Samoa Year 3 Curriculum - English

This curriculum is designed for students with Samoan as their first language, learning English as a second language. Formal instruction in written English begins in Year 3, building upon prior oral language development in Years 1 and 2. The curriculum emphasizes the interdependence of Samoan and English language skills, encouraging students to leverage their Samoan literacy to enhance their English learning.

The curriculum is structured around three interconnected strands:

1. Listening and Speaking: Focuses on developing students' understanding of spoken English and their ability to communicate effectively in various contexts. This includes developing phonemic awareness, understanding grammatical structures in oral texts, and using active listening strategies.

2. Reading and Viewing: Aims to improve students' comprehension of written and visual texts. Students learn to decode words, understand different text types and their purposes, and apply comprehension strategies such as making connections, forming hypotheses, and inferring meaning.

3. Writing and Presenting: Develops students' ability to communicate effectively through written and visual texts. This involves learning grammatical structures, understanding the relationship between text, context, purpose, and audience, and producing various text types with appropriate format and features.

These three strands are further divided into four substrands:

• Processes and Strategies: Encompasses the steps involved in comprehending and producing language, including decoding, comprehension strategies, planning, drafting, revising, and publishing.
• Language: Focuses on grammar, punctuation, phonology (sounds of language), and vocabulary development.
• Texts: Explores different text types, their purposes, audiences, and key features. It also emphasizes comprehension skills.
• Interpersonal Communication: Develops students' ability to interact effectively with others in various social and learning contexts.

Year 3 Learning Outcomes and Teaching Ideas:

The curriculum outlines specific learning outcomes and teaching ideas for each strand and substrand. For example, in Year 3, students are expected to:

• Listening and Speaking: Participate effectively in classroom interactions, use appropriate strategies to open, maintain, and close interactions, and identify similarities and differences between Samoan and English texts. Teaching ideas include practicing effective listening strategies, using formulaic expressions for communication, and incorporating non-verbal communication.
• Reading and Viewing: Use sources of information in texts, prior knowledge, and experience with Samoan to decode and understand written English. Teaching ideas include using visual, grapho-phonic, and semantic information to decode words, applying comprehension strategies, and responding to texts personally.
• Writing and Presenting: Use sources of information, prior knowledge, and experience with Samoan writing to plan, draft, revise, and publish texts. Teaching ideas include using semantic, syntactic, visual, and grapho-phonic cues for writing, applying writing strategies, and experimenting with different ways of presenting ideas.

The curriculum also emphasizes the importance of:

• Essential Skills: Developing skills such as communicating effectively, problem-solving, utilizing aesthetic judgment, and using technology.
• Values: Promoting values such as fairness, honesty, excellence, responsibility, respect, and tolerance.
• Inclusive Education: Catering to the diverse learning needs of all students, including those with special needs and gifted learners.
• Gender Equality: Ensuring equal learning opportunities for both boys and girls.

This detailed breakdown of the Samoa Year 3 English curriculum provides a comprehensive overview of the learning objectives, teaching strategies, and underlying principles that guide English language instruction.