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)
- Plus Plan
Talking Animals - Writing Dialogue Interactive Slide Deck
Practise writing dialogue and proving that 'Animals Can Talk!' with an exciting slide deck and digital learning activity.
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Verb Group Posters
Guide your students to be better writers with this verb group poster set to display in your classroom.
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Great White Shark Information Report – Writing Project
Get your students writing a great white shark information report using this age-appropriate fact file and writing scaffold.
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Quotations, Quotations - Writing Dialogue Worksheets
Practise writing using correct dialogue punctuation with a pack of ten picture-based Dialogue Prompt worksheets.
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Shades of Meaning Verb Flashcards
Encourage your students to use different shades of meaning in their sentence writing with this set of shades of meaning verb flashcards.
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Types of Verbs Poster Set
Explore the different types of verbs with this set of verb posters displaying the definition and examples of action, saying, thinking and relating verbs.
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Punctuation Poster Pack
Display this set of 6 punctuation posters in your classroom to remind your students of the most common punctuation marks and their uses.
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V.O.I.C.E.S. - 6 Traits of Writing Posters
Improve student writing using our V.O.I.C.E.S. Six Traits of Writing Poster Pack!
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How to Write Dialogue - PowerPoint Teaching Slides
Teach your students how to write dialogue using double quotation marks with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Pre-Cursive Alphabet Letters Worksheets - Mixed
Use printable pre-cursive writing worksheets PDF files to learn how to write in cursive.
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Modal Language Matching Activity
Have students explore high modality and low modality language with this matching game to use during your persuasive writing unit.
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Rhetorical Questions Sorting Activity
Explore rhetorical question examples with your students using this set of 28 sorting cards perfect for literacy groups
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List of Persuasive Devices
Download this list of persuasive devices for your students to refer to when writing a persuasive text.
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Using Persuasive Devices Worksheet
Use this persuasive devices worksheet to help your students create persuasive device examples based on a specific topic.
- Free Plan
Non-Fiction Text Features Flipbook – Read and Define
Use this text features flipbook as a student-centred literacy activity to teach your students about the purpose of text features in non-fiction books.
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Poetic Devices Teaching Slides
Explore examples of poetic devices using this comprehensive and age-appropriate slide deck perfect for your poetry writing unit.
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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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Year 4 Magazine – What's Buzzing? (Issue 3)
Issue 3 of our beautifully designed, 24-page reading magazine specifically designed for Year 4 students.
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Developing Persuasive Writing Skills PowerPoint (Year 3 and Year 4)
Teach your students about the structure and language features of persuasive texts with these interactive teaching slides.
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Finding the Main Idea in a Literary Text Worksheet
Find the main idea and supporting story clues of a literary text passage and answer the comprehension questions.
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Prefix Words - Classroom Display
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What is an Affix? Suffix Puzzle Pack
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Matching Direct and Indirect Speech
Investigate the differences between direct and indirect speech with this match-up activity.
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No More 'Said' – Card Game
Develop skilled writers with expansive vocabularies by experimenting with descriptive dialogue words.
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Which One? Listening Comprehension Exercise
An Interactive PowerPoint where students choose an image to match an aural description.
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Preposition Monkey Business - Worksheet
A worksheet which includes an image prompt for students to make creative sentences about prepositions.
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Narrative Text Structure Posters
A set of 8 narrative text structure posters to add to your classroom narrative writing display.
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Hermes' Hocus Pocus – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 3).
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How to Make a Paper Plane – Procedural Writing Worksheet
Explore how to make a paper plane while your students fine-tune their procedural writing skills.
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Novel Study – Chapter Summary Worksheet
Reflect on a chapter in a class novel using this one-page worksheet.
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Write a Diamante Poem Worksheet
Set your students up for success when writing a diamante poem with this set of scaffolded, easy-to-follow worksheets.
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Suffix -Able - Grammar Worksheet
Transform your students’ vocabulary skills with our skill-building English worksheets, featuring the powerful “-able” suffix