Back to Speaking and Listening
Task summary
The students were asked to discuss the life lessons in
The Giver by Lois Lowry. Students had previously read the novel and analysed sections of the novel in class, focusing on life lessons represented in the novel.
Duration: 8 minutes 6 seconds
Level 8 Sample 1 transcript (docx - 54.49kb)
Level 8 English, Speaking and Listening achievement standard (extract only)
This speaking sample provides evidence of student achievement for:
This sample provides evidence of student achievement for parts of the Reading and Viewing achievement standard, too:
… They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts … They select evidence from the text to show how events, situations and people can be represented from different viewpoints.
For more information, please see:
Victorian Curriculum F–10: English- Level 8 – Reading and Viewing
Video with annotations against achievement standard extracts for Speaking and Listening only
The students:
Reference and paraphrase from the text to add authority ('in Jonas's community …')
Select vocabulary to intensify and sharpen focus ('there's no feeling of fulfilment', 'enslaved to this sort of thinking')
Use figurative language ('Similarly, it's just like eating without a sense of taste.')
The students:
Give an extended explanation and evaluation of a complex concept, issue or process ('The Giver … shows perspective …')
Use metalanguage to discuss aspects of the text (e.g. 'allegory', 'metaphorically').
Use rhetorical devices to engage the audience, including drawing on real world events (e.g. belief in climate change) and rhetorical questions ('If you don't think that climate change exists, what is it going to do for Australia's future generation?')
Identify and paraphrase key points of a speaker's argument ('So, you're saying that our world, their world, is in jeopardy'.
The students:
Use a range of evaluative language to express opinions or convey emotions ('So there's no way that a society can improve or benefit …', 'It's not very successful …')
Reference and paraphrase from the text to add authority ('especially at the end, when the memories are released').
Planning the next stage of student learning
When planning the next stage of the teaching and learning program to progress these students' learning, focus on the following skills and knowledge:
Level 8
- Share, reflect on, clarify and evaluate opinions and arguments about aspects of literary texts (VCELT425)
- Interpret the stated and implied meanings in spoken texts, and use interaction skills including voice and language conventions to discuss evidence that supports or challenges different perspectives (VCELY426)
Level 9
- Reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary value and how and why such notions vary according to context (VCELT454)
Remember to attend to the Reading and Viewing learning needs of the students. For example, focus on the following skills and knowledge:
Level 8
- Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures, individual people and concerns represented in texts (VCELT406)
- Identify and evaluate devices that create tone in literary texts, including humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody (VCELT408)
Level 9
- Present an argument about a literary text based on initial impressions and subsequent analysis of the whole text (VCELT436)