English Home Language (HL) in Grade 6 is designed to foster advanced proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and critical analysis. The curriculum promotes creative writing, in-depth text comprehension, and the mastery of complex language structures.
This article outlines the 2026 English HL Grade 6 ATP, detailing the core concepts, skills, and formal assessment tasks for each term.
English HL Grade 6 ATP 2026
The Annual Teaching Plan is divided into four terms, with formal assessment tasks strategically placed to monitor learners’ development across the language spectrum.
Term 1: News, Novelle, and Persuasive Texts
Focus: The term emphasises critical thinking, developing balanced arguments, and mastering the initial stages of the formal writing process for various text types.
- Listening and Speaking:
- Listens to radio or newspaper reports and discusses current issues, seeking alternative explanations and identifying stereotypes.
- Develops a balanced argument and expresses an opinion supported by solid evidence.
- Discusses a novelette/novel and persuasive texts (e.g., radio advertisement), contrasting opposing perspectives.
- Listens to a short story and a dialogue, noting specific details and summarising main ideas.
- Reading and Viewing:
- Reads newspaper articles, using strategies like skimming and scanning.
- Reads a novel or reader daily (at least 30 minutes) and explains the author’s point of view, discussing the structure, suspense, and twist.
- Reads and understands graphic media texts (advertisements and posters), evaluating the text and discussing design features.
- Reads a simple play/drama.
- Writing and Presenting:
- Uses the writing process (Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Proofreading, Presenting) for all tasks.
- Writes a summary of the newspaper article in own words.
- Writes an essay (Narrative or Descriptive, 4–6 paragraphs) on characters/themes of the novel.
- Writes a persuasive text (e.g., a speech with visuals/advertisement) that evokes emotional responses and stirs the audience.
- Writes a friendly letter/diary entry related to the short story.
- Writes a dialogue, establishing tone/mood and revealing character motivation.
- Language Structures and Conventions:
- Word level work: Common and abstract nouns, personal and demonstrative pronouns, conjunctions, articles, adverbs (manner, time).
- Sentence level work: Subject-verb agreement, simple tenses (past, present, future), Past perfect tense, future perfect tense, Direct and indirect speech, reported speech, compound and complex sentences.
- Word meaning: Idioms, proverbs, synonyms, and antonyms.
- Formal Assessment:
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 1: ORAL (Read Aloud, 20 marks) (Commences Term 1, concludes Term 2).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 2: WRITING (Essay, 20 marks) (During the term).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 3: RESPONSE TO TEXTS (50 marks) (Literary/non-literary (20), Visual text (10), Language structures (20)).
Term 2: Instructions, Story, Poem, and Information Text
Focus: The focus is on instructional and informational texts, sophisticated literary analysis of stories and poems, and the completion of Semester 1-assessments.
- Listening and Speaking:
- Listens to and discusses an instructional text (e.g., recipe/directions), giving clear instructions and commenting on clarity.
- Listens to and discusses a story and a poem, using presentation skills (volume, pace, posture).
- Listens to and discusses an information text (e.g., a weather report), justifying own opinion and identifying features of the report.
- Reading and Viewing:
- Reads and analyses the characteristics of instructional texts (organisation and conventions) and orders jumbled instructions.
- Reads a story and a simple poem, inferring meaning and understanding the effect of figurative and rhetorical devices.
- Reads an information text with visuals (e.g., a map), interpreting and discussing complex visual texts.
- Novel/reader to be read daily for at least 30 minutes.
- Writing and Presenting:
- Writes an instructional text (e.g., how to make a cup of tea), sequencing instructions logically and using imperatives.
- Writes a story, creating believable characters and plotting main events using a flow chart (beginning, middle, ending).
- Writes a poem using alliteration, metaphor, and simile.
- Writes an information text (e.g., a weather chart), selecting appropriate visuals and content and presenting information using a map, chart, graph, or diagram.
- Language Structures and Conventions:
- Word level work: Possessive and reflexive pronouns, stems, prefixes, suffixes, auxiliary verbs, determiners, adverbs, prepositions.
- Sentence level work: Subject, object, present/past/future continuous tenses, simple sentences, noun phrases/clauses.
- Word meaning: Idioms, homophones, synonyms/antonyms, and Elements of poetry (personification, onomatopoeia).
- Formal Assessment:
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 1: ORAL (Read Aloud, 20 marks) (Concludes and is recorded).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 4: WRITING (Transactional writing, 10 marks) (Written before the controlled test).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 5: JUNE CONTROLLED TEST (RESPONSE TO TEXTS, 50 marks) (Question 1: Literary/non-literary (20), Question 2: Visual text (10), Question 3: Summary (5), Question 4: Language structures (15)).
Term 3: Creative Writing Project (CWP)
Focus: Intensive focus on the Creative Writing Project (CWP) (Research and Writing), based on a chosen literary genre, followed by a study of drama and visual texts.
- Listening and Speaking:
- Listens to and discusses folklore, reflecting on cultural customs/values.
- Participates in a conversation on the CWP (Stage 1: Research), discussing the development of a driving question/topic.
- Listens to and discusses a drama and a cartoon/comic strip.
- Reading and Viewing:
- Reads folklore and discusses elements, characters, and messages.
- Reads for research purposes for the CWP (Stage 1), focusing on note-taking and referencing.
- Reads a simple play/drama and reviews of a play.
- Reads a cartoon/comic strip, examining the text for hidden messages and interpreting graphical texts.
- Writing and Presenting:
- Writes a character sketch, using descriptive words and showing understanding of setting, plot, conflict, and theme.
- CWP – Stage 1: Research (10 marks): Uses graphic organisers (mind map, sequence chart) to collate research findings, focusing on note-taking and referencing conventions.
- CWP – Stage 2: Writing (30 marks): Writes the final draft of the project, applying appropriate language/conventions for the chosen genre.
- Writes a dialogue/short play script and a cartoon/comic script.
- Language Structures and Conventions:
- Word level work: Adjectives (gerunds), verbs, verb tenses, stems, prefixes, suffixes, adverbs.
- Sentence level work: Active and passive voice, negative form, simple/compound/complex sentences, interrogative form, direct/indirect speech.
- Spelling and punctuation: Contractions, colon, semi-colon, word division, and reinforcement of referencing conventions.
- Formal Assessment:
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 6: CREATIVE WRITING PROJECT (40 marks) (Stage 1: Research (10), Stage 2: Writing (30)).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 7: ORAL (Presentation of CWP, 20 marks) (Commences Term 3, concludes Term 4).
Term 4: Folklore, Instructions, and Poetry
Focus: Completion of the Oral Presentation and final revision of all core skills for the End-of-the-Year Controlled Test.
- Listening and Speaking:
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 7: ORAL (Presentation of CWP, 20 marks) is completed and recorded.
- Listens to and discusses folklore (myth/legend), instructional texts, and poems.
- Performs a Role-play interview or Oral presentation and gives balanced/constructive feedback.
- Reading and Viewing:
- Reads folklore, discussing alternate endings and elements of folklore.
- Reads an instructional text (e.g., recipe/directions) and summarises instructions.
- Reads a poem, discussing the structure, interpreting figurative meaning, and identifying poetic devices (alliteration, repetition, simile).
- Novel/reader to be read daily for at least 30 minutes.
- Writing and Presenting:
- Writes a folklore (myth/legend) that includes a moral lesson and uses superhuman characters.
- Writes a summary of an instructional text (point form/paragraph form).
- Writes a poem, using figurative language (metaphor, onomatopoeia, symbol, theme).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 8: WRITING (Transactional writing, 10 marks) (Written before the controlled test).
- Language Structures and Conventions:
- Word level work: Adjectives (descriptive, quantity, degrees of comparison), adverbs (manner, time, place, degree, duration, frequency).
- Sentence level work: Simple and complex sentences, sentence types, Active and passive voice, Subject, Object.
- Figurative language in context (Simile, personification, metaphor, onomatopoeia).
- Formal Assessment:
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 7: ORAL (Presentation of CWP, 20 marks) is completed and recorded.
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 8: WRITING (Transactional writing, 10 marks).
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT TASK 9: END-OF-THE-YEAR CONTROLLED TEST (RESPONSE TO TEXTS, 50 marks) (Question 1: Literary/non-literary (20), Question 2: Visual text (10), Question 3: Summary (5), Question 4: Language structures (15)).