Understand this general capability

Literacy

Introduction

What is Literacy?

In the Australian educational context, literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes.

Literacy enables students to: access, understand, analyse and evaluate information and ideas, express thoughts and emotions; present ideas and opinions; and interact with others. All these skills are needed to engage with learning the Australian Curriculum.

What is the Literacy general capability?

The Version 9.0 Australian Curriculum: Literacy general capability is presented as a Literacy learning progression.
The Literacy learning progression complements the Australian Curriculum: English by providing more fine-grained descriptions of literacy development. This can support teachers to accurately monitor students’ literacy development and consider how to approach teaching aspects of the English curriculum.

The Literacy learning progression describes the increasing complexity of Standard Australian English and the common developmental pathway of literacy learning across the 3 elements of Speaking and listening, Reading and viewing, and Writing. By providing a comprehensive description of literacy development, this progression gives teachers a tool that complements the essential content in the Australian Curriculum: English. It can help them to develop targeted teaching and learning programs for students who are working at, above or below year-level expectations.

How can you use the Literacy learning progression?

While the Literacy learning progression describes the expected trajectory of skill development, not all students will progress through every progression level in a uniform manner. It is important to remember that indicators at a progression level are not a prescriptive list and the progression is not designed to be used as a checklist. The indicators at each progression level are not hierarchical and students may demonstrate skills and understandings across 2 or more levels.

The Literacy learning progression can be used to support students to successfully engage with the literacy demands of the Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum. It is designed to:

establish which literacy skills a student understands and can apply
identify any gaps in students’ literacy skills and knowledge
plan for the next steps to progress learning, in specific aspects of literacy.

Teachers can use the Literacy learning progression to support the development of targeted teaching and learning programs and to set clearer learning goals for individual students. For example, teaching decisions can be based on judgements about students' skill levels that relate to a single indicator rather than all indicators at a level.

The content and achievement standards of the English curriculum are the reference points for the teaching and learning of all aspects of English. Most of the English curriculum content has been aligned to the Literacy learning progression. This alignment is to a sub-element level, so it is likely that only some of the indicators will relate to a particular content description.

Structure

Elements and sub-elements

The Literacy general capability is organised into 3 elements as shown in Figure 1:

Speaking and listening
Reading and viewing
Writing

Figure 1: Literacy elements

Each element includes sub-elements that represent evidence-based aspects of literacy development. The sub-elements are organised into progression levels. The number of levels in each sub-element varies, and is determined by available research and evidence. For example, the Phonic knowledge and word recognition sub-element (in the Reading element) has 9 levels whereas Creating texts (in the Writing element) has 11 levels, so students may enter and exit levels over quite different timeframes.

Some sub-elements represent constrained skills, which are those that can be learned in a limited amount of time. Once they are achieved, they require no further teaching. These are Phonological awareness, Phonic knowledge and word recognition, Fluency, Handwriting and keyboarding. Some students may require a longer period of time to achieve these skills. The other sub-elements represent unconstrained skills, which continue to develop.

There is no suggested timeframe for the achievement of progression levels, and they do not represent equal intervals of time in a student's learning. Students may demonstrate skills across more than one progression level. The progression levels in each sub-element are discreet and are not designed to align across sub-elements. The sub-element levels are labelled "P" (progression) and the level number; for example, “P4”.

Literacy and the Australian Curriculum: English

The Australian Curriculum: English describes the knowledge, understandings and skills to be taught in each year of school. The Literacy learning progression describes the typical trajectory of development of literacy skills. It complements the Australian Curriculum: English by providing more fine-grained descriptions of literacy development, to support teachers to accurately monitor students’ literacy development, across all learning areas. The content of the English curriculum is associated with the Literacy learning progression, in the same way, that it is associated with other general capabilities.

The sections that follow use a series of diagrams to explain the Literacy sub-elements, the levels of the Literacy learning progression and their relationship to the Australian Curriculum: English. For more information, see Appendix 1: Literacy learning progression, Appendix 2: Text complexity and Appendix 3: Planning for teaching English and other learning areas.

Speaking and listening

The Speaking and listening element includes 3 sub-elements.

These sub-elements are:

Listening
Interacting
Speaking.

Listening

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient at building meaning from a variety of spoken and audio texts. It includes active listening processes to access and understand the increasingly sophisticated language structures of spoken texts for audiences and purposes specific to learning area requirements.

Interacting

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient in two-way interaction processes, to clarify and create understanding. Students interact across an increasing range of curriculum contexts and purposes in pair, group or whole-class oral interactions, expressing their ideas clearly and persuasively and building on the ideas of others.

Speaking

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient at selecting language and using their voice to express and share ideas, appropriate to audience, purpose and task, in planned speaking situations. It includes the development of skills and techniques to demonstrate understanding through fluent, coherent, cohesive speech, for audiences and purposes specific to learning areas and for broader audiences.

The following diagrams demonstrate the alignment of the Australian Curriculum: English with the Speaking and listening sub-elements.

Figure 2 represents the alignment of the Speaking and listening sub-elements (Listening, Interacting and Speaking) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years F–2 levels. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

The levels P1a–P1c, marked with an asterisk, address aspects of early Speaking and listening that students would commonly achieve prior to starting school.

Figure 2: Speaking and listening Years F–2

Figure 3 represents the alignment of the Speaking and listening sub-elements (Listening; Interacting and Speaking) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years 3–6 levels. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

Figure 3: Speaking and listening Years 3–6

Figure 4 represents the alignment of the Speaking and listening sub-elements (Listening, Interacting and Speaking) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years 7–10 levels. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

Figure 4: Speaking and listening Years 7–10

READING AND VIEWING

The Reading and viewing element includes 4 sub-elements.

These sub-elements are:

Phonological awareness
Phonic knowledge and word recognition
Fluency
Understanding texts

Phonological awareness

This sub-element describes how a student becomes aware of, and able to work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It includes blending phonemes to create words, segmenting words into phonemes, and manipulating the phonemes in spoken words. Phonological awareness is essential for students to understand the relationship between spoken and written text and to support students ‘sounding out’ words in print.

Phonic knowledge and word recognition

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient at using letter-sound (graph- phoneme) relationships to decode phonetically regular words and visual knowledge to automatically recognise high- frequency words. Phonic knowledge and word recognition are important skills students use to decode and spell words.

Fluency

This sub-element describes how a student becomes progressively faster, smoother, more accurate and expressive as they read aloud increasingly complex print text.

Understanding texts

Understanding texts is a holistic sub-element that is supported by the other sub-elements in the Reading element.

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient in decoding, using, analysing and evaluating texts, to build meaning. It describes how students learn, apply, integrate and adapt strategies and skills as they engage with increasingly complex texts, for a range of purposes. Texts include components of print, image, sound, animation and symbolic representations, in a range of forms including digital forms.

The following diagrams demonstrate the alignment of the Australian Curriculum: English with the Reading and viewing sub-elements.

Figure 5 represents the alignment of the Reading and viewing sub-elements (Phonological awareness, Phonic knowledge and word recognition, Fluency, and Understanding texts) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years F–2 levels. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

The levels P1a– P1b, marked with an asterisk, address aspects of early reading that students would commonly achieve prior to starting school.

Figure 5: Reading and viewing Years F–2

Figure 6 represents the alignment of the Reading and viewing sub-elements (Phonological awareness, Phonic knowledge and word recognition, Fluency, and Understanding texts) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years 3–6 levels. Most students in the later primary years will have achieved all of the levels of the constrained sub-elements, such as Phonological awareness, which are associated with learning to read. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

Figure 6: Reading and viewing Years 3–6

Figure 7 represents the alignment of the Reading and viewing sub-element Understanding texts with the Australian Curriculum: English Years 7–10 levels. Most students moving into secondary school have achieved all the levels of the constrained skills, such as Phonological awareness, which are associated with learning to read. The emphasis in secondary school is reading to learn. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

Figure 7: Reading and viewing Years 7–10

WRITING

The Writing element includes 5 sub-elements.

These sub-elements are:

Creating texts
Grammar
Punctuation
Spelling
Handwriting and keyboarding

Creating texts

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient at creating texts for a range of purposes and audiences across learning areas. Students’ writing moves from representing basic concepts and simple ideas to conveying abstract concepts and complex ideas, in line with the demands of the learning areas. Creating texts is a holistic sub-element, which is supported by the other sub-elements in the Writing elements.

Grammar

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient at creating coherent and cohesive, grammatically accurate written texts. Students develop control over grammar at the whole text, sentence and word group level.

Punctuation

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient at using correct punctuation to ensure clarity and ease of reading in the texts they create. As students write more complex and technical texts, they will use increasingly complex punctuation to support meaning.

Spelling

This sub-element describes how a student becomes increasingly proficient in selecting and arranging letters to form accurately spelt words, to ensure written texts are clear and easily understood. Students develop increasing skill and knowledge in using spelling as a tool to understand and create meaning in texts. At higher levels of the progression, students monitor their own spelling and explain how spelling affects meaning.

Handwriting and keyboarding

This sub-element describes how a student uses handwriting and keyboarding skills with increasing speed, accuracy and fluency, to compose and edit texts. It describes how a student develops a fluent, legible handwriting style, beginning with unjoined letters and transitioning to joined handwriting.

The following diagrams demonstrate the alignment of the Australian Curriculum: English with the Writing sub-elements.

Figure 8 represents the alignment of the Writing sub-elements (Creating texts, Handwriting and keyboarding, Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years F–2 levels. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

The levels P1a–P1b, marked with an asterisk, address aspects of early reading that students would commonly achieve prior to starting school.

Figure 8: Writing Years F–2

Figure 9 represents the alignment of the Writing sub-elements (Creating texts, Handwriting and keyboarding, Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years 3–6 levels. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

Figure 9: Writing Years 3–6

Figure 10 represents the alignment of the Writing sub-elements (Creating texts, Handwriting and keyboarding, Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling) with the Australian Curriculum: English Years 7–10 levels. Most students moving into secondary school have achieved all the levels of the constrained skills, such as Handwriting and keyboarding, which are associated with learning to write. By Year 9 most students have also achieved all the levels of the sub-elements of Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling. Students are applying these to achieve the 2 highest levels of Creating texts: P10 and P11. There are often multiple Literacy learning progression levels within an English curriculum year level and the progression levels may span across year levels of the curriculum. The number of progression levels is determined by the research evidence and is not the same for each sub-element.

Figure 10: Writing Years 7–10

Key connections

General capabilities support and deepen student engagement with learning area content and are best developed within the context of the learning area.

In English, literacy is developed through the study of the English language in all its spoken, written and visual forms. Literacy equips students with the skills to confidently listen to, read, view, speak, write and create texts in all learning areas. As students develop literacy skills, they understand how language use is determined by different contexts. They develop the skills to acquire and build knowledge and understanding, and to communicate their emotions, opinions and ideas with others. Through analysing, interpreting and evaluating a range of texts, students understand language features and conventions, and are exposed to a broad vocabulary.

In Humanities and Social Sciences, students develop the literacy capability as they learn how to build knowledge in relation to historical, geographical, civic, economic and business information, concepts and ideas. Students progressively learn to use a wide range of informational, persuasive and imaginative texts in multiple modes. These texts include stories, narrative recounts, reports, explanations, arguments, debates, timelines, maps, tables, graphs and images, often supported by references from primary and secondary sources.

Students learn to make increasingly sophisticated language and text choices, understanding that language varies according to context, including the nature and stages of their inquiry. They learn to use language features and text structures to comprehend and compose cohesive texts about places, people, events, processes, systems and perspectives of the past, present and future. These include topic-specific vocabulary, appropriate verb tenses, and complex sentences that describe sequential, cause-and-effect and comparative relationships. Students recognise how language and images can be used to make and manipulate meaning, and evaluate texts for shades of meaning and opinion. Students also participate in debates and discussions, and develop a considered point of view when communicating conclusions, and preferred social and environmental futures to a range of audiences.

Health and Physical Education develops literacy by introducing specific terminology used in health and physical activity contexts. Students understand the language used to describe health status, products, information and services. They become critical consumers able to access, interpret, analyse, evaluate and challenge the changing knowledge base in health and physical education.

Students also learn to comprehend and compose texts related to Health and Physical Education. This includes learning to communicate effectively to different audiences for a variety of purposes. Students learn to express their ideas, evaluate others’ viewpoints and express their emotions appropriately in different social and physical activity contexts.

Languages develops students’ ability to listen to, read, view, create, and perform a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts in the target language. It provides opportunities for students to move between the target language and English to analyse, interpret and reflect on texts. Students enhance and extend their knowledge and understanding of English literacy, and use their knowledge of English literacy to support their learning in the target language. They develop increasing fluency in the second or additional language. They also develop the ability to reflect on and discuss their understanding of language as a system, using the metalanguage of English.

Learning an additional language(s) and English is mutually beneficial to literacy development. This is reflected in the links between language learning and the National Literacy Learning Progression (NLLP) in the Australian Curriculum: Languages. Content is linked to the expected level of literacy development that students, typically, would have achieved at each year/band of years. For example, students in Year 8 are likely to be operating at Level 6 in the Speaking sub-element of the NLLP. These students may not be operating at Level 6 Speaking in a second or additional language(s). However, the teacher can make connections and draw on students’ English literacy skills to support their learning of the second or additional language(s).

Mathematics focuses on developing the skills and understandings necessary for students to communicate their thinking, reasoning and solutions to problems using appropriate mathematical language, notation and symbology within the context of given situations. Students learn the vocabulary associated with mathematical concepts, skills, procedures and processes in number, algebra, space, measurement, statistics and probability. This vocabulary includes technical terminology and common words with specific meanings in a mathematical context. Students also learn that context affects the understanding of mathematical terminology, and that mathematical understandings are expressed using particular language forms and features. Students use their developing literacy skills to interpret and create a variety of texts that typically relate to mathematics. These range from calendars and maps to complex data displays and statistical reports. Students use literacy skills to understand and interpret contexts and problem situations, and formulate them into mathematical and statistical questions using the language features of mathematics and statistics. They pose and answer questions, discuss and collaborate in mathematical problem solving, and produce and justify solutions.

In Science, students develop literacy capability as they explore and investigate their world. They comprehend and compose texts including those that give information; describe events and phenomena; recount experiments; present and evaluate data; give explanations; and present ideas, opinions and claims. They comprehend and compose multimodal texts such as charts, graphs, diagrams, pictures, maps, animations, models and visual media. Language structures and text structures are used to link information and ideas, give descriptions and explanations, formulate hypotheses and construct evidence-based arguments capable of expressing an informed position.

Scientific vocabulary is often technical and includes specific terms for concepts and features of the world, as well as terms that encapsulate an entire process in a single word, such as a "photosynthesis". Language is therefore essential in providing the link between the concept itself and student understanding, and assessing whether the student has understood the concept.

Learning in Technologies requires students to apply literacy knowledge and skills to listen to, interpret, evaluate, respond to and create a range of increasingly challenging procedural and explanatory texts, such as patterns, recipes, manuals, instructions and specifications, and persuasive texts such as marketing materials for a new product.

In Technologies students integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats; interpret, analyse and assess descriptions, reports and data; and navigate texts to locate information. Students recognise and appropriately use technical symbols, icons and key terms which may have generic uses as well as context-specific uses in technical topics.

Students create clear and coherent informative, explanatory and persuasive texts using precise vocabulary and terminology, appropriate structures and formats, and a range of visual and diagrammatic elements. They develop and organise texts using a format and style appropriate to particular tasks and audiences. They produce and publish a range of texts including annotated engineering or technical drawings, software instructions and programs, project outlines, briefs and management plans in which information and ideas are accurate, relevant, supported by evidence and examples, and cited, where needed.

In The Arts, students use literacy to develop, apply and communicate their knowledge and skills as artists and as audiences. Through arts learning students enhance and extend their literacy skills as they create, compose, design, analyse, comprehend, discuss, interpret or evaluate their own and others’ arts works. Each subject in The Arts requires students to learn and use specific terminology with increasing complexity and sophistication as they move through the curriculum. Students learn that Arts terminology is dynamic and flexible, can be symbolic, is not always expressed through words and varies according to context.

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