AC9E2LE03
Official content description
discuss the characters and settings of a range of texts and identify how language is used to present these features in different ways
What AC9E2LE03 actually looks like when you teach it
The move in Year 2 is from naming characters and settings to noticing how the author built them. Read a familiar text and ask what the author actually wrote that made you think the character was kind — the answer will be specific words and actions, not a general impression. This is the beginning of textual evidence and it's worth being patient with. Comparing two texts with similar settings described differently is the clearest way to show that description is a set of choices rather than a report.
What the class will get wrong — and what to do about it
The error
Describing a character from the illustration or from general impression rather than from the words — "she's nice" with nothing in the text to point at.
How to confront it
Ask for the evidence every time, in the same words: "which bit of the text tells you that?" Have them put a finger on it. When the answer is the picture, accept it and then ask what the words add.
Ready to put on the board
We are learning how authors use language to show us characters and settings.
- I can describe a character or setting from a text.
- I can point to the words that gave me that idea.
- I can compare how two authors describe the same kind of place.
Prove it from the text
- Reread a short section aloud. Ask the class for one word describing the main character.
- Write it on the board, then ask for the evidence. Put a sticky note on the exact line.
- Collect three descriptions with three pieces of evidence.
- Now read a second text with a similar setting. Ask how this author describes it differently.
- Children write one sentence describing their own character, then swap and have a partner underline the words that did the describing.
Free to use in your classroom. Written for AC9E2LE03, not adapted from another year level.
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The Year 2 English planning scaffold
A one-page planning sheet with the official achievement standard, every content description grouped by strand, and space for your assessment and week-by-week sequence. Print it and plan on paper, or use it as the skeleton for a unit.
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What Year 2 English students should achieve
Coverage is judged against the achievement standard — not by ticking every content description. These are the official Year 2 English standard sentences this code builds towards:
- They use text structures to organise and link ideas for a purpose.
- They share ideas, topic knowledge and appreciation of texts when they recount, inform or express an opinion, including details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts.
- They write words using consistently legible unjoined letters.
- They create written and/or multimodal texts including stories to inform, express an opinion, adapt an idea or narrate for audiences.
- They use phonic and morphemic knowledge, and grammatical patterns to read unfamiliar words and most high-frequency words.
- They organise and link ideas, and use language features including topic-specific vocabulary and features of voice.
The Literature progression either side of AC9E2LE03
A class can only meet this descriptor if they were taught the one before it. If yours hasn't, that's where the lesson starts — not here.
Taught before · Year 1
- AC9E1LE01discuss how language and images are used to create characters, settings and events in literature by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
- AC9E1LE02discuss literary texts and share responses by making connections with students’ own experiences
- AC9E1LE03discuss plot, character and setting, which are features of stories
Builds towards · Year 3
- AC9E3LE01discuss characters, events and settings in different contexts in literature by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
- AC9E3LE02discuss connections between personal experiences and character experiences in literary texts and share personal preferences
- AC9E3LE03discuss how an author uses language and illustrations to portray characters and settings in texts, and explore how the settings and events influence the mood of the narrative
Other Year 2 Literature codes
- AC9E2LE01discuss how characters and settings are connected in literature created by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
- AC9E2LE02identify features of literary texts, such as characters and settings, and give reasons for personal preferences
- AC9E2LE04identify, reproduce and experiment with rhythmic sound and word patterns in poems, chants, rhymes or songs
- AC9E2LE05create and edit literary texts by adapting structures and language features of familiar literary texts through drawing, writing, performance and digital tools
Content description and achievement standard © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Australian Curriculum Version 9, used under CC BY 4.0. TeachKoala is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACARA.