause from an independent clause, and in dialogue
WA6ELALA5
For example:
- using commas to separate a dependent clause from an independent clause when the dependent clause starts a sentence, such as As it was likely to rain, Jane packed her umbrella.
- using commas in dialogue, such as ‘From now on,’ warned the giant, ‘you will need to follow the path.’
Phonic and word knowledge
Use phonic knowledge of common and less common grapheme–phoneme relationships to read and write increasingly complex words
WA6ELAP1
For example:
- reading and writing increasingly complex words with uncommon letter patterns, such as pneumonia, asthma, conscience, cyclic, variable, phenomena, insulator, irreversible
Use knowledge of known words, word origins, including some Latin and Greek roots, base words, prefixes, suffixes, letter patterns and spelling generalisations to spell new words, including technical words
WA6ELAP2
For example:
- exploring Greek and Latin roots, such as those found in other learning areas: democracy – demo meaning people and kratia meaning rule
- identifying morphemes that are bound bases that cannot stand alone as a word, such as <ped> meaning foot as in pedestrian and pedicure
- spelling words using morphemes that often have consistent spelling although the sound may be different, such as in one, only, once, alone
Literature and contexts
Identify responses to characters and events drawn from historical, social or cultural contexts in literary texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, wide-ranging Australian and world authors
WA6ELICO1
For example:
- discussing how attitudes and responses to a text could be shaped by current events or values (now and then), such as in a historical novel or short story
- identifying stereotypes in texts and discussing how these influence the reader or evoke a personal response, such as in stereotypes of the roles of males and females represented from another time or culture
Engaging with and responding to literature
Identify similarities and differences in literary texts on similar topics, themes or plots
WA6ELIEN1
For example:
- comparing and contrasting two or more literary texts that share similar topics, themes or plots, such as a written text and its film adaptation
Examining literature
Identify and explain characteristics that define an author’s individual style
WA6ELIEX1
For example:
- comparing common style characteristics in two texts by the same author/illustrator, such as sentence structure, or use of colour
Explain the way authors use sound and imagery to create meaning and effect in literary texts, including poetry
WA6ELIEX2
Creating literature
Create and edit literary texts that adapt plot structure, characters, settings and/or ideas from texts students have experienced, and experiment with literary devices
WA6ELICR1
For example:
- experimenting with text features to create a hybrid text, such as creating a text that incorporates knowledge from another learning area but also contains literary devices
- editing writing, considering the use of literary devices to enhance plot, characters, setting and/or ideas
Texts in context
Examine texts, including media texts, that represent ideas and events, and identify how they reflect the context in which they were created
WA6ELYT1
For example:
- comparing current and past texts, such as newspaper articles that discuss historical events or issues
- identifying stereotypes in texts from another time or place
Interacting with others
Use interaction skills and awareness of formality when paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, and sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions
WA6ELYI1
Analysing, interpreting and evaluating
Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text and engage and influence audiences
WA6ELYA1
For example:
- comparing two or more texts on the same topic and evaluating their effectiveness
- considering choices made by the author to engage or influence a target audience
Select, navigate and read texts for a range of purposes, monitoring meaning and evaluating the use of structural features, such as a table of contents, glossary, chapters, headings and subheadings
WA6ELYA2
For example:
- setting a reason for reading, selecting appropriate texts and activating prior knowledge about text structures
- monitoring understanding while reading a novel, such as keeping a reading journal
- ranking texts based on their suitability for a particular purpose, such as websites
Use comprehension strategies, such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning when listening, reading and viewing to build literal and inferred meaning, and to connect and compare content from a variety of sources
WA6ELYA3
For example:
- using prior knowledge about genres when selecting texts and building meaning
- making connections to general knowledge or subject knowledge when building literal and inferential understanding of settings, characters or events in literary texts
- monitoring the truth or accuracy of texts by making connections to other texts to evaluate information or ideas
- comparing and connecting information or ideas across a number of texts to create a summary
Creating texts
Plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, using paragraphs, a variety of complex sentences, expanded verb groups, tense, topic‑specific and vivid vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and visual features
WA6ELYC1
Plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include information, arguments and details that develop a theme or idea, organising ideas using precise topic‑specific and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features
WA6ELYC2
Develop a handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic and varies according to purpose and audience
WA6ELYC3
Select and use features of digital tools to create or add to texts for a purpose and audience
WA6ELYC4
For example:
- using a range of features when using a digital tool to create a text for a specific purpose and audience, such as an informative presentation