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Especially for Teachers - English and the Essential Learnings English and the Essential Learnings
English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework
What is the field of English? In the twenty-first century educators need to help learners engage with and respond to the demands of a globalised, fast-changing world. They must develop in learners the understandings, skills and dispositions necessary for active and responsible citizenship in local, regional and world communities. The Essential Learnings Framework is a twenty-first century curriculum construct to help schools focus on the values and purposes of education, curriculum planning, critical content, pedagogy and assessment. It describes the deep understandings that students need to develop now and draw upon in the future as active, responsible citizens and lifelong learners. The Key Learning Areas (KLAs), defined through the national statements and profiles are a curriculum construct, designed to organise diverse aspects of human understanding, experience and achievement. They represent the different ways in which people come to know and understand their world. English is one of eight KLAs. The Curriculum Consultation co-construction and implementation process has required careful consideration of the interconnections between the Essential Learnings Framework, the KLAs and the relationships of both to what we know as disciplines. Outcomes and Standards derived from the Essential Learnings can only be achieved and demonstrated in learning environments that are discipline-grounded and closely connected to life experience. Key Learning Area documents will continue to be important curriculum resources for the identification of key ideas and significant content. Although schools have traditionally operated within a Learning Area construct when making decisions about curriculum content they will now use the Essential Learnings Framework to focus attention on what is central to the curriculum in the compulsory years of schooling.
What is the field of English? Disciplines are organised bodies of knowledge, complete with their own discourse that provide ways of thinking about and looking at the world. The field of English is dynamic, evolving and extending in response to the context in which it operates. The advent of new forms of multimedia and communication technologies has heralded new literacies and different ways of communicating and thinking. The field of English has multiplied, fragmented and adapted and there are now many versions of English – English as literacy, English as cultural studies, English as language, English as literature, English as communication, English as l(IT)erary l(IT)eracy. Perhaps English is now an umbrella term but there is no doubt that the field is more interesting, challenging and relevant than ever before. What is the rationale for English learning? English learning has the power to shape, direct and enrich people’s lives. It provides us with the capacity for making meaning and reflecting on texts, language, people and the world and the means of understanding the relationship between the inner world of imagination and the outer world of culture and social demands. By engaging with, analysing and composing a diverse range of spoken, written, visual, performance and multimodal texts, students develop increasing control over the cultural, social and technical dimensions of language. English learning in today’s classrooms reflects the changing nature, contexts and uses of texts in an increasingly globalised world. Well-designed English learning sequences within the Essential Learnings Framework provide the powerful context in which students:
What are some of the characteristics of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework? The Essential Learnings Framework provides a lens through which to identify and select critical content, key concepts, processes and methodologies from the field of English. This lens enables English teachers to:
English learning in schools is underpinned by the agreed, broad set of values and purposes outlined in the Essential Learnings Framework, the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Principles and the Learners and Learning Provision statement. English teachers plan their programs within the Essential Learnings Framework and play a significant role in developing lifelong learners who are inquiring, reflective thinkers, effective communicators, self directed and ethical people, responsible citizens and world contributors. In developing challenging and enjoyable English learning sequences which address the needs of all students, English teachers should incorporate teaching for understanding principles, including the use of throughlines, generative topics, guiding questions, understanding goals, performances of understanding and ongoing assessment. English teachers should also continue to draw upon a range of broad perspectives to inform their classroom practice:
English teachers will recognise that their practice involves a number of these perspectives. English teachers will need to understand their students as individuals, know about the field of English and understand how students learn to be powerfully literate. Passion, enthusiasm, relationships and commitment to professional learning will remain at the heart of effective English teaching.
What is the heart of English learning? English learning reflects the rich tapestry of ideas and understandings which both underpin the field of English and determine its unique contribution to lifelong learning. Through using texts and language in ever-widening contexts, students will:
Students of English develop a multi-dimensional understanding of language and texts. They acquire an ever-increasing capacity to construct, control, analyse, manipulate and transform texts and symbols and to play a creative, innovative, influential part in a widening range of human affairs. How will pedagogies expand within the Essential Learnings Framework? English teachers will continue to create and maintain quality learning environments and pedagogies will continue to broaden. There will be much greater opportunity for collaborative planning, both within and beyond the field of English. English teachers will employ a range of teaching strategies suited to learners and be capable of switching between them according to individual student needs. There will be a particular emphasis on conceptual learning through critical engagement with texts and language, inquiry-based learning, student questioning, reflective and higher-order thinking, effective communication, intellectual quality and teaching for understanding. Such approaches will engage learners more deeply in issues-based, real world learning and support the transfer of learning.
How will assessment practices change in English learning? Enacting the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Principles will mean that assessing, monitoring, moderation and reporting practices will change for English teachers. As the primary purpose for assessment is to improve learning, assessment practices must be inclusive, explicit, valid and reliable. English teachers will need to ensure that an appropriate balance of assessing as learning, for learning and of learning takes place in classrooms. Learning is enhanced when teachers make the criteria for success explicit and provide frequent and varied feedback to students on their progress towards achieving Essential Learnings Framework outcomes and standards. Formative, ongoing and authentic assessment practices which are designed to improve learning will become even more central to English learning. Students will participate actively in the assessment of their learning through self and peer assessment. English teachers will also work more collaboratively with other teachers, both within and across schools, to ensure consistency of teacher judgement about student achievement against the Essential Learnings Framework outcomes and standards. What is the future for English learning in schools? As developing proficiency in the field of English enables students to share in and contribute to current and future local, national and global communities and cultures, the study of texts and language will remain a central component of the curriculum. English learning in schools will push the boundaries of established practice and make significant connections with other disciplines or learning areas. Perhaps the field of English may be best seen as having both a heart and mind: core concerns around narrative, imagination, representation and context and overlapping connections with other disciplines or learning areas. In schools this will mean that English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework may be:
English teacher knowledge and understanding of the core concerns of the field of English i.e. learning about, with, through and against texts and language will be required in any of the above models.
What are the recommended components of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework? The following are recommended components of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework. These components should be incorporated into the planned learning sequences which are accessed by students in focussed and integrated ways across the course of the year.
Ongoing English elements In this component of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework, the individual needs of students are explicitly addressed. Students develop skills in speaking, listening, reading, viewing and writing. They learn about language, use information and communications technologies, and develop the capacity to negotiate, inquire, reflect and collaborate with others. This component of English learning contributes rich evidence to collaborative, on-balance judgements about student achievement against outcomes and standards in the Thinking, Communicating, Personal futures and Social responsibility and World futures Essential Learnings.
Investigating texts and their contexts In this component of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework, students engage with, analyse and compose a range of texts. They explore the structures and features of texts and examine the role of context in creating and interpreting texts. This component of English learning contributes rich evidence to collaborative, on-balance judgements about student achievement, particularly against outcomes and standards in the Communicating Essential. It will also provide evidence of achievement against outcomes and standards in the Thinking, Personal futures, Social responsibility and World futures Essential Learnings. Inquiry and reflective thinking around significant ideas and issues In this component of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework, students use inquiry and reflective thinking to investigate significant concepts, ideas or issues through a variety of textual perspectives. Students engage with a range of texts in order to understand that a multiplicity of texts contributes to richer and deeper understanding about concepts, ideas and issues. This component of English learning contributes rich evidence to collaborative, on-balance judgements about student achievement, particularly against the Thinking Essential. It will also provide evidence of achievement against outcomes and standards in the Communicating, Personal futures, Social responsibility and World futures Essential Learnings. Applied learning In this component of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework students apply their learning about texts and language in ways which are collaborative, public and relevant to the world in which they live. They create authentic products, often connected to the wider community. These products, many of which will be culminating performances of understanding, provides rich demonstrations of student achievement against outcomes and standards in the Thinking, Communicating, Personal futures, Social responsibility and World futures Essential Learnings.
Negotiated learning In this component of English learning within the Essential Learnings Framework, students are provided with the opportunity to negotiate outcomes, develop responsibility for their own learning and undertake inquiry projects where they develop deep understanding about a generative topic and demonstrate their understanding through elaborate forms of communication. These culminating performances of understanding provides rich demonstrations of student achievement against a range of Essential Learnings outcomes and standards in the Thinking, Communicating, Personal futures, Social responsibility and World futures Essential Learnings. Where can I find out more information? Department of Education, Tasmania (2002), Essential Learnings Framework 1 Department of Education, Tasmania (2003), Essential Learnings Framework 2 Department of Education, Tasmania (2004), The Learning, Teaching and Assessment Guide Sawyer, W. and Gold, E. eds (2004) Reviewing English in the 21st Century, Phoenix Education, Melbourne.
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