Samoa Year 4 English Curriculum

The English curriculum for Year 4 students in Samoa focuses on developing their English language skills through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The curriculum is designed for students who have Samoan as their first language and are learning English as a second language. It emphasizes the interdependence of Samoan and English, recognizing that skills developed in Samoan will transfer to English. The curriculum is structured around three strands: Listening and Speaking, Reading and Viewing, and Writing and Presenting. Each strand is further divided into substrands focusing on processes and strategies, language (grammar, phonology, vocabulary), texts, and interpersonal communication.

Year Four Curriculum Overview:

The Year 4 curriculum builds upon the foundational skills introduced in Year 3, with a greater emphasis on developing more complex language structures and comprehension strategies. Students are expected to demonstrate increased confidence and independence in using English across different contexts.

Key Curriculum Strands and Substrands:

• Listening and Speaking: Students practice effective listening strategies, participate actively in interactions, and provide feedback on oral presentations. They learn to analyze the success criteria for listening and speaking tasks and reflect on their own performance.
• Reading and Viewing: Students integrate different sources of information in texts, apply comprehension strategies efficiently, and respond critically to texts from a personal perspective. They also develop strategies for recognizing and producing high-frequency and subject-specific words.
• Writing and Presenting: Students use a range of strategies to plan, draft, revise, and publish written texts. They focus on using complete, grammatical sentences, standard English mechanics, and a growing vocabulary. They also develop phonemic awareness and knowledge of phonics.

Specific Learning Outcomes:

• Listening and Speaking: Participate in limited interactions in pairs, small groups, and whole class settings, using mainly formulaic and some new structures. Exchange personal experiences and information, communicate feelings and attitudes, and express personal identity. Use routine formulas fluently and take risks with their own constructions.
• Reading and Viewing: Analyze and respond to a range of simplified texts designed for different purposes and audiences within familiar contexts. Use and integrate sources of information in texts, along with prior knowledge and experience of reading in Samoan, to decode and encode written English. Apply comprehension strategies in combination with processing strategies.
• Writing and Presenting: Demonstrate awareness of basic conventions of English to convey basic information, ideas, and creativity. Use complete, grammatical simple sentences when producing written texts. Apply standard English mechanics of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Use a productive vocabulary of at least 300 frequent words.

Emphasis on Bilingualism:

The curriculum acknowledges the importance of Samoan language skills in English language development. Students are encouraged to draw on their Samoan language skills and experiences to aid their comprehension and production of English texts.

Assessment:

Assessment is an integral part of the curriculum and is used to monitor student progress, inform teaching practices, and provide feedback to learners and parents. A variety of assessment methods are used, including observation, class activities, and student-created products.