Original source · Published January 2026 · Updated January 2026

Course overview

Rationale

The QCAA English learning area is made up of five senior secondary subjects: Essential English, English, Literature, English & Literature Extension, and English as an Additional Language. These subjects share common features that include the continuing development of students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, speaking, reading, viewing, designing and writing. Differences between the subjects lie in the emphasis on how language and skills are developed and the contexts in which they are applied.

English learning area subjects offer students opportunities to enjoy language and be empowered as functional, purposeful, creative and critical language users who understand how texts can convey and transform personal and cultural perspectives. In a world of rapid cultural, social, economic and technological change, complex demands are placed on citizens to be literate within a variety of modes and mediums. Students are offered opportunities to develop this capacity by drawing on a repertoire of resources to interpret and create texts for personal, cultural, social and aesthetic purposes. They learn how language varies according to context, purpose and audience, content, modes and mediums, and how to use it appropriately and effectively for a variety of purposes. Students have opportunities to engage with diverse texts to help them develop a sense of themselves, their world and their place in it.

The subject English focuses on the study of both literary texts and non-literary texts, developing students as independent, innovative and creative learners and thinkers who appreciate the aesthetic use of language, analyse perspectives and evidence, and challenge ideas and interpretations through the analysis and creation of varied texts.

Students have opportunities to engage with language and texts through a range of teaching and learning experiences to foster:

• skills to communicate effectively in Standard Australian English for the purposes of responding to and creating literary and non-literary texts
• skills to make choices about generic structures, language, textual features and technologies for participating actively in literary analysis and the creation of texts in a range of modes, mediums and forms, for a variety of purposes and audiences
• enjoyment and appreciation of literary and non-literary texts, the aesthetic use of language, and style
• creative thinking and imagination, by exploring how literary and non-literary texts shape perceptions of the world and enable us to enter the worlds of others
• critical exploration of ways in which literary and non-literary texts may reflect or challenge social and cultural ways of thinking and influence audiences
• empathy for others and appreciation of different perspectives through studying a range of literary and non-literary texts from diverse cultures and periods, including Australian texts by Aboriginal writers and/or Torres Strait Islander writers.

Syllabus objectives

The syllabus objectives outline what students have the opportunity to learn.

1. Use patterns and conventions of genres to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.

When students use patterns and conventions of genres, they apply knowledge and understanding of them to purposefully construct texts by combining elements to form a coherent whole. In their development of texts, students demonstrate understanding of genres and their features as influenced by cultural contexts and social situations.

2. Establish and maintain roles of the writer/speaker/designer and relationships with audiences.

When students establish and maintain roles of the writer/speaker/designer and relationships with audiences, they set up and sustain a purposeful relationship within a specific context to create a rapport with, position, or have a particular influence over, the audience. Students demonstrate their understanding of the relationship between context, audience and purpose of a text by making decisions about language, subject matter, register and mode-appropriate features.

3. Create and analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places.

When students create perspectives and representations, they develop points of view and devise textual constructions of concepts, identities, times and places. When students analyse perspectives and representations, they examine in detail how these construct meaning in texts.

4. Make use of and analyse the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions.

When students create texts that make use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and shape meaning, they manipulate these to invite audiences to take up positions. When students analyse, they examine in detail the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and explore how these shape meaning and invite audiences to take up positions.

5. Use aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve purposes and analyse their effects in texts.

When students use aesthetic features and stylistic devices (the aspects of texts that prompt emotional and critical reactions) to achieve purposes, they apply their knowledge and understanding of these to express a thought, feeling, idea or viewpoint to purposefully invite an audience to respond in a particular way. When students analyse the effects of aesthetic features and stylistic devices in texts, they examine the effects of those features and devices in detail to explore how they shape meaning and invite audiences to respond in particular ways.

6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.

When students select subject matter, they make purposeful choices about the inclusion of material to support perspectives. When students synthesise, they combine elements to construct coherent texts.

7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.

When students organise subject matter, they arrange material systematically and purposefully, e.g. by paragraphing. When students sequence subject matter, they place information in a continuous or connected manner to achieve particular purposes.

8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.

When students use cohesive devices, they apply mode-appropriate language structures to emphasise and develop ideas, and connect parts of texts.

9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.

When students make language choices, they make decisions about the selection of vocabulary that is appropriate to particular purposes and contexts.

10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes.

When students use grammar, they apply knowledge of morphology and syntax to create and express meaning in texts. When students use language structures, they systematically arrange words, phrases, clauses and sentences to express meaning in texts for particular purposes.

11. Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

When students use mode-appropriate features, they select written, spoken, visual, gestural or digital features appropriate to the text type to express meaning in texts for particular purposes.

Mode-appropriate features include:

• written, e.g. conventional spelling and punctuation
• spoken, e.g. pronunciation, phrasing and pausing, audibility and clarity, volume, pace, silence
• gestural, e.g. proximity, stance, movement
• complementary, including digital features such as graphics, still and moving images, design elements, music and sound effects.

Designing a course of study in English

Syllabuses are designed for teachers to make professional decisions to tailor curriculum and assessment design and delivery to suit their school context and the goals, aspirations and abilities of their students within the parameters of Queensland’s senior phase of learning.

The syllabus is used by teachers to develop curriculum for their school context. The term course of study describes the unique curriculum and assessment that students engage with in each school context. A course of study is the product of a series of decisions made by a school to select, organise and contextualise subject matter, integrate complementary and important learning, and create assessment tasks in accordance with syllabus specifications.

It is encouraged that, where possible, a course of study is designed such that teaching, learning and assessment activities are integrated and enlivened in an authentic setting.

Course structure

English is a General senior syllabus. It contains four QCAA-developed units from which schools develop their course of study.

Each unit has been developed with a notional time of 55 hours of teaching and learning, including assessment.

Students should complete Unit 1 and Unit 2 before beginning Units 3 and 4. Units 3 and 4 are studied as a pair.

More information about the requirements for administering senior syllabuses is available in the ‘Queensland curriculum’ section of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook.

Curriculum

Senior syllabuses set out only what is essential while being flexible so teachers can make curriculum decisions to suit their students, school context, resources and expertise.

Within the requirements set out in this syllabus and the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook, schools have autonomy to decide:

• how and when subject matter is delivered
• how, when and why learning experiences are developed, and the context in which learning occurs
• how opportunities are provided in the course of study for explicit and integrated teaching and learning of complementary skills.

These decisions allow teachers to develop a course of study that is rich, engaging and relevant for their students.

Assessment

Senior syllabuses set out only what is essential while being flexible so teachers can make assessment decisions to suit their students, school context, resources and expertise.

General senior syllabuses contain assessment specifications and conditions for the assessment instruments that must be implemented with Units 3 and 4. These specifications and conditions ensure comparability, equity and validity in assessment.

Within the requirements set out in this syllabus and the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook, schools have autonomy to decide:

• specific assessment task details
• assessment contexts to suit available resources
• how the assessment task will be integrated with teaching and learning activities
• how authentic the task will be.

In Unit 1 and Unit 2, schools:

• develop at least two but no more than four assessments
• complete at least one assessment for each unit
• ensure that each unit objective is assessed at least once.

In Units 3 and 4, schools develop three assessments using the assessment specifications and conditions provided in the syllabus.

More information about assessment in senior syllabuses is available in ‘The assessment system’ section of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook.

Subject matter

Each unit contains a unit description, unit objectives and subject matter. Subject matter is the body of information, mental procedures and psychomotor procedures (see Marzano & Kendall 2007, 2008) that are necessary for students’ learning and engagement with the subject. Subject matter itself is not the specification of learning experiences but provides the basis for the design of student learning experiences.

Subject matter has a direct relationship with the unit objectives and provides statements of learning that have been constructed in a similar way to objectives.

Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives

The QCAA is committed to reconciliation. As part of its commitment, the QCAA affirms that:

• Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first Australians, and have the oldest living cultures in human history
• Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples have strong cultural traditions and speak diverse languages and dialects, other than Standard Australian English
• teaching and learning in Queensland schools should provide opportunities for students to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the perspectives of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• positive outcomes for Aboriginal students and Torres Strait Islander students are supported by successfully embedding Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives across planning, teaching and assessing student achievement.

Guidelines about Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and resources for teaching are available at www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/k-12-policies/aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-perspectives.

Where appropriate, Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives have been embedded in the subject matter.

Complementary skills

Opportunities for the development of complementary skills have been embedded throughout subject matter. These skills, which overlap and interact with syllabus subject matter, are derived from current education, industry and community expectations and encompass the knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviours and dispositions that will help students live and work successfully in the 21st century.

These complementary skills are:

• literacy — the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions about language and texts essential for understanding and conveying English language content
• numeracy — the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students need to use mathematics in a wide range of situations, to recognise and understand the role of mathematics in the world, and to develop the dispositions and capacities to use mathematical knowledge and skills purposefully
• 21st century skills — the attributes and skills students need to prepare them for higher education, work, and engagement in a complex and rapidly changing world. These skills include critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, collaboration and teamwork, personal and social skills, and digital literacy. The explanations of associated skills are available at www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/senior-subjects/general-subjects/21st-century-skills.

It is expected that aspects of literacy, numeracy and 21st century skills will be developed by engaging in the learning outlined in this syllabus. Teachers may choose to create additional explicit and intentional opportunities for the development of these skills as they design the course of study.

Additional subject-specific information

Additional subject-specific information has been included to support and inform the development of a course of study.

Pedagogical and conceptual framework

Education in the discipline of English offers students ways of thinking about, creating and engaging with texts, and how they represent the world and human experience. The framework for the subject’s interrelated objectives is informed by an understanding of the relationships between language, text, purpose, context and audience, and how these relationships shape meaning and perspectives.

Students engage critically and creatively with a variety of texts, taking into account the ways:

• language and structural choices shape perspectives to achieve particular effects
• ideas, attitudes and perspectives are represented in texts, and the effects of these representations on readers, viewers and listeners
• that meanings in texts are shaped by purpose, cultural contexts and social situations
• texts position readers, viewers and listeners.

All senior secondary English subjects aim to develop students’ critical and creative thinking, both independently and collaboratively, and their capacity to understand and contest complex and challenging ideas in order to form their own interpretations and perspectives, and to understand the interpretations and perspectives of others.

Text selection

Teachers must give students opportunities to engage with a wide range of texts to encourage their development as language learners and users. Students are encouraged to read widely across the course.

There must be a range and balance in the texts that students read, listen to and view. Courses should include texts from different times, places and cultures, including texts that aim to develop in all students an awareness of, interest in, and respect for the literary traditions and expressions of other nations in the Asia–Pacific region. Australian texts, including texts by Aboriginal writers and/or Torres Strait Islander writers, must be included across the course of study and within each unit pair of the course. At least one of the Australian texts studied over the four units of the course must be by an Aboriginal writer or Torres Strait Islander writer. Schools may include texts translated from other languages.

The classification of texts as ‘literary’ changes over time and across cultural contexts, and texts considered non-literary in some contexts are considered literary in other contexts. For this reason, the term ‘literary’ as used in this English syllabus refers to a way of reading texts rather than a set of qualities in a text that exist independently of how a text is read. The practice of reading a text as a literary text involves a focus on:

• the use of aesthetic features in a text — to read a text as literary is to focus on the aesthetic dimensions of language used in the text. An appreciation of literary texts involves analysing how authors and creators of texts have manipulated aesthetic features of language to construct meaning and to create particular emotional and critical effects in readers and viewers
• the text’s capacity to engage readers or viewers in critical reflection — to read a text as literary is to focus on how the text positions and encourages readers to engage in critical reflection. When a text is read as literature, it invokes a wide range of critical responses and allows for a wide range of creative interpretations. In the subject English, students engage in considering how literary texts present representations and perspectives, and how they reflect, reinforce or challenge particular cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs in a range of different contexts.

Units 1 and 2

Across Units 1 and 2, students must study at least three texts. The selection must include three of the following four categories:

• one complete play
• one complete prose text (novel or non-fiction or a collection of short stories)
• a selection of poetry (at least five poems)
• a multimodal text (film, television program, documentary, multimedia).

At least one of the texts studied must be Australian.

Other types of texts that students could study include:

• essays
• interpretations of literary texts
• speeches
• mass media texts and social media texts, such as news and current affairs, advertising, YouTube, social commentary, blogs, vlogs, podcasts
• popular culture texts
• journal and feature articles
• everyday texts of work, family and community life
• live performances
• graphic novels and digital stories.

Units 3 and 4

Across Units 3 and 4, students must study at least four texts from the current prescribed text list. The selection must include three of the following four categories:

• one complete play
• one complete prose text (novel or non-fiction or a collection of short stories)
• a selection of poetry (at least five poems)
• a multimodal text (film, television program, documentary)

Other types of texts that students could study include:

• essays
• interpretations of literary texts
• speeches
• mass media texts and social media texts, such as news and current affairs, advertising, YouTube, social commentary, blogs, vlogs, podcasts
• popular culture texts
• journal and feature articles
• live performances
• graphic novels and digital stories.

Unit 3 must include a study of media texts.

A text studied in Unit 3 or Unit 4 cannot be studied in Unit 1 or Unit 2 of this syllabus, or in any units in the General syllabus of Literature.

Aesthetic features and stylistic devices

Engaging with aesthetic texts ‘allows us to rehearse different ways of seeing the world and different emotional reactions’ (Misson & Morgan 2006, p. 136). Such engagement is crucial for developing empathy.

The aesthetic is far more than that which is simply ‘beautiful’ in a text. It refers to the complex relationship between perception and sensation, and encompasses a wide range of emotional and critical responses to texts.

Aesthetic features and stylistic devices refer to those aspects of texts that prompt emotional and critical reactions. As such, the aesthetic is closely tied to reader/audience positioning. Aesthetic features and stylistic devices may draw upon and interplay with textual features already used for other purposes. These features and devices are interrelated and overlapping, not discrete parts of the aesthetic dimension.

The experience of reading aesthetic texts and the experience of writing them are closely interrelated. The more students engage with the aesthetic dimension of texts, the more they learn to read with their own writing in mind, and write with their reader in mind.

Creators of aesthetic texts, including students as writers, engage in a creative process when crafting texts. This process involves manipulating, refining, and experimenting with language choices and text structures to produce more successful texts.

Style refers to the distinctive ways in which aspects of texts are arranged, the ways particular techniques and forms have been used to create an imaginative reality, and how these arrangements, techniques and forms affect the reading or viewing experience of an audience.

Style can distinguish the work of individual writers, the work of a particular period, or works of a particular genre or type of text.

Examples of aesthetic features include:

• poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, symbolism
• written devices such as imagery, irony, metaphor, motif, personification, representation, symbolism
• spoken devices such as imagery, motif, rhetoric, symbolism
• film devices such as costuming, editing, imagery, motif, photography, screenplay, symbolism
• dramatic devices such as costuming, dialogue, motif, style, symbolism.

Stylistic devices can be any literary device or technique, such as:

• text structures
• juxtaposition, e.g. of two contrasting settings
• approaches to narration
• the use of narrative viewpoint
• approaches to characterisation
• use of figurative devices
• use of rhetorical devices, e.g. repetition
• control of sentence length and form
• literary patterns and variations
• sound devices
• visual devices.

Analytical essay

The central purpose of an analytical essay in English is to inform the reader of an interpretation of a literary text. This analysis is written in a formal tone, includes relevant literary terminology and follows appropriate academic conventions. The audience of an analytical essay is an educated reader familiar with the literary text being discussed. Like any genre, there are many valid ways to respond in an analytical essay.

An analytical essay is structured around a thesis, which is a statement of the central argument of an essay. This thesis presents an interpretation of a literary text or texts. It is supported by arguments and substantiated by relevant evidence, in the form of discussion, exploration and examination of a literary text.

As the focus of an analytical essay is an interpretation of a literary text, the majority of supporting evidence is comprised of references to this text.

Key terminology

Key terms in this syllabus include:

• attitude: an internalised way of thinking about a situation, idea, character or social group; a position revealed in a manner towards something or someone
• audience: in English, the recipients of a text; the group of readers, listeners or viewers that the writer, designer, filmmaker or speaker is addressing; audience includes students in the classroom, an individual, the wider community, review writers, critics and the implied audience
• belief: that which is believed; an accepted opinion; a tenet or tenets; something an individual or group of people thinks is true
• cohesive devices: features of vocabulary, syntax and grammar that bind different parts of a text together; examples include connectives, ellipses, synonyms; in multimodal texts examples include establishing shots in films and icons for links on webpages
• context: the environment in which a text is responded to or created; context can include the general social, historical and cultural conditions in which a text is responded to and created (the context of culture) or the specific features of its immediate social environment (context of situation)
• concept: in English, a concept is an idea elaborated within a text; different concepts may be attributed to the same text
• cultural assumptions: ideas, beliefs or attitudes about such things as gender, religion, ethnicity, youth, age, disability, sexuality, social class and work that are taken for granted as being part of the fabric of the social practices of a particular culture; cultural assumptions underpin texts and can be used to position audiences
• genre: the categories into which texts are grouped; the term has a complex history within literary and linguistic theory and is often used to distinguish texts on the basis of, e.g. their subject matter (detective fiction, romance, science fiction, fantasy fiction) and form and structure (poetry, novels, short stories); genres are not static but change in response to a range of factors, such as social context, purpose and experimentation; some texts are hybridised or multigeneric
• language features: linguistic elements that support meaning, e.g. sentence structure, noun group/phrase, vocabulary, punctuation, figurative language; choices in language features and text structures together define a type of text and shape its meaning; these choices vary according to the purpose of a text, its subject matter, audience, and mode or medium of production
• mode: a method of communication chosen as the way to transmit a message; these may be written, spoken, visual or auditory; in combination, these methods form multimodal texts
• mode-appropriate features:
  • written, e.g. conventional spelling and punctuation
  • spoken, e.g. pronunciation, phrasing and pausing, audibility and clarity, volume, pace, silence
  • gestural, e.g. proximity, stance, movement
  • complementary, including digital features such as graphics, still and moving images, design elements, music and sound effects
• patterns and conventions: a genre’s distinguishing structures, features and patterns that relate to context, purpose and audience
• perspective: in English, the way a reader/viewer is positioned by a text, or how a particular ideology is embedded in a text, e.g. a feminist perspective; a point of view or way of regarding/thinking about situations, facts and texts
• positioning: how texts influence responders to read in certain ways; responders are positioned or invited to construct particular meanings in relation to the characters, the arguments, or the groups in a text; a selection of techniques of composition influencing the responder to adopt a particular point of view and interpret a text in a particular way; composers position responders by selectively using detail or argument, by carefully shaping focus and emphasis and by choosing language and other textual features that promote a particular interpretation and reaction
• register: the use of language and detail in a text appropriate for its purpose, audience and context; a register suited to one kind of text may be inappropriate in another; the composer makes deliberate choices when constructing a text in relation to the language, subject matter, the role and relationship with the audience, e.g. the degree of formality or informality for a particular purpose or in a particular social situation
• representation: textual constructions that give shape to ways of thinking about or acting in the world; texts re-present concepts, identities, times and places, underpinned by the cultural assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, values or world view of the writer, shaper, speaker/signer, designer (and of the reader, viewer, listener)
• springboard for a response: to use a perspective, representation, aspect or element within a text (e.g. attitude, belief, character, concept, cultural assumption, idea, identity, value in a film/novel/poem) in creating another text
• text structures: the ways in which information is organised in different types of texts (e.g. layout, heading, lead, subheadings, overviews, introductory and concluding paragraphs, sequencing, topic sentences, cause and effect); choices in text structures and language features together define a text type and shape its meaning; examples of text structures in literary texts include sonnets, monologues and hypertext
• values: characteristics, qualities, philosophical and emotional stances, e.g. moral principles or standards, often shared with others in a cultural group; attributions of worth

Reporting

General information about determining and reporting results for senior syllabuses is provided in the ‘Determining and reporting results’ section of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook.

Reporting standards

Reporting standards are summary statements that describe typical performance at each of the five levels (A–E).

A

The student, in responding to and creating texts, demonstrates discerning application of knowledge of the relationships between text, context, audience and purpose through analysis and creation of perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts; analysis and use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions; and analysis and use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve particular effects. The student demonstrates discerning organisation and development of texts for purpose, audience and context through use of genres and the role of writer/speaker/designer to achieve consistently controlled relationships with audiences in a variety of cultural contexts and social situations; selection, synthesis, organisation and sequencing of subject matter to support perspectives, including use of mode-appropriate cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.

The student demonstrates discerning use of textual features for purpose, audience and context through combination of a range of grammatically accurate/appropriate language structures and language choices, including aesthetic and stylistic, to achieve particular purposes; and use of mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

B

The student, in responding to and creating texts, demonstrates effective application of knowledge of the relationships between text, context, audience and purpose through analysis and creation of perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts; analysis and use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions; and analysis and use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve particular effects.

The student demonstrates effective organisation and development of texts for purpose, audience and context through use of genres and the role of writer/speaker/designer to achieve control over relationships with audiences in a variety of cultural contexts and social situations; selection, synthesis, organisation and sequencing of subject matter to support perspectives, including use of mode-appropriate cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.

The student demonstrates effective use of textual features for purpose, audience and context through combination of a range of grammatically accurate/appropriate language structures and language choices, including aesthetic and stylistic, to achieve particular purposes; and use of mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

C

The student, in responding to and creating texts, demonstrates suitable application of knowledge of the relationships between text, context, audience and purpose through analysis and creation of perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts; analysis and use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions; and analysis and use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve particular effects.

The student demonstrates suitable organisation and development of texts for purpose, audience and context through use of genres and the role of writer/speaker/designer to establish and maintain relationships with audiences in a variety of cultural contexts and social situations; selection, synthesis, organisation and sequencing of subject matter to support perspectives, including use of mode-appropriate cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.

The student demonstrates suitable use of textual features for purpose, audience and context through combination of a range of mostly grammatically accurate/appropriate language structures and language choices, including aesthetic and stylistic, to achieve particular purposes; and use of mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

D

The student, in responding to and creating texts, demonstrates a superficial application of knowledge of the relationships between text, context, audience and purpose through analysis and creation of perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts; analysis and some use of ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions; and analysis and some use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices.

The student demonstrates inconsistency in organisation and development of texts for purpose, audience and context through use of genres and the role of writer/speaker/designer to establish relationships with audiences in a variety of cultural contexts and social situations; selection of subject matter and organisation and sequencing of subject matter to support perspectives, including some use of mode-appropriate cohesive devices to connect parts of texts.

The student demonstrates inconsistency in use of textual features for purpose, audience and context through grammar, language structures and language choices, including some aesthetic and stylistic, and use of mode-appropriate features.

E

The student, in responding to and creating texts, demonstrates fragmented application of knowledge of the relationships between text, context, audience and purpose through identification and creation of perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts; and identification of the ways attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts.

The student demonstrates fragmented organisation and development of texts for purpose, audience and context through use of genres and the role of writer/speaker/designer; selection and sequencing of subject matter; and some connections between parts of texts.

The student demonstrates fragmented use of textual features through grammar, language structures and language choices, and mode-appropriate features.

Determining and reporting results

Unit 1 and Unit 2

Schools make judgments on individual assessment instruments using a method determined by the school. They may use the reporting standards or develop an instrument-specific marking guide (ISMG). Marks are not required for determining a unit result for reporting to the QCAA.

The unit assessment program comprises the assessment instrument/s designed by the school to allow the students to demonstrate the unit objectives. The unit judgment of A–E is made using reporting standards.

Schools report student results for Unit 1 and Unit 2 to the QCAA as satisfactory (S) or unsatisfactory (U). Where appropriate, schools may also report a not rated (NR).

Units 3 and 4

Schools mark each of the three internal assessment instruments implemented in Units 3 and 4 using ISMGs.

Schools report a provisional mark by criterion to the QCAA for each internal assessment.

Once confirmed by the QCAA, these results will be combined with the result of the external assessment developed and marked by the QCAA.

The QCAA uses these results to determine each student’s subject result as a mark out of 100 and as an A–E.

Units

Unit 1: Perspectives and texts

In Unit 1, students explore individual and/or collective experiences and perspectives of the world through engaging with a variety of texts in a range of contexts. They examine how perspectives and representations of concepts, identities and/or groups are constructed through textual choices such as language, medium, style and text structures. This unit allows students to explore how meaning is shaped through the relationships between language, text, purpose, context and audience. Students respond to a variety of non-literary texts and literary texts, and create texts of their own for a variety of purposes and audiences.

In responding to texts, students analyse the perspectives and representations of concepts, identities and/or groups in texts and how these shape their own and others’ ideas and perspectives. Analysis may include, for example:

• examining ways in which concepts, identities and/or groups are reported differently in the media and how these are represented to position readers and viewers
• exploring how writers convey perspectives and representations through textual structures, conventions, style and language, and how the meaning of a text is affected by the contexts in which it is created and received
• examining ways perspectives and representations are conveyed through argument, rhetoric, tone, register, style and language to influence audiences.

In creating texts, students demonstrate their understanding of the relationships between text, purpose, context and audience by purposefully shaping perspectives and representations of concepts, identities/and or groups. Students experiment with, and make choices about, textual structures, medium, conventions and language to develop voice and style and position audiences.

Unit objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of genres to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
2. Establish and maintain roles of the writer/speaker/designer and relationships with audiences.
3. Create and/or analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts.
4. Make use of, in their own texts, the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions, and/or analyse these ways in texts created by others.
5. Use aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve purposes and/or analyse their effects in texts.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes in written, spoken and/or multimodal texts.
11. Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

Subject matter

Texts in contexts

• Read, listen to and view a range of texts to explore how the personal, social, historical, and cultural contexts in which these texts are produced influence their meaning.
• Investigate the relationships between language, text, purpose, audience and context by exploring how texts create various representations of human experience within individual and/or collective contexts.
• Explore the ways texts establish and maintain relationships with specific audiences, including public audiences, to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
• Explore the intertextual relationships among texts to identify how and why texts conform to conventions of particular genres or modes, such as life-writing, poetry, reflective texts, documentaries, media texts and speeches.
• Consider how patterns and conventions of genres, such as text structures, language features and stylistic choices, are used in different types of texts.

Language and textual analysis

• Analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities and groups in a variety of texts, e.g. by exploring how representations of individuals are shaped within autobiographical and biographical texts or by exploring how representations of groups, such as teenagers or minority groups, are constructed in media texts.
• Explore how texts invite readers/viewers to take up positions, e.g. by analysing how documentaries use editing, music, visuals, juxtaposition etc. to invite audiences to support the perspectives offered.
• Explore how different cultural assumptions, values, attitudes and beliefs underpin texts.
• Examine the ways generic patterns, language features, text structures and conventions communicate perspectives and representations.
• Develop knowledge and understanding of strategies for convincing argument and explore sites of their use and application, including various modes such as public debate, public forums, online publications, digital texts and graphic texts.
• Identify and consider the use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices and their effects in texts.
• Analyse how language choices are used for different purposes and contexts.
• Question the assumptions and values in texts, e.g. assumptions made about gender or teenagers in advertising texts.
• Identify omissions, inclusions, emphases and marginalisation in texts.

Responding to and creating texts

• Consider how personal responses to texts are shaped by elements of an individual’s contexts, e.g. locality, family background, beliefs, experiences, age, psychology, culture.
• Discuss how texts may be read in different ways.
• Analyse examples of the texts to be produced, e.g. imaginative, persuasive or analytical texts, e.g. focusing on the use of rhetoric, style and tone, for the specified audience.
• Use appropriate language, aesthetic features and stylistic devices to sustain a perspective.
• Synthesise subject matter and substantiate their own responses using textual evidence.
• Use cohesive devices to develop and emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.
• Use appropriate form, content, style and tone for different purposes and audiences in real and imagined contexts.
• Use text structures, grammar and language features related to specific genres for particular effects.
• Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.
• Participate in teacher-modelled, guided, shared and independent construction of texts in a variety of modes and classroom contexts.
• Use strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading to produce appropriately sequenced and coherent texts.
• Reflect on and respond to feedback.

Unit 2: Texts and culture

In Unit 2, students explore cultural experiences of the world through engaging with a variety of texts. Building on Unit 1, students develop their understanding of how relationships between language, text, purpose, context and audience shape meaning and cultural perspectives. By engaging with a variety of texts, including Australian texts, students examine the relationship between language and identity, the effect of textual choices and the ways in which these choices position audiences for particular purposes, revealing attitudes, values and beliefs. Students respond to and create imaginative and analytical texts of their own.

In responding to texts, students analyse the relationship between language, representation, identity and cultural context, uncovering cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs that underpin texts.

In creating texts, students purposefully shape perspectives and representations that reveal certain cultural attitudes, values and beliefs.

Unit objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of genres to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
2. Establish and maintain roles of the writer/speaker/designer and relationships with audiences.
3. Create and/or analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places through an exploration of texts and culture.
4. Make use of, in their own texts, the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions, and/or analyse these ways in texts created by others.
5. Use aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve purposes and/or analyse their effects in texts.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes in written, spoken and/or multimodal texts.
11. Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

Subject matter

Texts in contexts

• Read, listen to and view a range of texts, including Australian texts, to explore how the personal, social, historical, authorial and cultural contexts in which these texts are produced influence their meaning.
• Investigate the relationships between language, text, purpose, audience and context by exploring how texts create various representations of identity within cultural contexts.
• Explore the ways texts and their producers establish and maintain roles and relationships with audiences to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
• Consider how various texts reflect or challenge social and cultural perspectives.
• Identify how texts conform to or challenge the conventions of particular genres or modes, such as poetry, short stories, plays, television programs or film, novels.
• Consider how the patterns and conventions of genres have been challenged, and changed over time.
• Identify and explore how intertextual links between texts contribute to meaning-making.

Language and textual analysis

• Analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in texts, e.g. by examining how cultural identity is constructed in various texts or by comparing how similar concepts are treated in different texts.
• Explore how and why texts invite readers/viewers to take up positions, e.g. by analysing how narrative texts employ characterisation, aesthetic use of language and point of view to invite audiences to see characters and issues in particular ways.
• Explore how different cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs about cultural identity underpin texts.
• Examine the ways generic patterns, language features, text structures and conventions communicate perspectives and representations.
• Identify and examine the use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices and their effects in texts.
• Explore how meaning changes when texts are transformed into a different genre or medium.
• Analyse how language choices are used for different purposes and contexts.
• Question the assumptions and values in texts, e.g. assumptions made about gender, class, age and culture in literary texts.
• Examine omissions, inclusions, emphases, and privileged and marginalised perspectives in texts.

Responding to and creating texts

• Consider how personal responses to texts are shaped by elements of an individual’s contexts, e.g. locality, family background, beliefs, experiences, psychology, culture.
• Explore new forms of texts made available through emerging technologies and experiment with multimedia and hybrid texts for particular purposes, e.g. digital stories and online, collaborative approaches to narrative.
• Discuss different readings of texts and why texts may be read in different ways.
• Analyse examples of texts to be produced, such as persuasive, imaginative and/or analytical texts.
• Use appropriate language, aesthetic features and stylistic devices to sustain a perspective.
• Synthesise subject matter and substantiate their own responses using textual evidence.
• Use cohesive devices to develop and emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.
• Use and experiment with appropriate form, content, style and tone for different purposes and audiences in real and imagined contexts.
• Use and experiment with text structures, grammar and language features related to specific genres for particular effects.
• Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.
• Participate in teacher-modelled, guided, shared and independent construction of texts in a variety of modes and classroom contexts.
• Use strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading to produce appropriately sequenced and coherent texts.
• Reflect on and respond to feedback.

Unit 3: Textual connections

In Unit 3, students explore connections between texts by examining representations of the same concepts and issues in different texts. In doing so, they consider how the textual constructions of the same concepts and issues in different texts resonate, relate to, and clash with one another, and their own perspectives. By examining texts in relation to other texts, students are offered opportunities to explore how connections between texts contribute to meaning-making. They revisit and build on understandings from Units 1 and 2 about how meaning and perspectives are shaped by the relationships between language, purpose, text, context and audience.

The unit comprises two topics that may be studied in either order:

• Topic 1: Conversations about issues in texts
• Topic 2: Conversations about concepts in texts.

Unit objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of genres to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations involving public audiences.
2. Establish and maintain roles of the writer/speaker/designer and relationships with a range of audiences, including public audiences.
3. Create and analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places through an exploration of textual connections.
4. Make use of, in their own texts, the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions, and analyse these ways in texts created by others.
5. Use aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve particular purposes and analyse their effects in a range of texts.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts for public audiences.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes.
11. Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

Subject matter

Topic 1: Conversations about issues in texts

Students will analyse different perspectives by examining representations of the same issue in different texts. Students will explore how texts position readers and viewers, and develop their capacity to analyse and contest complex and challenging ideas and the assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpinning them. They will focus on how the power of language and argument are used to construct particular perspectives of similar issues in different texts to prepare for the construction of their own persuasive argument in relation to an issue. Students will produce a variety of persuasive texts of their own and the unit will culminate in a spoken persuasive text.

Texts in contexts

• Read, listen to and view a range of different texts that represent the same social issues to explore how the personal, social, historical and cultural contexts in which these texts are produced influence their meaning.
• Investigate the relationships between purpose, audience, language and meaning by exploring how texts create various representations of issues.
• Explore the ways texts establish and maintain relationships with audiences to invite them to accept particular perspectives within cultural contexts and social situations.
• Investigate the ways media texts from around the world, such as news, television programs, online publications, documentaries, films, social media, graphic texts, websites, interviews with public figures, music/lyrics, poetry have the power to reflect or challenge social and cultural perspectives and how this is achieved.
• Consider how the patterns and conventions of genres can be challenged, manipulated and changed over time and the impacts on audiences.
• Develop knowledge and understanding of strategies for convincing argument, rhetoric, and sites of their use and application, including various modes such as public debate, public forums, online publications, digital texts and graphic texts.
• Investigate the changing nature of the media and emerging technologies globally and the influence on shaping and shifting understandings and ideas.
• Explore how texts about social issues are dialogic in the manner in which they connect to one another.

Language and textual analysis

• Analyse how representations of similar concepts, identities, times and places are constructed in different texts to position audiences in relation to particular points of view.
• Explore how and why texts invite readers/viewers to take up positions about topical issues, events and/or personalities, e.g. by comparing and contrasting the way the same issue, event or individual might be reported in different media texts and the effects of inclusions and omissions.
• Examine the ways generic patterns, choice of medium, language features and choices, text structures and conventions construct perspectives and representations and discuss the underpinning cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs.
• Analyse and compare strategies for argument, persuasive/stylistic features and language to construct varying perspectives and how these strengthen or weaken the authority of argument depending on how they are used.
• Analyse the ways in which language structures, such as modality, can be used to affect power relationships among individuals.
• Question the assumptions and values in texts, e.g. assumptions about gender, class, culture, religion and history in texts about topical issues.
• Examine omissions, inclusions, emphases, privileged and marginalised perspectives in texts designed to influence audiences.

Responding to and creating texts

• Explore how responses to texts are shaped by different cultural contexts, e.g. locality, family background, beliefs, experiences, age, psychology, culture.
• Analyse varied examples of argumentative/persuasive spoken texts such as maiden speeches, political speeches, debates, eulogies about public figures.
• Experiment with spoken, persuasive and stylistic devices and gestural features (including multimodal/digital/graphic, if relevant) persuasive and stylistic devices in order to develop their own style.
• Engage in speaking and listening activities to further develop capacity in oral communication for specific contexts.
• Synthesise subject matter and substantiate their own responses using evidence.
• Use cohesive devices to develop and emphasise ideas and connect parts of persuasive texts.
• Experiment with strategies for argument and rhetoric, text structures, grammar and language features, form, content, style and tone for persuasive effects.
• Participate in teacher-modelled, guided, shared and independent construction of texts in a variety of modes and classroom contexts.
• Develop editorial independence by using strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading to produce appropriately sequenced and coherent texts.
• Reflect on and respond to feedback.

Topic 2: Conversations about concepts in texts

This topic involves the examination of two different types of texts, e.g. a novel and a film, a novel and a play, a documentary and a play, a speech and a novel, a selection of poetry and a film, a film and a play, a selection of poetry and a novel.

Study in this unit will include two texts that are either:

• connected by the representation of a concept, identity, time or place, or
• transformations or adaptations of other texts, such as reimagined literary texts.

In responding to two texts, students explore and discuss the personal, philosophical, social, political and/or cultural significance of representations in different texts and the cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpinning them. Students are given opportunities to add to ongoing, informed and public ‘conversations’ about literary texts.

Texts in contexts

• Read, listen to and view a range of texts from diverse times and places to explore how the personal, social, historical and cultural contexts in which these texts are produced influence their meaning.
• Investigate the relationships between purpose, audience, language and meaning by exploring how different texts create contrasting representations of concepts, identities, times and places.
• Explore the ways different texts establish and maintain relationships with audiences in different ways to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
• Investigate the various ways different texts have the power to reflect or challenge social and cultural perspectives.
• Identify how literary texts from diverse perspectives conform to or challenge the conventions of particular genres or modes.
• Consider how the patterns and conventions of genres can be challenged, manipulated and changed over time.
• Explore various ways that intertextual links among texts contribute to meaning-making.

Language and textual analysis

• Analyse and interpret how representations of concepts, identities, times and places are constructed in different contexts, e.g. by analysing how similar concepts (such as poverty, working life, education, gender, class) are treated in different texts.
• Analyse how different cultural assumptions, values, attitudes and beliefs underpin texts to better understand and empathise with the worlds of others.
• Examine the ways generic patterns, language features, text structures and conventions communicate perspectives and representations and how these are used in different texts for different purposes.
• Identify and examine the use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices and their effects on one’s own interpretation of (and aesthetic engagement with) a text. For example, students may consider how authors have used language choices, text structures or other stylistic features to position readers to engage emotionally or critically with the text.
• Analyse how language choices are used in different cultural contexts and social situations and how language is used differently in different texts for particular purposes.
• Question the assumptions and values in texts (e.g. assumptions about gender, class, culture, religion and history) in texts from diverse cultural contexts, particularly those that have been adapted from/referred to in another text.
• Examine omissions, inclusions, emphases, and privileged and marginalised perspectives in different texts and their effects.

Responding to and creating texts

• Explore how responses to texts may be shaped by different cultural contexts, e.g. locality, family background, beliefs, experiences, age, psychology, culture.
• Investigate how a reader’s understanding and interpretation of one text is expanded and deepened when considered in relation to another text/other texts.
• Discuss different readings of texts and how responses to texts may change over time and in different cultural contexts, e.g. students reread a text they have read when younger and discuss how and why their reading may have changed.
• Engage with various examples of the written text for a public audience that students will produce to enable experimenting with language, aesthetic features and stylistic devices to develop their own writing style, to sustain their perspective in the response, and to engage their reader in a ‘conversation’ about the texts.
• Synthesise subject matter and substantiate their own responses using textual evidence.
• Use cohesive devices to develop and emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts.
• Experiment with appropriate form, content, style and tone for different purposes and audiences in real and imagined contexts.
• Experiment with relevant text structures, grammar and language features to further refine one’s own style.
• Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.
• Participate in teacher-modelled, guided, shared and independent construction of texts in a variety of modes and classroom contexts.
• Develop editorial independence by using strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading to produce appropriately sequenced and coherent texts.
• Reflect on and respond to feedback.

Unit 4: Close study of literary texts

In Unit 4, students explore the world and human experience by engaging with literary texts from diverse times and places. They explore how these texts build a shared understanding of the human experience and through this become significant to a culture. This unit includes the close study of literary texts to allow students to extend their experience of the world.

The unit comprises two topics:

• Topic 1: Creative responses to literary texts
• Topic 2: Critical responses to literary texts.

Unit objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of imaginative and analytical genres to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
2. Establish and maintain roles of writer/speaker/designer and relationships with audiences.
3. Create perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places in their own imaginative texts, and analyse these in literary texts created by others.
4. Make use of, in their own imaginative texts, the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions, and analyse these ways in literary texts created by others.
5. Use aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve purposes in imaginative texts and analyse their effects in literary texts.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives in imaginative and analytical texts.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve imaginative and analytical purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of imaginative and analytical texts.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes.
11. Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

Subject matter

Topic 1: Creative responses to literary texts

By engaging with literary texts, students experiment with innovative and imaginative use of language, style and textual elements in order to create their own imaginative texts that promote emotional and critical reactions in readers. In creative responses, students challenge ideas and conventions and reimagine perspectives by applying their own knowledge of literary text structures and styles to shape their own representations. Literary texts appropriate to the focus of this topic include short stories, poetry, a novel or non-fiction text, a play, multimodal texts, such as film or television programs.

Texts in contexts

• Read, listen to and view a range of literary texts to explore how the personal, social, historical, authorial and cultural contexts in which these texts are produced influence their meaning.
• Investigate the relationships between purpose, audience, language and meaning by exploring how texts create various representations of the world and human experience.
• Explore the ways texts establish and maintain relationships with audiences to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
• Identify how texts conform to or challenge the conventions of particular genres or modes, such as poetry, plays, film and novels, short story anthologies and drama.
• Consider how the patterns and conventions of genres can be challenged, manipulated and changed over time.

Language and textual analysis

• Explore how and why texts invite readers/viewers to take up positions (e.g. by intervening in texts, such as by changing the narrative perspective), to explore the ways in which texts have been constructed in order to invite particular meanings.
• Analyse how different cultural assumptions, values, attitudes and beliefs underpin texts and influence audiences, and experiment with textual elements to manipulate these to position audiences in imaginative texts.
• Examine the ways generic patterns, language features, text structures and conventions communicate perspectives and representations and experiment with these for different literary effects.
• Identify and examine the use of aesthetic and stylistic features and their effects in texts and experiment with these in imaginative texts in a variety of modes and mediums.
• Explore how meaning changes when texts are transformed into a different genre or medium.
• Analyse how language choices are used for different purposes and contexts in imaginative texts.
• Interrogate the assumptions and values in texts through the identification of omissions, inclusions, emphases, and privileged and marginalised voices and experiment with these to reposition readers in imaginative texts.
• Consider intertextual links between ‘classic’ texts and their contemporary adaptations to explore how and why they position audiences to respond differently.

Responding to and creating texts

• Explore how personal responses to texts are shaped by elements of an individual’s contexts, e.g. locality, family background, beliefs, experiences, age, psychology, culture.
• Experiment with form, content, perspective, grammar and language features to develop personal style in imaginative texts.
• Experiment with aesthetic features and stylistic devices in different mediums to examine the various critical and emotional responses they may prompt in audiences of imaginative texts.
• Examine various examples of the imaginative text type to be produced for the internal assessment.
• Participate in teacher-modelled, guided, shared and independent construction of texts in a variety of modes and classroom contexts.
• Develop editorial independence by using strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading to produce appropriately sequenced and coherent texts.
• Reflect on and respond to feedback.

Topic 2: Critical responses to literary texts

Through a close, critical study of a literary text and various interpretations of it, students strengthen their capacity to develop their own analytical response to it.

Students independently develop and compose original, analytical texts.

Texts in contexts

• Read, listen to and view a range of literary texts to explore how the personal, social, historical, authorial and cultural contexts in which these texts are produced influence their meaning.
• Investigate the relationships between purpose, audience, language and meaning by exploring how texts create various representations of the world and human experience.
• Explore the ways texts establish and maintain relationships with audiences to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations.
• Investigate the role of literature, from various times and places, within cultures and its power to reflect and challenge social and cultural perspectives in relation to the larger issues of gender, age, race, identity, power, class and the environment.
• Investigate the reception of a particular literary text within different cultural and historical contexts to develop understanding of textual integrity and the cultural significance of the text.
• Identify how texts conform to or challenge the conventions of particular genres or modes, such as poetry, plays, film and novels, short story anthologies and drama.
• Consider how the patterns and conventions of genres can be challenged, manipulated and changed over time.

Language and textual analysis

• Analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places within literary texts to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complexities and nuances of these textual constructions.
• Explore how and why texts invite readers/viewers to take up positions by examining the ways in which texts have been constructed in order to invite particular meanings.
• Analyse how different cultural assumptions, values, attitudes and beliefs underpin texts and influence audiences.
• Examine the ways generic patterns, language features, text structures and conventions communicate perspectives and representations.
• Examine the use of aesthetic features and stylistic devices (e.g. characterisation, plot structure, setting, narrative voice, mood, approaches to narration, imagery, symbolism, motif, figurative language, dialogue, juxtaposition, contrast) and their effects in texts.
• Analyse how language choices are used for different purposes and contexts in analytical texts.
• Interrogate the assumptions and values in texts through the identification of omissions, inclusions, emphases, and privileged and marginalised voices.

Responding to and creating texts

• Explore how personal responses to texts are shaped by elements of an individual’s contexts, e.g. locality, family background, beliefs, experiences, gender, age, psychology, culture.
• Explore and discuss a range of contemporaneous, historical and contemporary interpretations and perspectives of literary texts.
• Test, develop and deepen own interpretations of literary texts through discussion, debate and examination of others’ interpretations.
• Develop cogent, insightful analysis and argument, through synthesis of subject matter and integration of textual evidence.
• Use cohesive devices to develop and emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts in the development of a reasoned and logical argument.
• Use text structures, grammar, language features and written features related to literary analysis to express and sustain a point of view.
• Participate in teacher-modelled, guided, shared and independent construction of analytical texts in a variety of modes and classroom contexts.
• Develop editorial independence by using strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading to produce appropriately sequenced and coherent texts.
• Reflect on and respond to feedback.

Assessment

Internal assessment 1: Spoken persuasive response (25%)

Students focus on the creation of a perspective through reasoned argument to persuade an audience. They respond to the ‘conversation’ about a contemporary social issue playing out in media texts and construct a persuasive argument of their own that adds to the public dialogue about the issue. While students may undertake some research in the production of the extended response, it is not the focus of this technique. There is no prescribed text list for this assessment instrument.

Assessment objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of a persuasive genre to achieve particular purposes in a specific context.
2. Establish and maintain the role of the speaker/designer and relationship with an identified public audience.
3. Create perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and/or places.
4. Make use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and/or beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions.
5. Use aesthetic features and/or stylistic devices to achieve persuasive purposes.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of a persuasive text.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes.
11. Use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

Specifications

This task requires students to:

• choose a contemporary contentious issue (or a perspective about a contentious issue studied) that has appeared in the media. Issues of contemporary social relevance may be drawn from broader topics, e.g. gender, power, race, religion, age, class and sustainability
• present a contention or thesis in relation to the chosen issue
• develop an argument that reflects a particular perspective and makes use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs underpin perspectives and representations
• generate their own argument that adds to the public dialogue about the issue (after prior critical engagement with media texts about the issue)
• employ and synthesise nuanced rhetorical and persuasive strategies to position an audience to accept the perspective constructed in the text
• present their persuasive argument as a spoken response for an identified public audience, e.g. in the form of a vlog, speech, panel segment, podcast, vodcast, social media reel. Examples are provided in a supporting resource.

Conditions

• Students receive 4 weeks notification of task.
• Students can develop their responses in class time and their own time.
• This is an individual task.
• Students
  • may use multimodal or digital components to support the development of the response (the use of these elements is included in the response length)
  • only use editing when appropriate for their response context and audience
  • must have open access to resources.

Response requirements

Spoken (live or recorded): up to 8 minutes, or signed equivalent

Mark allocation

Instrument-specific marking guide (IA1)

Knowledge application

Organisation and development

Textual features

Internal assessment 2: Written response for a public audience (25%)

Students respond to two texts connected by the representation of a concept, identity, time or place, in a written response for a public audience. One of the texts studied must be from the prescribed text list.

Assessment objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of the chosen genre to achieve particular purposes in a specific context.
2. Establish and maintain the role of the writer and relationship with an identified public audience.
3. Analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and/or places in a text.
4. Analyse the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and/or beliefs underpin the text and invite audiences to take up positions.
5. Analyse the effects of aesthetic features and/or stylistic devices in the text.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of a text for a public audience.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes.
11. Use written features, and complementary features if appropriate to achieve particular purposes.

Specifications

This task requires students to:

• analyse a representation of a concept, identity, time or place in two different texts. At least one of the texts must be from the prescribed text list (available on the QCAA website)
• have a purpose to their analysis by offering a focused perspective on that representation in the two texts (such as a personal, philosophical, social, political or cultural focus) and their connections to each other. This focus is to have suitable scope for the conditions of the task
• position the audience to think about the representation in the two texts in particular ways through using generic conventions and a range of textual features
• add to ongoing, informed and public ‘conversations’ about representations in texts
• respond in written form for a public audience which may be suitable for print or online media publication, such as an article, blog, essay or column. Examples are provided in a supporting resource.

Conditions

• Students receive 5 weeks notification of task.
• Students can develop their responses in class time and their own time.
• This is an individual task.
• Students
  • may support their responses with digital elements appropriate to the type of publication
  • must have open access to resources.

Response requirements

Written: up to 1500 words

Mark allocation

Instrument-specific marking guide (IA2)

Knowledge application

Organisation and development

Textual features

Internal assessment 3: Examination — extended response (25%)

Students focus on the interpretation of a text from the prescribed text list as a springboard for an imaginative response. During the unit, students will have examined how textual and language features have been used in various literary styles, and will have experimented with these in order to develop their own imaginative writing style. Prior to the distribution of the specific assessment task, students will have had opportunities to generate ideas for imaginative responses using literary texts as springboards.

Assessment objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of an imaginative genre to achieve particular purposes in a specific context.
2. Establish and maintain the role of the writer and relationships with audiences.
3. Create perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and/or places in an imaginative text.
4. Make use of the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and/or beliefs underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions.
5. Use aesthetic features and/or stylistic devices to achieve purposes.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of an imaginative text.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes and contexts.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes.
11. Use written features, including conventional spelling and punctuation, to achieve particular purposes.

Specifications

The teacher provides an examination that asks students to:

• use their interpretation of a literary text from the prescribed text list (available on the QCAA website) as a springboard for an imaginative response
• draw on their knowledge of the craft of writing to prompt critical and emotional responses in the reader
• produce an imaginative response to a literary text in a form other than poetry (e.g. a short story, monologue, extra chapter, dramatic script) that has a purpose, such as to engage, to move, to express, to challenge, to subvert.

Conditions

• This is an individual supervised task.
• Time allowed
  • Planning time: 15 minutes
  • Working time: 120 minutes
• The teacher may administer the assessment over more than one session. The teacher will collect all student work at the end of each session and return it at the beginning of the next supervised session. Students are to have no more than 2 hours working time and 15 minutes planning time in total, and the supervised response must be completed within five consecutive school days.
• The teacher must provide the task to students one week prior to the examination.
• The teacher must not
  • provide advice, guidance or feedback once the task is distributed
  • allow access to the springboard text in the examination.
• Students must not bring notes into the examination.

Mark allocation

Instrument-specific marking guide (IA3)

Knowledge application

Organisation and development

Textual features

External assessment: Examination — extended response (25%)

External assessment is developed and marked by the QCAA. The external assessment in English is common to all schools and administered under the same conditions, at the same time, on the same day.

Assessment objectives

1. Use patterns and conventions of an analytical essay to respond to an unseen question/task.
2. Establish and maintain the role of essay writer and relationships with readers.
3. Analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and/or places in a literary text.
4. Analyse the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and/or beliefs underpin a literary text and invite audiences to take up positions.
5. Analyse the effects of aesthetic features and/or stylistic devices in a literary text.
6. Select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives in an essay response to an unseen question/task.
7. Organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes.
8. Use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of an essay.
9. Make language choices for particular purposes in an essay.
10. Use grammar and language structures for particular purposes in an essay.
11. Use written features to achieve particular purposes in an essay.

Specifications

This examination:

• relates to Unit 4
• may ask students to
  • respond to an unseen question related to a literary text from the external assessment section of the prescribed text list (available on the QCAA website)
  • respond using an extended response in the form of an analytical essay for an audience with a deep understanding of the text
  • communicate an informed and critical perspective.

Conditions

• Mode: written
• Time allowed
  • Planning time: 15 minutes
  • Working time: 120 minutes
• Students must not bring the studied text or notes into the examination.

Glossary

The syllabus glossary is available at www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior-qce/common/snr_glossary_cognitive_verbs.pdf.

References

Marzano, RJ & Kendall, JS 2008, Designing and Assessing Educational Objectives: Applying the new taxonomy, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, California. ——2007, The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, 2nd edn, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, California. Misson, R & Morgan, W 2006, Critical Literacy and the Aesthetic: Transforming the English classroom, National Council of Teachers of English, Illinois.

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