Phase 4 English Curriculum - Department Scheme
This scheme is designed to support Heads of Departments and teachers to plan, teach and assess year 9 and 10 students under phase 4 of the New Zealand Curriculum. This is a single fully editable document that we're sure will become your 'go-to'!
It is acknowledged that much of this document will live an organic life in your department and that you will tweak things as you go. There may also be some things you want to change from the beginning to better suit your preferences. This is why we have provided an editable document. While we have worked hard to represent the requirements of the Phase 4 curriculum, at no stage would we assume to have all the answers for every department. We are all learning as we go – eg: perhaps you’ll design a much different rubric for the listening that we have here.
Features include:
❤️ Administrative details
- An overview of the structure of phase 4.
- Pages to help you catalogue department texts, checking against forms and range.
- Templates to help you plan an annual programme for each year level, and note sequence and timings.
❤️ Text Studies (information 'in')
- One-pagers for each text form showing curriculum requirements organised in a realistic teaching sequence. As well as curriculum requirements, we've added:
- Processes and features that we think are necessary (ie: based on our own expertise).
- A list of features relevant to each text form - eg: for novel, what we study about plot, characterisation, setting etc.
- Ideas about how you can embed mātauranga Māori into your text studies.
- These one-pagers are designed as 'grab and go' resources and should be particularly helpful for beginning teachers.
- Links at the bottom of each page take you to relevant text tests, student checklists and assessment rubrics for responses and literary essays.
- Text forms include: novel, short story, poetry, film drama text, non-fiction (auto/biography, documentary, podcasts and speeches).
❤️ Language Studies (information 'out')
- One-pagers with teaching sequences and lists of features for each genre, as above.
- These cover discursive, persuasive and creative writing, literary essays, visual and digital texts, presenting (individually/collectively), listening (includes questioning).
❤️ Texts Tests
- Great for recapping, exam revision etc.
- Text forms covered: Prose fiction, poetry, film, non-fiction.
❤️ Student Checklists
- Use as guides of for reviewing.
- Checklists are included for: response to a text, literary essay, discursive, persuasive and creative writing, visual and digital presentation, individual oral presentation, listening (includes questioning).
❤️Assessment Rubrics:
- Designed around the concept of moving from Te Kore (but where one has unlimited potential) and into Te Ao Marama, the world of light. We use the symbol of the pōhutukawa to represent the developmental stages of our curriculum (from emerging to exceeding).
- Rubrics are included for: response to a text, literary essay, discursive, persuasive and creative writing, visual and digital presentation, individual oral presentation, listening (includes questioning).
- It is acknowledged that these in particular are something you may want to edit to suit your own preferences. We have based each rubric around the expected level of achievement for students at Years 9 and 10.
NAVIGATION HEAVEN:
- Clickable table of contents.
- Images at top right of every page take you back to the table of contents.
- Tabs down the side let you click to different sections. (These do not show when document is printed.)
- Hyperlinks throughout.
Formats:
🖥️ Microsoft PowerPoint, resized to an A4 page. This means your resource:
- Is completely editable.
- Will easily upload to your Google Drive if you prefer the Googley suite.
- Is printable 📃
🖥️ A PDF version of each document.
****************************
Also helpful are these related resources:
✅ *** YouTube - Phase 4 Explanatory Video ***
✅ Teaching a Text - A Wee Guide for Kiwi Teachers
✅ Digital and Printable Planning Pack
****************************
Stay in the know!
✿ Add some joy to your inbox with tips, freebies and the latest resources.
✿ Subscribe to our YouTube channel
✿ Follow us on TikTok
✿ Follow us on Instagram
✿ Follow our Facebook page
✿ Follow us on TPT.
Sharing/Copying this Resource
Feel free to purchase just one for your department - no need for a copy for each teacher. However:
- Please do NOT share with the school down the road.
- Please do NOT take it with you to a new school.
- Feel free to suggest the website to others - that'd be great!
That's pretty fair I think! Let's help each other out. :)
Reviews
This editable resource is an absolute Godsend. I've spent a bit of time cataloguing the texts that we have, for those short stories, poems, etc, that we all have and rarely open because it becomes too hard to remember which story is in which book. Unpacking of the phase is also fantastic, so easy to navigate and keep up with. I paid for this with my own money, as our budgets have closed and I have absolutely no regrets at all. Just do it!
This resource is invaluable. It was the focus for our recent Dept. PD day 'exploring' Phase 4. It provides comprehensive guidance, and checklists for both the language conventions required to be taught at each level, and the aspects within each literary genre. Clear progressions are suggested to ensure coverage through Yrs 9 and 10. The scheme also provides possible rubrics for assessing skills and understanding through the phase. Highly recommend for both experienced and new teachers.
Great base to work with, although extremely dense. I have adapted and simplified the templates and taken out most of the repeated material. E.g. the 'Features of Texts' section of the analysis pages was the same for all text types. We have also started using Writer's Toolbox, and so I have gone through and aligned all the skills with that. I have made a teacher's copy for each teacher to add their own texts and notes to, and managed to condense this down to 41 pages.
Thanks
One of the best things about Drive Resour products, this included, is that they provide the scaffolding for schools and departments to edit it to their unique akonga and circumstances. You have put in the hard yards for us and I am excited to use this and adapt it as we move forward. Thanks again!
This has been such a help as a 'base resource' as we begin the massive task of planning for the new curriculum. It is very comprehensive, and I LOVE that it is editable. There are some really great ideas embedded into the document. Definitely worth the purchase to get things rolling.