Steering Standard English Course Overview

Facilitator: Emily Bosco (Bachelor of Arts, GradDipEd [Secondary], Master of English Studies)

Duration: 3 hours

NESA Career Stage Level: Proficient Teacher (NSW)

Australian Professional Standards: 2 and 3

Fee: $400 (GST inclusive)

Next In-person Course: TBC

Venue: TBC

Time: 10:00am-2:00pm

Next Live Online Course: Wednesday 13th May, 2026 (registrations close Tuesday 12th May, 2026)

Time: 10:00am-2:00pm

Platform: Zoom

On Demand Course
Overhead view of a diverse group of people in a meeting or discussion, seated around orange and beige curved sofas with laptops, notebooks, and papers on the tables, in a bright modern indoor space with white tiled floors and large windows.

Session 1: Navigating the Standard English Course

This session establishes a clear overview of the NSW Stage 6 Standard English course and its intent. Teachers will explore how the focus areas—Texts and Human Experiences, Language, Identity and Culture, and Close Study of Literature—work together across Year 12. The session focuses on aligning teaching and learning programs to syllabus outcomes, understanding knowledge and skills progression across the course, and structuring coherent teaching and learning programs that support student confidence and success.

Overhead view of a diverse group of eight people sitting and standing around a round wooden table in a bright, modern room, engaged in a discussion or meeting with laptops, notebooks, and papers.

Session 2: Teaching Texts with Intent and Coherence

This session focuses on effective approaches to teaching prescribed texts within each focus area. Teachers will examine strategies for sequencing learning, explicitly teaching textual analysis, and building conceptual understanding over time. Emphasis is placed on designing lessons and activities that support students to read closely, respond meaningfully, and develop ideas and skills that can be transferred across focus areas and assessment tasks.

All example activities and learning sequences in this session will draw on a range of current prescribed text options, including Henry Lawson Short Stories, One Night the Moon, Swallow the Air, Contemporary Asian Australian Poets, The Perseverance, and Arrival.

Classroom scene with students raising their hands during a lesson, viewed from behind a teacher at the front of the room.

Session 3: Using Formative Assessment to Improve Writing

The final session centres on leveraging formative assessment to improve student writing across the Standard English course, with particular attention on integrating The Craft of Writing. Teachers will explore practical strategies for scaffolding writing, embedding low-stakes formative assessment, and providing targeted feedback that supports improvement. The session highlights how writing development can be systematically built across the course, rather than confined to isolated assessment tasks.

Young woman in a gray sweater sitting at a desk, writing in a notebook with a yellow pencil, with other students in the background, in an indoor classroom setting.

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