Introducing AusVELS English:
Working with texts
1
Goals
• Read and engage with the English content
descriptions.
• Develop confidence selecting English content
descriptions for teaching and learning activities.
• Consider ways that English content descriptions
can be combined to support teaching and
learning.
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What you will need
The English content descriptions for the following
Levels:
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Level 1
Level 2
Level 4
Level 8
Level 9
Level 10
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How to complete the activities
Complete these steps for each text provided:
1. Read/view the text.
2. Select content descriptions.
3. Share your ideas
4. Compare your content descriptions with
those provided.
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Level 1
At the zoo
Written by William Makepeace Thackeray
Access through the Story It website:
http://www.storyit.com/Classics/JustPoems/atzoo.htm
1. Navigate directly to the poem at the link above.
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Possible content descriptions
At the zoo
Written by William Makepeace Thackeray
(Level 1)
Understand patterns of
repetition and contrast in
simple texts (ACELA1448)
Explore differences in words that
represent people, places and
things (nouns, including
pronouns), happenings and states
(verbs), qualities (adjectives) and
details such as when, where and
how (adverbs) (ACELA1452)
Listen to, recite and
perform poems, chants,
rhymes and songs,
imitating and inventing
sound patterns including
alliteration and rhyme
(ACELT1585)
Read supportive texts using
developing phrasing, fluency,
contextual, semantic,
grammatical and phonic
knowledge and emerging text
processing strategies, for
example prediction,
monitoring meaning and
rereading (ACELY1659)
6
Level 2
Dear Peter Rabbit
Written by Alma Flor Ada
Illustrated by Leslie Tryon
Access through the State Library of Queensland website:
http://jabberwock.slq.qld.gov.au/tumblebooks/
1. Navigate to the link above.
2. Select ‘Next’.
3. Select ‘Click here’.
4. Select ‘Index’ from the menu which runs along the top of the screen
5. Use the alphabetised list of book authors to select ‘Ada, Alma Flor’.
6. Scroll down the list until you find ‘Dear Peter Rabbit’. Select ‘Read
online’. A new window will open and the book will begin to play.
7. You can pause at any time, skip forward or back, and turn the audio on
or off.
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Possible content descriptions
Dear Peter Rabbit
Written by Alma Flor Ada
Illustrated by Leslie Tryon
(Level 2)
Understand that different
types of texts have
identifiable text
structures and language
features that help the
text serve its purpose
(ACELA1463)
Compare opinions about
characters, events and
settings in and between
texts (ACELT1589)
Identify visual representations
of characters’ actions,
reactions, speech and thought
processes in narratives, and
consider how these images
add to or contradict or
multiply the meaning of
accompanying words
(ACELA1469)
Read less predictable texts
with phrasing and fluency by
combining contextual,
semantic, grammatical and
phonic knowledge using text
processing strategies, for
example monitoring meaning,
predicting, rereading and selfcorrecting (ACELA1543)
Discuss the characters
and settings of different
texts and explore how
language is used to
present these features in
different ways
(ACELT1591)
8
Level 4
Birthday Boy: Manuk’s magnetic bolt
Written and directed by Sejong Park
Access through the Australian Screen website:
http://aso.gov.au/titles/shorts/birthday-boy/clip1/
1. Navigate to the link above.
2. Select the play button. The film will start shortly.
3. You can pause or replay at any time.
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Possible content descriptions
Birthday Boy: Manuk’s magnetic bolt
Written and directed by Sejong Park
(Level 4)
Explore the effect of
choices when framing
and image, placement of
elements in the image,
and salience on
composition of still and
moving images in a range
of types of texts
(ACELA1496)
Discuss how authors and
illustrators make stories
exciting, moving and
absorbing and hold
readers’ interest by using
various techniques, for
example character
development and plot
tension (ACELT1605)
Identify characteristic
features used in
imaginative, informative
and persuasive texts to
meet the purpose of the
text (ACELY1690)
Use comprehension
strategies to build literal
and inferred meaning to
expand content
knowledge, intergating
and linking ideas and
analysing and evaluating
texts (ACELY1692)
10
Level 8
See Me:The media, my world and me
The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust
Access through the SeeMe website:
http://www.seeme.org.au/activity-6-advertising-in-the-21st-century.html
1. Navigate to the link above.
2. Scroll down until you find links to Images A-D.
3. Select ‘Image A’. A new window will open and you will be able to view
the image.
4. Repeat for Images B-D.
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Possible content descriptions
See Me:The media, my world and me
The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust
(Level 8)
Analyse how the text
structures and language
features of persuasive
texts, including media
texts, vary according to
the medium and mode of
communication
(ACELA1543)
Explore the ways that
ideas and viewpoints in
literary texts drawn from
different historical, social
and cultural contexts may
reflect or challenge the
values of individuals and
groups (ACELT1626)
Recognise and explain
differing viewpoints
about the world, cultures
and individuals and
concerns represented in
texts (ACELT1807)
Analyse and explain how
language use has evolved
over time and how
technology and the
media have influenced
language use and forms
of communication
(ACELY1729)
12
Level 9
The Mother
Written by Rosemary Dobson
Access through the Australian Poetry Library website:
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/dobson-rosemary/the-mother0192057
1. Navigate directly to the poem at the link above.
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Possible content descriptions
The Mother
Written by Rosemary Dobson
(Level 9)
Investigate how
evaluation can be
expressed directly and
indirectly using devices,
for example allusion,
evocative vocabulary and
metaphor (ACELA1552)
Identify how vocabulary
choices contribute to
specificity, abstraction
and stylistic effectiveness
(ACELA1561)
Compare and contrast
the use of cohesive
devices in texts, focusing
on how they serve to
signpost ideas, to make
connections and to build
semantic associations
between ideas
(ACELA1770)
Present an argument
about a literary text
based on initial
impressions and
subsequent analysis of
the whole text
(ACELT1771)
Analyse text structures
and language features of
literary texts, and make
relevant comparisons
with other texts
(ACELT1772)
14
Level 10
Alchymical Romance
Written by Lee Battersby
The streets north of Perth wither and die in the winter rain, leaving
behind slick tarmac and an occasional oasis of sodium light. Residents
close their curtains and hide before televisions, ignoring the rolls of
thunder as best they can. Markus’ black Audi slid along unnoticed,
undisturbed, a metal shark cruising an empty ocean. Markus barely
noticed the lack of humanity. Their absence meant only a lessening of
white noise, a drop in the background level of static, a slight
reinforcement of the link between his subconscious and the muted
hum of the city. He glided along black tracks: a tiny spark within a vast,
dormant machine; a single atom within a city-wide accelerator.
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Possible content descriptions
Alchymical Romance
Written by Lee Battersby
(Level 10)
Analyse and evaluate the
effectiveness of a wide
range of sentence and
clause structures as
authors design and craft
texts (ACELA1569)
Compare and evaluate a
range of representations
of individuals and groups
in different historical,
social and cultural
contexts (ACELT1639)
Evaluate the social, moral
and ethical positions
represented in texts
(ACELT1812)
Identify, explain and
discuss how narrative
viewpoint, structure,
characterisation and
devices including analogy
and satire shape different
interpretations and
responses to texts
(ACELT1642)
Identify and analyse
implicit or explicit values,
beliefs and assumptions
in texts and how these
are influenced by
purposes and likely
audiences (ACELY1752)
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