AC9E3LA11
Official content description
understand that apostrophes signal missing letters in contractions, and apostrophes are used to show singular and plural possession
What AC9E3LA11 actually looks like when you teach it
Two jobs, one mark, and the confusion between them lasts into adulthood. Teach them separately and some distance apart. Contractions first, because the logic is visible: the apostrophe stands where the missing letters were, and children can physically cover the letters to see it. Possession later, and only then the contrast. The apostrophe is worth being fussy about not because of pedantry but because it's one of the few punctuation marks where the error changes the meaning rather than just the polish.
What the class will get wrong — and what to do about it
The error
Using an apostrophe for plurals — "three dog's" — which is the most common apostrophe error in the language and appears the moment children learn the mark exists.
How to confront it
Give them one question to apply before every apostrophe: is something missing, or does something belong to someone? Plural fails both tests. Practise on a mix that includes plenty of plain plurals needing no apostrophe at all.
Ready to put on the board
We are learning to use apostrophes for contractions and for possession.
- I can show which letters an apostrophe is replacing in a contraction.
- I can use an apostrophe to show that something belongs to someone.
- I can explain why a plural does not need an apostrophe.
Missing or belonging?
- Write do not on the board, then don't underneath. Ask which letter vanished and where the apostrophe went.
- Repeat with three more contractions, always identifying the missing letters.
- Introduce the second job: the dog's bowl. Something belongs to something.
- Sort a mixed set of cards into two columns — missing, or belonging. Slip in three plain plurals with no apostrophe needed.
- Those three are the assessment. Any child who puts dogs into a column hasn't got it yet.
Free to use in your classroom. Written for AC9E3LA11, not adapted from another year level.
Free download
The Year 3 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.
We'll keep your address so we can send you new free teaching resources as we make them. No spam, and one click unsubscribes.
Teach AC9E3LA11 this week?
TeachKoala turns this descriptor into a complete lesson — illustrated slides with teacher notes, a differentiated activity sheet and a quiz — aligned to AC9E3LA11 specifically, never an invented code. Your first lesson is free.
or see a finished lesson and unit plan first
What Year 3 English students should achieve
Coverage is judged against the achievement standard — not by ticking every content description. These are the official Year 3 English standard sentences this code builds towards:
- They write texts using letters that are accurately formed and consistent in size.
- They group, logically sequence and link ideas.
- They use text structures including paragraphs, and language features including compound sentences, topic-specific vocabulary and literary devices, and/or visual features.
- By the end of Year 3, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken and/or multimodal texts including stories.
- They create written and/or multimodal texts including stories to inform, narrate, explain or argue for audiences, relating ideas including relevant details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts.
- They use language features including topic-specific vocabulary, and/or visual features and features of voice.
The Language progression either side of AC9E3LA11
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 2
- AC9E2LA01investigate how interpersonal language choices vary depending on the context, including the different roles taken on in interactions
- AC9E2LA02explore how language can be used for appreciating texts and providing reasons for preferences
- AC9E2LA03identify how texts across the curriculum are organised differently and use language features depending on purposes
Builds towards · Year 4
- AC9E4LA01explore language used to develop relationships in formal and informal situations
- AC9E4LA02identify the subjective language of opinion and feeling, and the objective language of factual reporting
- AC9E4LA03identify how texts across the curriculum have different language features and are typically organised into characteristic stages depending on purposes
Other Year 3 Language codes
- AC9E3LA01understand that cooperation with others depends on shared understanding of social conventions, including turn-taking language, which vary according to the degree of formality
- AC9E3LA02understand how the language of evaluation and emotion, such as modal verbs, can be varied to be more or less forceful
- AC9E3LA03describe how texts across the curriculum use different language features and structures relevant to their purpose
- AC9E3LA04understand that paragraphs are a key organisational feature of the stages of written texts, grouping related information together
- AC9E3LA05identify the purpose of layout features in print and digital texts and the words used for navigation
- AC9E3LA06understand that a clause is a unit of grammar usually containing a subject and a verb that need to agree
- AC9E3LA07understand how verbs represent different processes for doing, feeling, thinking, saying and relating
- AC9E3LA08understand that verbs are anchored in time through tense
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.