The Australian Curriculum and the HAR -Tools for Teachers
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Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s learning: Intentional teaching
Foundation to Year 2.
Connecting the Honey Ant Reading series to the Australian Curriculum English – Foundation to Year 2.
This reading series can be used for any emerging reader or EAL/D student up to Year 2.
All texts are built around the settings, contexts and images typical of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and language groups in Northern Australia.
Communities have been pivotal in developing the stories, images and materials.
Foundation – Year 2
From Foundation to Year 2 students communicate with peers, teachers, community members, and students from other classes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts built around the community’s life, belief systems and traditions.
The Honey Ant Readers series engages children using traditional Aboriginal English to learn Standard English language through oral and written texts, visual stimulus, rhyming verse and singing. They initially engage with Aboriginal English texts (Readers 1-5) then transition to using structured Standard English (Readers 6-20).
The Honey Ant Readers series provides teachers and their children:
- with opportunities to engage with traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ stories, built around traditional language structures, to access and learn Standard English;
- with opportunities to participate in shared reading, viewing and storytelling based on traditional themes;
- with opportunities to engage in grammar, phonics, song, rhyme and rhythm and learn that texts entertain and inform readers.
The Honey Ant Readers are Literary texts that support and extend beginner readers and include predictable texts that range from caption books to books with one or more sentences per page.
These texts involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisable and realistic stories, based on community traditions and beliefs.
The Honey Ant Readers:
- provide a small range of language features, including simple punctuation , words and compound sentences;
- build upon familiar Aboriginal English , known high frequency words and single-syllable words that can be decoded phonically;
- use illustrations that strongly support the printed text and depict traditional community habits and oral stories told.
Connections to Australian Curriculum
Australian Curriculum English strands Foundation | Honey Ant Reader connection to Elaborations |
LanguageLanguage variation and change(ACELA1426) |
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(ACELA1428) |
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Text structure and organisation(ACELA1430) |
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(ACELA1431) |
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(ACELA1432) |
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LiteratureLiterature and context(ACELT1575) |
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Responding to literature(ACELT1577) |
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Examining literature(ACELT1578) |
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LiteracyText in context(ACELY1645) |
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(ACELY1784) |
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Interpreting, analysing, evaluating(ACELY1649) |
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Creating texts (ACELY1651) |
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(ACELY1652) |
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(ACELY1653) |
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Achievement standards connections
By the end of the Foundation year, students use predicting and questioning strategies to make meaning from texts. They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics. They understand that there are different types of texts and that these can have similar characteristics. They identify connections between texts and their personal experience.
They read short, predictable texts with familiar vocabulary and supportive images, drawing on their developing knowledge of concepts about print and sound and letters. They identify the letters of the English alphabet and use the sounds represented by most letters. They listen to and use appropriate language features to respond to others in a familiar environment. They listen for rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand that their texts can reflect their own experiences. They identify and describe likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events.
In informal group and whole class settings, students communicate clearly. They retell events and experiences with peers and known adults. They identify and use rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words. When writing, students use familiar words and phrases and images to convey ideas. Their writing shows evidence of sound and letter knowledge, beginning writing behaviours and experimentation with capital letters and full stops. They correctly form known upper and lowercase letters.