Year 4 English Extension (Reading & Writing)

This course includes both reading and writing. Students will engage in a comprehensive exploration of texts, emphasising reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. They will learn about different text types and purposes, and apply what they learn in their reading texts to their writing.

In this Extension course, the expectation is that students will be able to comprehend material more easily, discuss ideas with greater analysis, and write at a more advanced level. The lesson materials will include additional questions or activities, or more difficult materials, or engage students at a higher cognitive level.

Note: In Term 4, enrolment is restricted to current English Extension students.

Course objectives

• Expand vocabulary by reading a diverse range of texts
• Develop advanced reading comprehension strategies, including interpreting and inferring from information
• Develop writing skills across a range of text types and purposes, including narrative, descriptive, persuasive (e.g. arguments, reviews) and informative (e.g. newspaper reports, advice sheets).

Teaching plan
Vocabulary is included in most weeks. Homework includes a writing task that is teacher-marked, and other activities that are self-marked. There is no homework in week 10.

Week 1: Inferencing character, narrative plot structure: Freytag’s Pyramid, compare-and-contrast text analysis

Week 2: Starting a story, narrative point of view, character types, text analysis and comprehension

Week 3: Persuasive essay introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion, brainstorming arguments, identifying the main idea, subheadings

Week 4: Vocabulary: using context clues, persuasive techniques, linked extracts, sentence gap-match, main idea summary

Week 5: Newspaper report: inverted triangle concept, adding quotations, grammar: changing direct quotations to indirect quotations, reporting verbs, poetic devices, poetry comprehension

Week 6: Literary descriptions: setting, figurative language, sensory imagery, poetry comprehension

Week 7: Diary: language features, text analysis, understanding irony, reading comprehension

Week 8: Narrative analysis and comprehension, linked extracts, dialogue punctuation, visual metaphors

Week 9: Reading and writing assessments & review, purple prose

Week 10: Idioms, compare-and-contrast science fiction and fantasy, text analysis and comprehension, quick writes