Students will engage in a comprehensive exploration of texts, emphasising reading comprehension, critical thinking and effective communication. The curriculum integrates diverse literary genres to provide a dynamic and enriching learning experience. This course is tailored to prepare students to be able to answer questions in the Selective High Schools Placement Test as well as scholarship tests.
Course objectives
• Apply advanced reading comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse diverse texts independently
• Demonstrate creativity and clarity in a range of text types including narrative, descriptive, informative and persuasive writing
• Develop critical thinking skills through literary analysis, inference and interpretation of texts
Teaching plan
Vocabulary is included in most weeks. Homework includes a writing task that is teacher-marked, and other activities that are self-marked. There is no homework in week 10.
Week 1: Focus on fiction: text analysis, sensory imagery, descriptive writing, dangers of purple prose
Week 2: Linked extracts, writing dialogue, characterisation & character analysis, text analysis
Week 3: Main idea summary, subheadings, sentence gap match, persuasive writing: introduction & validity of arguments, text analysis
Week 4: Linked extracts, poetic techniques and devices, poetry comprehension, formal letter layout, letter of complaint, text analysis
Week 5: Reading mock test, advertorial, text analysis
Week 6: Cloze – paragraph headings, linked extracts, narrative comprehension, journal entry – language features, text analysis
Week 7: Making inferences, paired texts comprehension, newspaper report structure, news angle, text analysis
Week 8: Main idea summary, sentence gap match, imagery and mood in poetry, poetry comprehension and analysis, sentence variation, brainstorming
Week 9: Reading and writing assessments & review, confusing vocabulary, text analysis and rewriting
Week 10: Fiction comprehension and analysis, linked extracts, book review, text analysis, quick writes, visual text analysis
| School | Offered | Reserved |
|---|---|---|
| James Ruse AHS | 0 | 0 |
| North Sydney Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Baulkham Hills HS | 0 | 0 |
| North Sydney Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Normanhurst Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Sydney Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Hornsby Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Sydney Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Fort Street HS | 0 | 0 |
| Girraween HS | 0 | 0 |
| St George Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Hurlstone Agriculture HS | 0 | 0 |
| Penrith Selective HS | 0 | 0 |
| NBSC Manly Campus | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 53+ |
| School | Offered | Reserved |
|---|---|---|
| James Ruse AHS | 0 | 0 |
| North Sydney Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Baulkham Hills HS | 0 | 0 |
| North Sydney Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Normanhurst Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Sydney Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Hornsby Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Sydney Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Fort Street HS | 0 | 0 |
| Penrith Selective HS | 0 | 0 |
| Girraween HS | 0 | 0 |
| NBSC Manly Campus | 0 | 0 |
| St George Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Hurlstone Agriculture HS | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 14+ |
| School | Offered | Reserved |
|---|---|---|
| Beecroft Public School | 0 | 0 |
| North Rocks Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Ermington Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Artarmon Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Matthew Pearce Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Dural Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Waitara Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Hurstville Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Ryde Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Ironbark Ridge Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Chatswood Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Woollahra Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Neutral Bay Public School | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 25+ |
| School | Offered | Reserved |
|---|---|---|
| James Ruese AHS | 0 | 0 |
| Baulkham Hills HS | 0 | 0 |
| North Sydney Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| North Sydney Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Hornsby Girls HS | 0 | |
| Normanhurst Boys HS | 0 | 0 |
| Sydney Boys HS | 0 | |
| Sydney Girls HS | 0 | 0 |
| Penrith Selective HS | 0 | |
| Girraween HS | 0 | |
| NBSC Manly Campus | 0 | |
| Fort Street HS | 0 | |
| Others | 0 |
| Year 5/6 | Year 7/8 | |
|---|---|---|
| First Prize | Rose Asgari | Aditya Paul |
| Second Prize | Ian Jung | Indraneel Jishnu |
| Third Prize | Richelle Lam | Cynthia Cai |
| Highly Commended | Jaithra Vasani Anooushka Vijay Anand Lehan (Olivia) Xu |
Anna Crowley |