Key Stage 3 English Learning Objectives

For more information on the National Curriculum go to: www.qcda.gov.uk

Speaking and listening

Pupils will explore, develop and respond to a range of skills and strategies, in a variety of contexts, adapting language according to task, audience and purpose. The following criteria from the curriculum will be followed at all times and students will be able to:

• present information and points of view clearly and appropriately in different contexts, adapting talk for a range of purposes and audiences, including the more formal
• use a range of ways to structure and organise their speech to support their purposes and guide the listener
• vary vocabulary, structures and grammar to convey meaning, including speaking standard English fluently
• engage an audience, using a range of techniques to explore, enrich and explain their ideas
• listen and respond constructively to others, taking different views into account and modifying their own views in the light of what others say
• understand explicit and implicit meanings
• make different kinds of relevant contributions in groups, responding appropriately to others, proposing ideas and asking questions
• take different roles in organising, planning and sustaining talk in groups
• sift, summarise and use the most important points
• use different dramatic approaches to explore ideas, texts and issues
• use different dramatic techniques to convey action, character, atmosphere and tension
• explore the ways that words, actions, sound and staging combine to create dramatic moments.

Academus offers the curriculum through well planned lesson that offer students the opportunity to develop the following skills:

1. Listening and responding
   • Developing active listening skills and strategies
   • Understanding and responding to what speakers say in formal and informal contexts
2. Speaking and presenting
   • Developing and adapting speaking skills and strategies in formal and informal contexts
   • Using and adapting the conventions and forms of spoken texts
3. Group discussion and interaction
   • Developing and adapting discussion skills and strategies in formal and informal contexts
   • Taking roles in group discussion
4. Drama, role-play and performance
   • Using different dramatic approaches to explore ideas, texts and issues
   • Developing, adapting and responding to dramatic techniques, conventions and styles

Reading

Academus curricula is devised to give students the full breath and wealth of the English language. Pupils will engage with, and respond to, a rich variety of print, electronic and multi-modal texts, developing analysis and awareness of the forms and purposes of writing, and the contexts and cultures within which they were written. The reading curriculum is split as follows:

• Reading for meaning: understanding and responding to print, electronic and multi-modal texts
  • Developing and adapting active reading skills and strategies
  • Understanding and responding to ideas, viewpoints, themes and purposes in texts
  • Reading and engaging with a wide and varied range of texts
• Understanding the author's craft
  • Relating texts to the social, historical and cultural contexts in which they were written
  • Analysing how writers' use of linguistic and literary features shapes and influences meaning
  • Analysing writers' use of organisation, structure, layout and presentation.

Writing

Writing consists of composition and technicalities. Academus curricula offer pupils the opportunity to write a wide range of texts on paper and on screen for different purposes and audiences, adapting features and techniques to create a range of effects and impact. The following offer an explanation of how some of these skills are transferred to students.

• Composition: generating ideas, planning and drafting
  • Generating ideas, planning and drafting
  • Using and adapting the conventions and forms of texts on paper and on screen
• Composition: shaping and constructing language for expression and effect
  • Developing viewpoint, voice and ideas
  • Varying sentences and punctuation for clarity and effect
  • Improving vocabulary for precision and impact
  • Developing varied linguistic and literary techniques
  • Structuring, organising and presenting texts in a variety of forms on paper and on screen
  • Developing and using editing and proofreading skills on paper and on screen
• Conventions: drawing on conventions and structures
  • Using the conventions of standard English
  • Using grammar accurately and appropriately
  • Reviewing spelling and increasing knowledge of word derivations, patterns and families

Language

Pupils will explore the significance of English and the variations in its use and development, and comment on how language is used across a variety of contexts and situations.