In 2019, a new English Senior Secondary syllabus (QCAA, 2019) was implemented in all schools across Queensland, Australia. This syllabus, incorporating high-stakes external examinations and supporting documents, instigated a shift in the teaching and assessing of senior secondary English that has been both challenging and revitalising for…

This review essay begins with the premise that we are all writers. However, for a number of reasons, many teachers struggle to identify as writers and teachers of writing. In the current environment, the need for schools to adopt pedagogical practices facilitating the development of disciplinary literacies means that teachers cannot avoid the task…

In this paper JoAnne Reid explains why she is confident about the benefits of programming, and uses this opportunity to reflect upon Garth Boomer's influence on her own teaching practice. Reid adds "I think more theoretically about programming in my own situation of practice--teacher education." Using Boomer's own work on programming,…

How might a tertiary English teacher use Garth Boomer's ideas on "teaching against the grain" to challenge the rules and assumptions that dominate the Academic Language and Learning (ALL) industry in the university sector today? How might such a teacher use Boomer's ideas to enact "emancipatory pedagogies" (or something like…

Describes the results of an effort to introduce elective courses in English to students in form three. (RB)

Argues for the development of new literary texts and for the development of new and appropriate literary theories to teach these texts. (HOD)

Discusses the need for a reformed English curriculum. (HOD)

Reviews the 1991 position paper on the teaching of English by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE). Notes the paper reads like an old-fashioned manifesto from an era of homogenized assumptions. Suggests a new paper should endorse the primacy of professional knowledge of English teachers in determining what should be…

Summarizes some of the ideas presented and discussed at the sixty-second annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English held in November 1972. (TO)

Offers guidelines, activities, and teaching methods that can be used in English classrooms serving bilingual, multicultural, and migrant youth. (RL)

Explains that throughout the past one hundred years, the question of how Shakespeare plays should be taught has been a point of contention in the New South Wales secondary English curriculum. Outlines the two main stances, the traditional literature-based approach and the active approach with emphasis on the text as play script. Discusses the…

Presents brief essays by teachers of English in Australian primary and secondary schools in a bid to convey images of accomplished teaching. Introduction by Brenton Doecke, includes "Negotiating the Curriculum" (Lynne Collidge); "Year 7 Autobiographies" (Chris Melican); "Taking Ownership" (Cheryl Lawson);…

Presents six brief (about one page) narratives by primary and secondary teachers arising from STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia) workshops and interpretive discussions. Notes that each narrative describes a moment of "good" English/literacy teaching. (SG)

Presents Australian high school student responses to questions about what they do in school, how they do it, what they think, and how they feel. Proposes that teachers can learn from these responses, possibly adapting their teaching procedure because of student comments. (RL)

Relates the evaluation of a secondary school writing program that concentrated on three areas: (1) the level of group participation and group feeling generated in the classroom, (2) the level of security felt by students and teacher within the process approach, and (3) the linking of the students' reading and writing. (HOD)