English Secondary T1 2020

Irfan College students have been working very hard during their English classes this semester.
Year 7 students have analysed the picture book 'A Monster Calls' and presented a speech on the particular language techniques the author uses to portray his message. They then moved onto analysing the film 'Coraline' and composed an essay on the genre of horror. It was the students' first semester in high school and despite all the interruptions, I am proud to say they have adjusted very well.
Year 9 students have commenced the year analysing a classic by Tolkien, 'Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring'. Initially they were all challenged due to the complexity in the language however they all managed to compose a well-structured essay focusing on a major theme within the text. We then moved on to studying Alice Pung's 'Growing up Asian in Australia' and students seemed to enjoy this unit, as they were able to relate to some of the challenges the protagonists had experienced.
Year 10 analysed Harper Lee's famous classical text 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Shakespeare's tragedy 'Macbeth'. Students were able to compose well-structured essays for both texts and presented their arguments in a clear and concise manner. During the last double period of term 2, our students prepared a debate on the topic 'Macbeth's storyline is still evident in the 21st Century'. Students presented a fantastic debate, where the results were extremely close.
The Year 11 English Standard class deconstructed George Orwell's famous 'Animal Farm' and analysed a variety of documentaries for Modula A 'Contemporary Possibilities'. For their formal assessments, students wrote a well-constructed essay for Animal farm and prepared a trailer for their own documentaries based on a significant event in their lives. Some students chose a different mode and presented their stories through a very creative picture book. They were focused during each class but were especially engaged during the multimodal assessment task preparations.