Tuesday of this week I had the opportunity to teach a Year 7 English class as their teacher was absent for the day. They had just started reading Kenneth Grahame’s marvellous novel The Wind in the Willows, so I decided to begin the lesson with a passionate discussion about the joys of being an avid reader and an enthusiastic writer. I highlighted the important role the students themselves played in the reading process. Although this particular novel was published over one hundred years ago, each student in Tuesday’s class was co-authoring the text by bringing their own particular world to the words on the page. Consequently, their individual reading experiences in that classroom transformed the one book into twenty-five different texts.

The following day I had a double lesson with my own Year 12 English Advanced class. I always look forward to this day in the teaching cycle as it means two wonderful hours immersed in the subject English. I had specifically set aside this time to commence our study of the final HSC module, The Craft of Writing. While writing is embedded throughout the HSC course, these next seven weeks will provide students with the exciting opportunity to strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills, and confidence as accomplished writers. As part of this study, students will read and analyse two prescribed texts – a poem by Gwen Harwood called ‘Father and Child’ and a prose fiction text by Franz Kafka entitled Metamorphosis – as well as texts from their own wide reading. These texts will serve as rich and engaging models for the development of their own complex ideas and written expression.

These two different teaching contexts – one Year 7 and the other Year 12 – clearly highlight the importance of creating an environment where abundant reading and purposeful talk are interwoven continually with the art and the craft of writing.

Clare Murphy

English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach