Australian Curriculum Viewing

Explain the Simple View of Reading and its applications for teaching in relation to your SE1 context, with particular reference to strategies for teaching and assessing reading.

The Australian Curriculum basically makes sure that it is setting out the essential knowledge, understanding, skills and universal competences that are very essential for all Australian students. The Australian Curriculum makes sure that it defines the learning power of students as groundwork for their future learning, development and vigorous contribution in the Australian society. It makes obvious what every young Australians need to learn as they advance through their schooling. It is the basis for high worth teaching to come across the requirements of everyone of Australian students. Curriculum is intended to progress fruitful learners. Secure and resourceful persons and functioning and informed people (MCEECDYA, 2008, p.13). In 2008, the Australian Government swore to distribute a reasonable and just curriculum for the national's educational system, pulling the job away from the Local and State Governments. The drive of this was to generate a smooth phase of education all the way through the nation, and to also safeguard their countries locus into the 21st century. This essay will reveal the Nation's curriculum, its organization and development that had already been implemented for its initial opening in 2011.

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features

Many students who struggle with reading ask why should we read, what is the point? The point is that being able to read opens you up a whole new world of knowledge and imagination. But to have that new world opened up you need to be able to comprehend what you are reading. The primary goal of reading is to determine the meaning of

Reading: Locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and documents--including manuals, graphs, and schedules--to perform tasks; learns from text by determining the main idea or essential message; identifies relevant details, facts and specifications; infers or locates the meaning of unknown or technical vocabulary; and judges the accuracy, appropriateness, style, and plausibility of reports, proposals, or theories of other writers.( 134 USDOL)

Interwoven throughout the learning areas and general capabilities are Cross Curriculum Priorities which encompass Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia and Sustainability (ACARA, 2010c). All three priorities are significant in the current social and economic climate. The integration of these into the curriculum provides young Australians the opportunity to understand and engage in meaningful discussion of these contemporary issues.

The Australian Curriculum is not designed to stipulate the whole curriculum; rather it is a blueprint that defines what students across Australia should be taught throughout their schooling years (ACARA, n.d.-g). The Australian Curriculum will provide specific information for the content that is to be taught, the extent of understanding, level of knowledge and the achievement standards and skills that will be expected of students (Hill, n.d.). Individual schools, teachers and communities make decisions about which activities, events and community based traditions to include in the classroom which focus on personal development and character (Hill, n.d.).

Development of the Curriculum has taken on a ‘Traditional’ structure of scope and sequence in regards to a formal Curriculum and disciplines or content (i.e. English, Mathematics, Science, History, Etc.) but also included has been precise attention to ten General Capabilities; Literacy, Numeracy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Thinking skills, Creativity, Self-management, Teamwork, Intercultural understanding, Ethical behaviour and Social competence and also the inclusion of three Cross-Curriculum themes; Indigenous studies, Asian studies and Sustainability as stated by Peter Hill (A National Curriculum: Looking forward, An Australian Curriculum to promote 21st Century learners, 2010).

In the article written by Patricia L. Scharer “What is reading?” she says “reading is not a simple way to decode 26 letters or 26 sounds, but instead it is a process to achieve knowledge about how letters and sounds relate” (pág. 7). Reading is more than decoding individual words; certainly someone can read in a language with it is not his/her mother tongue, however, her/his understanding would be totally absent. Understand and comprehend are words that the readers would like to achieve within the act of reading. Letters and words will be the path to acquire a better understanding, but the act of comprehension is more challenge for the readers, not on the page, but in the brain. One definition that the article “What is reading” consider to

How does the participant construct the meaning of an academic text after participating in the reading support sessions?

5). Without a strong dynamic aspect included within the definition of literacy, the skills acquired by students become separate concepts to their identities instead of being an integral part of the way they function. The Australian Curriculum’s definition lacks strong and evident dynamic aspects and in this way impacts the ways in which educators will teach literacy and the success that students will draw from their education. To improve the current definition, inclusions need to be made that specify the dynamic outcomes for

Indigenous Education in Australia has been the subject of ongoing policy focus and repeated official inquiry as the nation grapples with trying to achieve equity for these students, according to Gray and Beresford (2008). There are many underlying factors behind the development of a plateau effect of progress in this area, this paper will delve into the topic of the Australian Curriculum (ACARA) as one of these main factors effecting equity amongst students in schools. According to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, “the Australian Curriculum promotes excellence and equity for all students by providing a challenging curriculum from which rigorous, relevant and engaging learning programs can be developed that address

That being said, comprehension is not just understanding the singular words that are being read, but being able to put them together, along with activating previous knowledge, make sense and develop meaning to the text. Essentially, when a reader is immersed and engaged in text, they are actively developing meaning to the text while formulating questions that may later be answered by the text itself.

As with all elements of life, education has evolved since the introduction of schools in Australia in the 1800’s. Didactic literacy pedagogy was the starting point for most educators which evolved to authentic pedagogy, then functional pedagogy and critical pedagogy throughout the twentieth century. To maximise the effectiveness of all student’s literacy learning, areas of difficulty in delivery of information were highlighted, which led to changes being implemented and new pedagogies being adopted alongside changes in curriculum and school structure. Although literacy pedagogy has undergone many changes within the Australian educational climate, there is no one right or wrong pedagogy, rather, classrooms would benefit from a modernisation of older pedagogies which can be woven together and applied in the classroom to ensure each student’s success in their literacy learning.

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension).