Over the past 18 months, VCE English Teacher Ms. Richardson has been pioneering after-School English Extension classes for all Year 12 students, designed to provide them with an opportunity to work more closely with Year 12 English Teachers on areas of assessment that they have found particularly tricky.
Student feedback to these extra opportunities has been overwhelmingly positive with classes moving out of our smaller study areas in the Resource Centre into larger classrooms to cater for high demand/attendance.
“I felt that we needed to have more time to help students reach for higher-end responses in their essays” recalls Ms. Richardson, who currently teaches VCE English along with Year 9 Literature and Year 8 Humanities. “I first invited my own students to come along, which some of them did, and then they brought their friends and it just kept growing!”
The extension classes primarily focus on essay topics and assessment tasks, planning responses and exploring ways in which students can produce higher-range pieces. Ms. Richardson has longer term goals for the program however, with a view to introducing Year 11 classes and rolling out extra content online in an attempt to reach more students. “I recently started filming and streaming the classes online as a way to also allow busy students to benefit from the sessions and we’ve found this to be extremely popular also.”
Year 12 student Libby has found the classes particularly beneficial: “The classes help us focus on areas of study in greater detail than we are able to in our normal class time, unpacking concepts with a deeper understanding. They’ve allowed me personally to ask more questions and give me more ideas to work with when it comes to assessment time.”
Our Year 12 English Extension class takes place every Wednesday from 3.30pm – 4.30pm and is available via YouTube with direct links sent to all Year 12 students following the session.
VCE English Teachers Ms. Richardson, Ms. Smith and just some of the students who attend our English Extension Classes in large numbers.