Level C2 Reading and Viewing

The student work samples on this page are also available to download:

C2 Reading and Viewing proficiency levels and Achievement Standard

The students' performance in these tasks suggest that they are working within the range of Level C2 in Reading and Viewing. The assessing teacher will need to consider a range of student samples in order to determine whether each student is at the beginning of C2, consolidating C2 or at the C2 standard in Reading and Viewing.

At beginning Level C2 students:     

  • have begun to develop the confidence to attempt a wider range of different texts on unfamiliar topics, such as newspaper articles, but will still require the close support of the teacher
  • have begun to recognise that written text can also express emotions
  • have a basic awareness that different types of texts are used for different purposes, such as fictional texts and non-fictional texts, and creative writing styles such as poems.

At consolidating Level C2 students:     

  • can retell simple, familiar texts in their own words that require an understanding of textual coherence
  • will also attempt to give their own personal impression of a text
  • demonstrate an ability to draw on their own background knowledge and other cultural or contextual information to construct meaning from text, rather than relying on the literal meaning alone
  • have begun to use strategies and resources other than the teacher to read more difficult texts, such as self-correction, peers, and information and communication technology (ICT) resources such as web sites.

At Level C2 Achievement Standard students:

  • read and comprehend a range of short, familiar fictional and factual texts and, when well supported, some unfamiliar texts. These texts may be print or digital texts, including handwritten, visual, multimodal and interactive texts.
  • show some comprehension beyond the literal level, suggesting appropriate interpretations and identifying basic cultural variables where evident
  • use headings and diagrams to assist in reading accessible texts from across the curriculum for a range of purposes
  • extract the main ideas from factual texts
  • show awareness of how some connectives link and sequence ideas within a text
  • read on and consider the context when deducing the meaning of unknown words
  • read aloud with a degree of fluency, and draw upon their understanding of the text to use stress and intonation with increasing accuracy
  • use their developing knowledge of sentence structure and sound–symbol relationships to read new words and self-correct
  • select basic texts appropriate for particular reading purposes.

Informative text - Reading a newspaper article (1)

Student information

The student is from Afghanistan. He is 14 years old and is studying in Year 9. His first language is Dari and he also speaks Urdu. His schooling has been interrupted as he and his family moved from Afghanistan to Australia via Pakistan. Before he arrived in Australia, he attended lower primary school in Pakistan where Urdu was the language of instruction. He has been learning English since he arrived in Australia four years ago. He attended an English language school for a year and has attended mainstream secondary school for three years.     

Task

The students were asked to read and discuss a newspaper article Cup is Half-full for Homeless by Terry Brown, which appeared in the Herald Sun newspaper on 2 December 2008. This was part of a unit of work on the theme of homelessness undertaken by the class, in which there were a variety of speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks involving a variety of texts and activities on different aspects of the topic. The class had read the novel A Simple Gift by Steven Herrick which explores the nature of and attitudes towards homelessness. The task involved the student reading the text aloud, answering simple comprehension questions and making some simple predictions and inferences from the text.    

The teacher wanted to assess the extent to which the student could:    

  • identify the main idea in a short factual text, using guiding questions
  • make predictions about what will happen in the text
  • display an understanding of the functions of punctuation marks, such as pausing at comma when reading aloud, pausing at appropriate parts of the text, adjusting speech to reflect dialogue
  • use organisational features such as headings, to access appropriate information from the text.

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold.

  •            
  •            

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Interpret the way information is organised in texts (VCEALL643)
  • Identify different forms of texts (VCEALL642)
  • Read texts that contain compound and complex sentences of two or three clauses (VCEALL645)
  • Locate specific information in fictional and factual texts using guide questions (VCEALC634)

Overall, this student can also:

  • Read long, complex texts with support from the teacher (VCEALC635)
  • Employ a repertoire of strategies to read familiar and simple factual and fictional texts (VCEALC632) 

Possible next steps for this student's learning

  • Using evidence from the text to justify answers to questions (VCEALC635)
  • Regularly reading simple articles about topics of interest, for example, articles from online resource Behind the News (VCEALA639)
  • Providing longer response to open-ended questions (VCEALC636)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 9 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum.

Informative text - Reading a newspaper article (2)

Student information

The student was born in southern Sudan and is now almost 15 years old. She speaks Arabic at home and attended school to Year 4 in Sudan where she learned a little English. She came to Australia four years ago and attended an English language school before moving to her current school, where she is now in Year 9.     

Task

The students were asked to read and discuss a newspaper article Cup is Half-full for Homeless by Terry Brown, which appeared in the Herald Sun newspaper on 2 December 2008. This was part of a unit of work on the theme of homelessness undertaken by the class, in which there were a variety of speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks involving a variety of texts and activities on different aspects of the topic. The class had read the novel A Simple Gift by Steven Herrick which explores the nature of and attitudes towards homelessness. The task involved the student reading the text aloud, answering simple comprehension questions and making some simple predictions and inferences from the text.    

The teacher wanted to assess the extent to which the student could:    

  • identify the main idea in a short factual text, using guiding questions
  • make predictions about what will happen in the text
  • display an understanding of the functions of punctuation marks, such as pausing at comma when reading aloud, pausing at appropriate parts of the text, adjusting speech to reflect dialogue
  • use organisational features such as headings, to access appropriate information from the text.

    • In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold.    

  •            
  •            

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Identify different forms of texts (VCEALL642)
  • Interpret the way information is organised in texts (VCEALL643)
  • Read texts that contain compound and complex sentences of two or three clauses (VCEALL645)
  • Locate specific information in fictional and factual texts using guide questions (VCEALC634)

Overall, this student can also:

  • Read long, complex texts with support from the teacher (VCEALC635)
  • Employ a repertoire of strategies to read familiar and simple factual and fictional texts (VCEALC632)

Possible next steps for this student's learning

  • Discussing and unpacking inferential questions to understand what is being asked (VCEALC635)
  • Identifying the main ideas in another media article of personal interest to share and discuss with the class (VCEALA639)
  • Discussing the author's message and how they wants the reader to think and feel after reading the newspaper article (VCEALA638)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 9 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum.

Imaginative text – The Watchful House

Student information

The student is 13 years and 4 months old. They had age-equivalent schooling in Vietnam before coming to Australia 3 months ago, and they speak Vietnamese at home. They are in Year 8 and are currently in their first term in a new arrivals program.

Task

This student has been studying the use of figurative language in narrative texts in their English class. In this task, the student reads a short, unseen descriptive passage taken from the novel Under the Cat’s Eye by Gillian Rubinstein with support. They then answer literal and inferential questions and talk about the language choices the author has made in the text. 

The teacher is assessing the student’s ability to: 

  • read and comprehend complex texts with support
  • read and understand a range of descriptive language
  • show an understanding of characters and issues
  • respond to a text by answering literal, inferential and evaluative questions.

The words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold.  

Transcript

00:05 - 05:01   

So in this part of the story Jai and his parents see the schoolhouse for the first time. Okay, can you read the second paragraph out loud?   

Yeah. Um it sat squarely and heavily in the middle of a small park. It's windows watchful and like a hundred eyes. From its many chimneys, smoke spiralled upwards. Mist was rising from the damp ground under the trees, the smoke and the mist hung together in the still air as if they were waiting for something, someone.   

What does Jai think the windows look like?   

It says it's windows are watchful like…   

Hundred eyes   

A hundred eyes.   

Does it tell us in this paragraph what the house is waiting for? What does it say as if, as if they were waiting for…   

Something?   

Yeah. Or..   

Someone   

Right. Does it tell us who the house is waiting for?   

No.   

This paragraph tells us how Jai feels when he sees the house. It says Jai is practical by nature. So that means he likes real life things.   

So it says he doesn't really believe in intuition. Now intuition is a bit like imagination but it's like a feeling inside you that tells you something that's true. So you just know without anyone telling you.   

So that's the feeling that he doesn't believe in.   

He doesn't believe in intuition, usually, but in this paragraph, Jai does get a feeling of intuition. What does he feel like the house is doing?   

Mm. He feels like the house is watching and waiting for him.   

Can you show me in the text where it says that?   

Um, I think it's in the second sentence.   

That's exactly right. You're exactly right.   

Can you summarise what happens in this part of the story?   

Um Jai really loves nature and he didn't really believe in his feeling or something imagination but um he was having a feeling of the house is watching and waiting for him. Yeah. And something is expected him to come.   

So in the first paragraph, it says the house came into view. And we talked about that means they couldn't see it before but now they can. So why do you think they couldn't see the house before? But now they can.   

Maybe like they were looking for the house but they can't see it.    

Mm mm.   

And then they found out the house is there, like they get lost while you're looking for the house?Maybe.   

Okay. Which one of these pictures do you think looks most like the house in the story?   

Maybe the third one.   

This one? Okay. Why did you choose that one?   

Um, in my view, I think the house look, the house looks a bit scary.   

Yeah, but actually it's not really like the third picture.  It's in um it’s a bit of the second and the third one.   

Okay. Why do you think this one is like the house in the story?   

Um. It looks like a house school, a house for a school.   

Mm mm. All right. Is there anything in the text that matches up with this house?   

Mm. It sat in the middle of a small park.   

Ah, yes.   

Do you think this house sounds like a friendly place or a scary place?   

Mm. Maybe scary. He said like the house looks like there's like a hundred eyes.    

Mm mm.   

I think maybe he feels nervous and feels like it's so scary to step in.   

When you first came into your new class at this school, how did you feel?   

Mm. I feel a little bit of nervous.   

In what way were you like Jai when you started at this school?   

Mm. What I like about Jai?   

No. How were you like Jai? How were you the same?   

Oh, oh.    

When he’s starting his new school, when you started this school. How was how was that the same?   

Mm. I think when I move into a new environment yeah like everything around looks really scary.    

Mm mm.   

Yeah, I don't really want to look at them. I mean, even if I really like school but when I move into a new environment, I don't want to go to the school anymore.    

Mm mm.   

Yeah. So I think Jai is feeling like that.   

Yeah. Agree. Good answer.   

   

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Employ a repertoire of strategies to read familiar and simple factual and fictional texts (VCEALC632)
  • Read texts that contain compound and complex sentences of two or three clauses (VCEALL645)
  • Read and understand sentences containing a small range of descriptive language (VCEALL647)
  • Locate specific information in fictional and factual texts using guide questions (VCEALC634)
  • Locate specific information in fictional and factual texts using guide questions - retelling ideas or events from familiar texts in response to guide questions (VCEALC634)
  • Respond to creative texts, showing a developing understanding of key events, characters and issues - drawing on personal experience to make inferences (VCEALC636)
  • Respond to creative texts, showing a developing understanding of key events, characters and issues (VCEALC636)
  • Respond to creative texts, showing a developing understanding of key events, characters and issues - describing the feelings of a character (VCEALC636)

Possible next steps for this student’s learning

  • Continue to develop a repertoire of strategies to read an increasing range of familiar and simple factual and fictional texts (VCEALC632)
  • Continue to read long, complex texts with less reliance on support from the teacher (VCEALC635)
  • Identify and discuss the purpose, audience and context of particular texts (VCEALA638)
  • Self-correct pronunciation when reading aloud (VCEALL651)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 8 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum.  

Persuasive text: Why we should ban smartphones from school

Student information

The student is 15 years and 10 months old. They had age-equivalent schooling in China before coming to Australia 9 months ago, and they speak Chinese at home. They are in Year 10, and currently studying in a new arrivals program.

Task

The student has been learning about persuasive texts in their English class. They wrote their own persuasive texts about a topic of their choice and delivered it as a speech to the class. In this task, the student reads an unseen, modified persuasive text prepared by the teacher. They answer literal and inferential questions and talk about the text’s purpose and structure as well as the language choices the author has made.

The teacher is assessing the student’s ability to: 

  • read and comprehend unfamiliar texts with support
  • locate specific information in a text
  • following cohesive devices such as pronoun references in a text
  • extract main ideas from a text. 

The words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold. 

Transcript

00:05 - 05:07  

Okay, so can you tell me what's this article about?  

It's about should we ban smartphone at school?  

We have got ah three argument here.  

Mm mm.  

One is phone bans lead to an improvement in a, academic performance.  

Good, do you know what academic performance is?  

Mmm. I know what its mean, but…  

Yes, so what does it mean? Tell me in your words.  

Some express, expression on study.  

Mm hmm. Okay.  

It's about study. Good.  

All right what's the other two arguments?  

Phone bans help at risk student perform better at school.   

Mm hmm.  

The other one is phone bans lead to less screen time.  

All right. So what's the purpose of this text?  

Maybe persuade some parents to bans the, their children's phone at school.  

Okay. So you said that maybe the author is talking to parents. Is there anybody else who you think this article might be talking to?  

Err. School leader maybe.  

What words does the author use to try to persuade us?  

The st, st, uh, statistic.  

Ah that is a strategy that they use to give statistics. Good. Any other strategies you can see in there?  

Well, example, maybe.  

Mm hmm.  

Such as, err, reduce, they reduce using Twitter or Facebook during the school days.  

Yeah. So that's an example. Very good.  

Um. Have a look at the title. There's one word in the title that is a word that is used to persuade. Which word is that?  

Should.  

Should. Exactly.  

I think should, err it's not a very strong word. It means ah the author can receive both sides of the argument.   

He can receive the, some parents' opinion and ah…  

Mm mm.  

The phone shouldn't be banned.  

Yeah. Can you think of some words that the author could use to make the argument stronger instead of should?  

What words or groups of words would you use to make this argument stronger?  

Is that modal verb?  

Yeah. So which modal verbs might you use instead of should?  

Mmm. Must.  

It says in the third sentence these students benefit approximately twice as much as their peers, when their schools ban phones.  

Which students are they talking about?  

Students who live in poverty…   

Mm mm.  

Need a lot of extra help from the teacher.  

Good.  

Or students who get very low marks for their schoolwork.  

Good. And what name do they use for those students? What do they call them?  

At risk students.  

Excellent. Well done.  

Reread the paragraph about improving academic performance, I think that's this one up here. Isn't it?  

Okay, the first argument.  

So in this paragraph the author quotes experts and university studies. How could the author use these experts better, to make the argument stronger?  

Ahh. They use er example from American university researchers.  

Mm mm. Do we know who these researchers are?  

Mm. No.  

Instead of just saying American researchers, what could they tell us?  

Maybe we can write some names.  

Yeah.

Do we know that it's true? Can we check?  

Err. No.  

No, we can't.  

So how could they make the, the arguments stronger?  

Ah. Put more information inside. Yeah.  

Do you agree that smartphones should be banned in the classroom?  

I think I agree.  

What's your main argument?  

Mm. Because many students don't have a good self-control.  

(both laugh)  

Yeah.  

Yeah. That's a good reason. Perhaps they should have used that one as well.  

Okay. Joseph, thank you so much.  

  

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Identify different forms of texts (VCEALL642)
  • Interpret the way information is organised in texts (VCEALL643)
  • Read texts that contain compound and complex sentences of two or three clauses (VCEALL645)
  • Identify and discuss the purpose, audience and context of particular texts (VCEALA638)
  • Identify some basic language features of texts - distinguishing between verb tenses used in different text types (VCEALL646)
  • Locate specific information in fictional and factual texts using guide questions (VCEALC634)
  • Show awareness of how cohesive devices organise ideas - following the items referred to by reference items (VCEALL644)
  • Read and understand sentences containing a small range of descriptive language - understanding an expanding range of describers and classifiers in noun groups (VCEALL647)
  • Read long, complex texts with support from the teacher - giving a personal response, such as expressing a point of view (VCEALC635)

Possible next steps for this student’s learning

  • Continue to develop a repertoire of strategies to read a growing range of simple factual and fictional texts (VCEALC632)
  • Continue to practise reading long, complex texts with less reliance on support from the teacher (VCEALC635)
  • Identify and discuss the purpose, audience and context of particular texts - suggesting reasons why different audiences might read or view the text (VCEALA638)
  • Compare English and home language texts, recognising different cultural ways of expressing meanings, for example similarities or differences in the structure of an argument or ways of presenting evidence (VCEALA640)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 10 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum. 

Related pages

Student work samples: Level C2 Speaking and Listening
Student work samples: Level C2 Writing
Student work samples: Level C1 Reading and Viewing
Student work samples: Level C3 Reading and Viewing