17/3/15: Stella Prize Schools Program – Selecting texts for the English classroom

Join the VCAA, VATE and the Stella Prize for a lively conversation about texts, text selection and why it matters.

Literature holds an important place in the community as a vehicle for preserving culture, enabling change and passing on values. This makes selecting texts for use in the classroom an important but often fraught part of teachers’ work.

The session will tackle issues facing text selection including gender balance, Australian and global perspectives, classic and contemporary eras.

Questions for discussion include:

• What is the purpose of set texts as part of a school reading program?
• What defines a ‘good text’ in the context of a secondary school reading program?
• What constitutes, and is there a need for, a ‘balanced’ reading program or text list?
• How is the notion of an ‘appropriate’ text defined in the context of diverse schools and communities?
• How adequate are the curriculum principles and guidelines for the development of VCE text lists?

Facilitator Bec Kavanagh will discuss these key questions in the context of the secondary English classroom with panellists academic Dr Larissa McLean-Davies, author Cate Kennedy and teacher Louise Bourke.

Participants will receive a Stella Prize Education Pack.

When: Tuesday 17 March, 4.30 pm – 5.30 pm

Where: Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership, 603-615 Queensberry St, North Melbourne

Bookings and further information: Sean Box, Curriculum Manager, English: 9032 1691 or box.sean.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

Further details here