Year 6
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed.
In Years 5 and 6, students communicate with peers and teachers from other classes and schools, community members, and individuals and groups, in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view, interpret and evaluate spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These include various types of media texts including newspapers, film and digital texts, junior and early adolescent novels, poetry, non-fiction and dramatic performances. Students develop their understanding of how texts, including media texts, are influenced by context, purpose and audience.
The range of literary texts for Foundation to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia.
Literary texts that support and extend students in Years 5 and 6 as independent readers describe complex sequences, a range of non-stereotypical characters and elaborated events including flashbacks and shifts in time. These texts explore themes of interpersonal relationships and ethical dilemmas within real-world and fantasy settings. Informative texts supply technical and content information about a wide range of topics of interest as well as topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. Text structures include chapters, headings and subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and glossaries. Language features include complex sentences, unfamiliar technical vocabulary, figurative language, and information presented in various types of graphics.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts such as narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, explanations and discussions.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
Achievement Standard
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 6, students understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects. They analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events.
Students compare and analyse information in different and complex texts, explaining literal and implied meaning. They select and use evidence from a text to explain their response to it. They listen to discussions, clarifying content and challenging others' ideas.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used.
Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect. They demonstrate an understanding of grammar, and make considered vocabulary choices to enhance cohesion and structure in their writing. They use accurate spelling and punctuation for clarity and make and explain editorial choices based on criteria.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
- Plus Plan
Persuasive Text Writing Prompts - Complete Set
A set of 5 persuasive writing prompts, covering a variety of topics.
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Giant Squid Reading Comprehension Worksheets - Year 5
Read and learn about the features and adaptations of the giant squid with reading comprehension worksheets for years 5 and 6.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Finding The Main Idea
A set of comprehension task cards to help students find the main idea when reading.
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Writing Persuasive Texts PowerPoint - Year 5 and Year 6
Explore the structure and language features of persuasive texts with these teaching slides.
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Informative Text Writing Graphic Organiser Pack
Make writing an informative text easy with free graphic organisers for your students!
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Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Sort
Practise reading and identifying simple, compound and complex sentences with this sorting activity.
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5 Persuasive Writing Prompts
Inspire your students through these relevant persuasive writing prompts.
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PEEL Paragraph Structure Poster and Worksheets
Explore the acronym PEEL to help with paragraph technique during persuasive writing lessons.
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Identifying Descriptive and Figurative Language Worksheets
Help your students identify descriptive and figurative language in narrative texts with this set of colour-coding worksheets.
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Analysing Persuasive Devices Worksheets
Get students analysing persuasive techniques and their effects on audiences with this set of three texts with accompanying questions.
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Metaphors Worksheet
Practise identifying and using metaphors with this differentiated metaphors worksheet.
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Prefixes and Suffixes PowerPoint
Learn prefix and suffix concepts with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Persuasive Topic Cards - Upper Grades
A set of persuasive topic cards for upper primary.
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Earth Watch – Drowning in Plastic Reading Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about plastic pollution in our oceans.
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Summarising Teaching Slides
Teach students all about summarising with 15 teaching slides of summarising goodness.
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TEEL Paragraph Structure Poster and Worksheets
Explore the acronym TEEL to help with paragraph technique during persuasive writing lessons.
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Comprehension - Should Smart Phones be Allowed in Classrooms?
Decide if cellphones should be allowed in class and boost comprehension skills with a reading passage and comprehension test.
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Limericks for Kids - Poem Template
A 3-page limerick template and instructions for students to use when learning how to write a limerick.
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Types of Figurative Language - Worksheet
Practise identifying and creating examples of figurative language with this printable worksheet.
- Free Plan
Comma Task Cards
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Reading Fluency – The Great Barrier Reef (Year 6)
A Year 6 reading fluency assessment.
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Common Spelling Rules PowerPoint
Boost your students' spelling skills with an instructional slide deck teaching the different spelling rules.
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Comprehension Task Cards Summarising
Practise summarising text with these relevant events-based texts.
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Plant and Animal Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Passage
Boost reading comprehension skills with a comprehension passage, with questions, about structural, behavioural and physiological adaptations.
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Persuasive Writing Bump It Up Wall – Year 6
A visual display for your classroom to help students ‘bump up’ their persuasive writing.
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Reading Response Template – Inferring and Predicting
Guide your students to make inferences and predictions with a piece of text using the one-page template.
- Plus Plan
Prefix, Suffix and Root Words Word Search
Identify terminology related to prefixes, suffixes and root words in this word search.
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Text Connectives Posters for Upper Primary Students
Display this set of 8 grammar posters to remind students the types and examples of sentence connectives and conjunctions.
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Roll to Create a Silly Book Title – Differentiated Writing Activity
Print a differentiated literacy activity using dice and a chart to create a silly book title and storybook.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Identifying Author's Purpose
A set of comprehension task cards to help students identify the author's purpose when reading.
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Formation of Earth - Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Combine reading and science content with a reading comprehension worksheet that focuses on the formation of Earth.
- Free Plan
Main Idea or Supporting Detail? – Sorting Activity
An activity for students to determine which of 2 related facts is a main idea and which is a supporting detail.