English Teachers Association
Community
Communication of Knowledge
Student activity in English involves responding to and composing texts. Students are also expected to reflect on their own processes of responding, composing and learning.
In their responding students read, listen to and view texts.
In their composing they write, speak and represent information and ideas.
The introduction of new technology also brings the expectation of interactivity. Here students are responding and composing at the same time. Interactivity can also be seen as an important metaphor to understand the ways literary theory has explained how we compose and respond to texts of the more traditional kind. An engaged and active reader brings his or her own experience to bear on the text and in so doing creates a distinctive response to it.
Students are required to respond to and compose texts in different forms, modes and media. For this reason the traditional essay has become only one way of assessing students' understanding of how texts work. They now need to make judgements about what is appropriate for a particular purpose and audience as well as with particular resources at their disposal. They also need to develop their creative and imaginative capacities. So, you will often find that your child has been set such tasks as writing a dialogue, presenting a speech or storyboarding a documentary. Frequently students are asked to compose the kinds of texts that are used in the workplace such as brochures, meeting minutes or reports. Each task students receive is designed to establish what is understood about the content of a text as well as a particular form, mode or medium of texts.