Year 4
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 3 and 4, students experience learning in familiar contexts and a range of contexts that relate to study in other areas of the curriculum. They interact with peers and teachers from other classes and schools 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 and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of print and digital texts, simple chapter books, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own work.
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 3 and 4 as independent readers describe complex sequences of events that extend over several pages and involve unusual happenings within a framework of familiar experiences. Informative texts include content of increasing complexity and technicality about topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These texts use complex language features, including varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and words that need to be decoded phonically, and a variety of punctuation conventions, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support and extend the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts including narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, poetry and expositions.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
Achievement Standard
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 4, students understand that texts have different text structures depending on purpose and context. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to engage the interest of audiences. They describe literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different textsÂ
They fluently read texts that include varied sentence structures, unfamiliar vocabulary including multisyllabic words. They express preferences for particular types of texts, and respond to others' viewpoints. They listen for and share key points in discussions.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. They understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to extend key ideas.
Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, varying language according to context. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, select vocabulary from a range of resources and use accurate spelling and punctuation, re-reading and editing their work to improve meaning.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
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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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Biography Writing Bump It Up Wall
Use this visual display in your classroom to help students ‘bump up’ their biography writing.
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Biography Poster With Annotations
Use this biography poster to introduce your students to the structure and language features of biography writing through an annotated example.
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Concrete Poem Poster and Templates
Use this concrete poem example and accompanying template to teach your students how to write a concrete poem.
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The Secret Society of Vegetable Venerators – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative from the Year 5 magazine (Issue 2).
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Narrative Plot Structure Diagram
A plot diagram for students to refer to when planning their narrative writing.
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-Ment Suffixes Worksheet
Improve students' understanding of the suffix -ment with a printable suffix worksheet.
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Inferring Written Scenario Task Cards
Task cards that help students use their knowledge and ideas to help them decode ideas in texts
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Preposition Activity Sheet Pack – Read and Draw
Download this preposition activity sheet pack, where students read a series of instructions to draw scenes by identifying prepositions.
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The Story of Gulaga - Comprehension and Activity Worksheet
A comprehension and linked activity based on an Aboriginal Dreaming Story.
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Comprehension - Why Bears Have Stumpy Tails
A comprehension activity using a narrative text for lower grades.
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The Park - Comprehension
A comprehension activity using poetry.
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Improving Persuasive Texts Worksheets
3 pieces of text for students to rewrite in order to make them more persuasive.
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Eagles Fact File and Report Writing Scaffold
Support your students in writing an information report about eagles with this fact file and writing scaffold.
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I Have, Who Has? Homophones Game
Play a whole-class game to review common homophones and their meanings.
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Exploring Poetry Workbook
Teach your students about all things poetry with this jam-packed poetry workbook created especially for primary school students.
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Writing a Narrative – Template
A template for students to use when planning a narrative text.
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Character Development – Text Analysis Worksheets
Explore character development in narrative writing with this set of three engaging worksheets that help students understand how motivations, challenges and choices shape a character’s growth.
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Develop a Character Teaching Slides
Teach your students how to develop a character using the STEAL technique and other characterisation methods with this comprehensive teaching presentation.
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Cohesive Paragraph Digital Quiz
Explore what makes a cohesive paragraph using this interactive digital quiz that helps students identify cohesive devices in context.
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Worksheet for Prepositional Phrases – The Time of the Dinosaurs
Download this worksheet for prepositional phrases that helps young learners identify and understand prepositional phrases in context.
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Author's Purpose Pie Poster Set
Display this set of Author’s Purpose Pie posters to help students remember the various reasons authors write.
- Free Plan
Preposition Phrases Task Cards
Download this set of 20 preposition phrase task cards, designed to help students identify and use prepositional phrases.
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Word Detective - Interactive Context Clues Game
Play interactive Context Clues games to help your students practise determining the meaning of unknown words in context.
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Relative Pronouns Worksheet Pack
Use this relative pronouns worksheet pack to get your students identifying and using these essential parts of speech.
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Editing and Revising Checklist Pack
Download this editing and revising checklist pack to support your students when revising and editing their written work.
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The Olympic Games - Comprehension Task
Encourage students to apply a range of comprehension and writing skills when finding out interesting fun facts about the Olympics with a printable reading comprehension task.
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Giraffe Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Year 3
Read and learn about adaptations of the giraffe with a set of printable Year 3 comprehension activities.
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Non-Fiction Visual Features Cut and Paste Worksheet
Use this visual text features worksheet when exploring text features such as photographs, maps, charts and diagrams with your students.
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Informational Text Features: Match It Up!
Download this informational text features game to teach primary school students about the common text features of informational texts.
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Defining Homophones Task Cards
Print this set of 24 homophones task cards for your class literacy rotations.
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Homophones Poster Pack
Surround your students with examples of homophones with this set of 20 classroom posters.