[English] National Curriculum

[Reynolds, Gail G]

Those of you who are VCAA  English Assessors will already have seen this letter from Marion Meiers, which was forwarded through the English Assessors Association. However, with Marion's permission, I am forwarding it to the list because if we don't raise our voices, we may be lumbered with whatever the committee "designs".
 
I am contacting you to ask if you would please ask all members of the
English assessors' association to respond to the position paper on the
Senior Years Curriculum which is currently open for consultation. This
paper has been developed by ACARA (the Australian Curriculum, Assessment
and Reporting Authority) which is responsible for developing the
national curriculum.

Here's the link to the paper, which is just titled 'position paper':

http://www.acara.edu.au/position_papers.html <https://www.edumail.vic.gov.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.acara.edu.au/position_papers.html> 

Responses are due by 30 September. There are some major concerns about
this as I think you will see when you read the section on English. The
more responses that ACARA receives, the better. I think the assessors'
association is a very good group to respond - as individuals and perhaps
even as a group. Individual members could also prompt discussion and
responses from colleagues. It is very important at this stage to express
the views of the profession who teach and have long experience of senior
years courses.

Best regards,
Marion


Marion Meiers
Senior Research Fellow
Australian Council for Educational Research
t +61 3 9277 5478
e  meiers at acer.edu.au

I can see a range of issues with the suggestions in the position paper which (broadly speaking) include: the lack of an English Language subject equivelent; the potential narrowness of the course for those students who need literacy support; the possible removal of the overlap between ESL and English courses (hands up all those who have had an ESL student or two in their mainstream classes! Will these students be forced into doing mainstream English?) etc
 
Without wishing to appear to be a conspiracy theorist, I am also concerned that the Position Paper is so scanty when it comes to detail, that it has been designed to limit opposition.
 
If you haven't done so, have a look at the Position paper (link above in Marion's letter) and consider adding your voice
 
Gail

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