Literacy for learning: Australian edition Readings MODULE

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Reading 1
Curriculum genres in the secondary context
This article was written by Nanette Smibert, Project Manager, Literacy Secretariat, Department
for Education and Child Development, specifically for Literacy for learning.

The literacy demands of learning areas become increasingly specialised and complex as students
move from the primary to the secondary schooling context. As they engage with the disciplinary
based curriculum of secondary school, students encounter learning area texts that are increasingly
technical and abstract and involve patterns of language that are unfamiliar to them. They are also
expected to know and construct knowledge in ways that are very specific to each of the learning
areas. The genres students are required to comprehend and compose, especially for assessment
purposes, depend on the conventions of disciplinary practices (Moje 2008). This is evident in the
Australian Curriculum and the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) where achievement
depends on students being able to comprehend and compose genres specified within learning area
curriculum documents.
The disciplinary ways of knowing and communicating in secondary school are commonly expressed
through texts that are multi-modal (they integrate visual, spoken and/or multimedia elements) and
macro-genres (they combine aspects of more than one genre). Students transition from primary to
secondary school with a foundational knowledge of reading and writing common school genres. For
example, they should be familiar with narrative, procedure, sequential explanation and persuasive
writing, the latter being the current focus in National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy
(NAPLAN) writing. As students engage with higher order disciplinary knowledge, they are commonly
assessed through tasks that require more complex versions of these foundational genres or the
production of macro-genres.
Unfamiliar macro-genres such as scientific investigations, historical source analyses, mathematical
investigations and investigative reports become integral to learning area assessment. The
investigative report is a common assessment type across various subjects in senior secondary and
requires aspects of procedural, descriptive, persuasive and evaluative writing and, commonly, visual
and diagrammatic representations as well. Geography field reports and design and technology
evaluations are further examples of secondary schooling genres where aspects of different genres are
combined in response to the specific purposes and conventions of learning areas.
As well as the combining of genres, the language complexity of genres also increases with the
demands of discipline knowledge and academic discourse at secondary school. Composing in a
particular genre imposes certain language choices on the writer, including the level of technicality,
formality and ‘expertness’. However, while each discipline’s ways of communicating determine
language choices, there are also some common features across texts. Dense information, abstraction
and an authoritative voice are the norm for senior secondary school texts (Fang & Schleppegrell
2010).
According to Christie and Derewianka (2008), the literacy demands of subjects such as History and
Science require students to develop increasingly abstract language as they enter mid-adolescence. In
History, primary school practices such as recounting and describing events in chronological order
then move towards the interpretation and explanation genres of early secondary school. In turn,
historical inquiry and conflicting accounts of history and exposition (historiography) become the
genres of senior secondary history. This developing complexity through the schooling years is
represented in Table 1 where aspects of the Australian Curriculum and SACE Stage 2 History
demonstrate the increasing challenge in the key genres of the history curriculum.

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 MODULE Readings Literacy for learning: Australian edition
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SACE History
Australian Curriculum Literacy capability: Text knowledge Subject outline:
Assessment

Year 6 Year 8 Year 10 Examples of Stage 2

History assessment
task types

● historical recounts ● historical recounts ● historical recounts Essay

of a series of events
with some
summative
commentary
● historical narratives
that retell past
events, for example
from a particular
personal or cultural
perspective
● detailed
descriptions of
particular places from
the past
demonstrating use of
source material
● persuasive texts, for
example presenting a
particular point of
view in relation to an
historical event or
figure
of a series of events of a series of events ● formulation of a
with some or developments hypothesis and/or
summative within a focusing question/s
commentary chronological
● relevant research
● historical narratives framework with
some summative or ● critical analysis
that retell past
events, for example evaluative ● conclusions
from a particular commentary ● appropriate
personal or cultural ● explanations, for acknowledgment of
perspective example that sources
● detailed consider past events
descriptions, for from a particular
personal or cultural Examination
example of particular
places from the past perspective ● essays x 2
demonstrating use of ● detailed ● source analysis
evidence from descriptions of
sources particular places
● explanations, for from the past
example that present demonstrating use
the causes of an of evidence from
event primary and
secondary sources,
● discussion texts
using appropriate
with supporting
referencing
evidence
● discussion texts, for
example that present
historical arguments
with supporting
evidence

© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2012. Accessed July 2012 at
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/General%20capabilities.pdf, p 19

Table 1: History genres identified in the Australian Curriculum (Literacy capability) and the SACE

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Literacy knowledge is a pedagogical challenge for secondary teachers who do not have a deep
pedagogical understanding of the curriculum literacies of their subjects. As a result, teachers may be
unaware of how to explicitly teach their curriculum literacies or may incorrectly assume that students
have already developed the language necessary to access curriculum and compose learning area texts
by the time they enter secondary school. A further assumption may be that another learning area is
taking responsibility for teaching the specific curriculum literacies of their learning area. In fact,
without systematic explicit teaching, many students are unable to make the transition from everyday
commonsense language to the complex and abstract language needed to engage with learning area
curriculum. Therefore, it is essential that all teachers develop understanding of the language demands
of assessment genres and explicitly and systematically scaffold students’ language and literacy learning.
This is made clear in the Australian Curriculum: Literacy capability (ACARA 2012), where it is
highlighted that:

● all teachers are responsible for teaching the subject-specific literacy of their
learning area
● all teachers need a clear understanding of the literacy demands and opportunities
of their learning area
● literacy appropriate to each learning area can be embedded in the teaching of the
content and processes of that learning area.

© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2012. Accessed July 2012 at
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Literacy/
Introduction/Literacy-across-the-curriculum

A balanced literacy program is fundamental to teaching learning area genres in an explicit and
systematic manner. However, a balanced literacy program is dependent on teacher knowledge of how
to move from creating familiar texts with the everyday language of the ‘here and now’ to texts that
demonstrate more complexity, formality and distance in the secondary context.
The first step towards a balanced literacy program is whole-school genre mapping of curriculum-
specified genres for each learning area. During the process of genre mapping, learning area teams are
increasingly able to identify their responsibility for teaching the demands of reading and writing (and
other modes) in specific genres and to ensure balance coverage across the curriculum. Table 2 is an
overview of secondary genres produced by an Adelaide secondary school. This overview is used to:
● begin the process of focusing learning area teams on their curriculum genres
● support discussion across the school about whole-school approaches to building student
knowledge through the middle years in preparation for the demands of senior school curriculum.

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 MODULE Readings Literacy for learning: Australian edition
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Examples of learning
Developing a school genre map: area/subject responsible for
Step 1—Overview of secondary genres explicitly teaching of genre

Narrative English, LOTE

Temporal (eg sequential explanation, Science, History, Geography,

causal explanation, historical account) Design and Technology, PE
Explanation
Non-temporal (factorial explanation, Science (Physics, Chemistry),
consequential explanation, theoretical Geography
explanation)

Comparative report Tourism, Science

Investigation/ Practical investigation report Science investigation,

Analytical Geography field report
Report
(only some Mathematical investigation report Maths
examples provided)
Investigative report Business and Enterprise,
Tourism, Child Studies, ESL, PE

Argument various learning areas

Exposition/
Discussion various learning areas
Persuasive
Challenge various learning areas

Review (eg drama performance review, English, Arts, Food and

food and hospitality restaurant review) Hospitality
Response/
Interpretation Arts, History
Critical
Reflection
Personal response English, Arts

Evaluation Design and Technology,

Research Project, Arts

Table 2: An overview of genres developed by an Adelaide secondary school as the first step in the process of developing a school genre map

Student engagement with secondary curriculum is dependent on all teachers knowing and
systematically teaching the literacy practices used to construct knowledge in their learning area. In
addressing discipline-specific genres, teachers recognise that as knowledge becomes more
specialised so does the language that students need to comprehend and to use when writing texts.
In other words, the language resources necessary for reading and writing foundational genres in
primary school cannot support the increasing language demands of complex learning area texts as
students move through secondary school. The scaffolding of these literacy resources, within a
balanced whole-school literacy program, is the fundamental role of secondary learning area teachers.

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References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2012) The Australian
Curriculum, General Capabilities: Literacy. Accessed 24 May 2012 at <http://www.australian
curriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/General%20capabilities.pdf>.
Christie F & Derewianka B (2008) School discourse. London, Continuum International Publishing
Group.
Fang Z & Schleppegrell MJ (2010) ‘Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary
reading through functional language analysis’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(7),
587–597.
Moje E (2008) ‘Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for
change’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96–107.

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