Recounts
Students who have achieved Stage 3 have a sound basic knowledge of how to use English. This enables them to experiment with their talking, listening, reading and writing on different topics for an increasing range of purposes and a variety of audiences.
Students structure their written texts coherently according to the social purpose of the text type. They write well-structured sentences and use a variety of grammatical features effectively. They try to adjust their writing to meet readers’ needs and plan, review and proofread their writing. They can construct texts for different purposes and audiences, using computer technology. They spell most common words accurately and use a variety of strategies to spell less common words. They consistently use correct punctuation and write in a fluent, legible style.
Social Purpose Recounts ‘tell what happened’. The purpose of a factual recount is to document a series of events and evaluate their significance in some way. The purpose of the literary or story recount is to tell a sequence of events so that it entertains. The story recount has expressions of attitude and feeling, usually made by the narrator about the events.
Structure Recounts are organised to include: an orientation providing information about ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘when’; a record of events, usually recounted in chronological order; personal comments and/or evaluative remarks that are interspersed throughout the record of events; a reorientation that ‘rounds off’ the sequence of events.
Indicators • Responds to recounts in more varied ways, e.g. creating epilogues, prologues, book reviews/reports, character analysis. • Writes detailed descriptions using imagery. • Writes research accounts, e.g. historical, biographical, recording information from at least one source before writing.
Grammar Focus Using the noun group to build up descriptions, eg the thick scrub on the Blue Mountains; the outstanding Australian athlete, Cathy Freeman. Using reported speech, eg The explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson said that their journey was very difficult at times. Using various combinations of clauses, eg When the explorers reached Mount York they could see the western plains below, but they decided not to continue any further. Using connectives. Using evaluative language in factual recounts, eg Greenway was an important architect. Using evaluative language in personal recounts, eg It was an exciting experience.
Grammar Terminology Students at this stage will be using terms such as: conjunction, eg when, then; connective, eg first, next; reported speech, eg Cathy Freeman said that she was excited about her win; noun group, eg the convict architect Francis Greenway.
Assessment Criteria
1. Uses correct structure of a recount 2. Orientation includes who, where, when and why 3. Uses and maintains correct tense throughout the text 4. Uses a variety of adjectives and adverbs to enhance text description. 5. Events are sequenced chronologically. 6. Uses a variety of connectives and conjunctions to produce more complex sentences.