English

Students may enjoy engaging with the following support ahead of St. Patrick's Day

Click on the image below to access this support.

International Women's Day 2023

Students might enjoy engaging with the following activity for International Women's Day on March 8th.

Click on the image below to access the support.

Happy World Book Day!

Students might have fun with the following support!

Click on image below to access the support.

 Upcoming JCT Webinar

Join us for 'Coherence and Expression: Developing writing skills through the Indicative and Prescribed Text Lists'

Tuesday, March 28th, 6.30pm

Click on the image below to register.

Upcoming Webinar

Shining the Spotlight: UDL in the Junior Cycle English Classroom

See Details below.

Students might enjoy reading the following passage from The Hobbit.

This support may be useful when exploring novel openings.

The Hobbit is also a text on the current Indicative List for First Year students.

Click on image below to access the support.

We were delighted to chat with comic book illustrator Will Sliney last year. In this conversation he discusses  how he came to work for Marvel Comics. He also delves into the art of telling stories through comics!

A particularly helpful podcast for anyone considering Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from the new Prescribed Text List.

Click the image below to access the podcast.

Students may enjoy exploring the power of imagery through Nat King Cole's 'The Christmas Song'.

Click on the image below to access the support.

Students might enjoy reading the following passage from Little Women.

It evokes a particular Christmas memory and might spark some creative writing for students.

Click on the image below to access the support.

As we approach the festive season, the following two supports might be engaging for your students. 
 

The first support encourages students to engage with Non Literary Texts using the 2022 An Post advertisement with a focus on 'The Wizard of Oz'. 
 

The second is a Watch and Respond based on a Christmas Scene from the film 'Little Women' from the Prescribed Text List. 

Click on the images below to access the supports

To mark the start of December, students might enjoy 'Winter Morning Poem' from Ogden Nash.

Click on the Image below to access the support.

The following support uses the animated film 'My Father's Dragon' as a way of exploring visual literacy in the classroom.

Click on the image below to access the support

Exploring Heaney's 'The Burial at Thebes?'
 

Enjoy our 15 min conversation with Kathryn McCance from the Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again exhibition in the National Library. 
 

Kathryn gives us a facinating insight into Heaney's retelling of this classical Greek play 'Antigone.'
 

Listen here: on.soundcloud.com/S5bq8

Ahead of your upcoming cluster day, you can download the support booklet that accompanies the day by clicking on the image below.

We look forward to engaging with you!

 Wishing teachers a restful and relaxing mid-term break! We look forward to engaging with you on your cluster day, which begins in November. 

If your students are looking forward to Halloween, why not try our new support?

It encourages students to engage with the trailer for the film Hocus Pocus 2 as a non-literary text.

Click the image below to download the support.

The following extract from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman might appeal to students' creativity. 
 

Click to access the extract and a possible task. It might be particularly suitable this Halloween season!
 

The Graveyard Book is on the current Indicative Text List for First Year students 2021, 2022 and 2023. 
 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WVrfqZrQzSfEFrtpbyPyPT34uMhtWC_t/view?usp=sharing

Looking forward to meeting teachers for your other teaching subject CPD. We welcome English teachers who didn’t get to attend CPD last year. 

 If attending this month, check out this 2-min video about what to expect on the day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYNkAMyqAg4

Are you exploring ‘The Merchant of Venice’ or ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ with your students? 

We are running a repeat webinar on Monday, October 3rd at 7pm, for anyone who may have missed it earlier this year.

 Register at this link https://tinyurl.com/h8kv68hr

The Assessment Arrangements for 2023 have just been published by the Department of Education.

The arrangements can be found here:

https://t.co/FD3PpoMCaF

Find someone who...

As students get to know one another over the next few days, this activity might be helpful in generating conversation and curiosity in the English classroom.

Click here to download a copy of the activity

A warm welcome back to all teachers! Wishing you the best over the coming academic year and to new teachers beginning their journey with Junior Cycle English.  

For updates and supports, sign up to our mailing list! 

As the summer months stretch out before us, students might enjoy a selection of suggested reads from the Indicative Text List, Prescribed Text List and beyond!

Click the here to download the handout for your students.

To celebrate Europe Day 2022, students might enjoy this support on travel writing which features a travel article that looks at the Italian city of Trieste.

Click here to access the support.

Happy Poetry Ireland Day! The theme this year is 'Written in the Stars.' You might enjoy this poem entitled 'Stars of Hope' from Joe Flach.

Click here to download a copy of the poem and some possible tasks for students. 

Thinking about booklists for 2022/2023? We have recently updated all information relating to the new Prescribed Text List on our website. Here you can find a brief synopsis of each text, suggested themes and links to different online supports.

Click to access novel 

Click to access drama 

Click to access film 
 

Click below to watch a short video of how to navigate the modals and text information on our website.

https://youtu.be/HiY8pO9yUSk

The JCT English Team are delighted to announce that we will be running a Spring Online Learning Event on April 6th where we will be looking at a universal approach to the new Prescribed Text List for 2nd and 3rd year students.

Click here to register for the webinar 

 To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, enjoy the poem 'Take Care' by President Michael D. Higgins.

Included are some sample activites and tasks that you might like to explore with your students.
 

Click on the image below to read the poem along with the sample activities and tasks. 

Wishing all a safe and enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend!

​​ The latest episode in our ‘Conversations from the Classroom’ series features English teacher Joe Rolston from Presentation Secondary School in Wexford.

 In the first part of this two-part episode, Joe discusses text selection and the role that non-literary texts can play in broadening students’ experiences.

Part 2 will be released shortly.

Click here to listen to the episode.

The Department of Education has published the new Prescribed Text List for 2nd and 3rd year students presenting for examination in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Click to access this list. 

 To celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge, here are 11 words that have enriched the English language, lifted from the Irish language!

Students could explore Oral Language 11 and Reading 8 for example.

Click on the image below to access the support. 

To celebrate International Women's Day 2022, students might enjoy this support which features the latest stamp collection from An Post. This collection celebrates some amazing Irish women in sport. See the collection at this link here. Click the image below to view the support.

Many thanks to all teachers who have engaged with our online CPD over the last few weeks. For those registered in March, you can access the support booklet for the day at the link here

Wishing you and your students a safe and relaxing midterm break!

The latest episode in our podcast series 'Conversations from the Classroom' features English teacher Emer Whyte from Galway Educate Together Secondary School.

Emer describes how she and her colleagues have incorporated planning for students following an L2LP in their Junior Cycle English Classes. Emer also offers an insight into some key steps that work for her and her colleagues when collaboratively designing learning. Listen to the full conversation here.

A must-listen for those looking to learn more about supporting students following Level 2 and Level 3 in the Junior Cycle English classroom!

Our online cluster for 2021-22 has begun! We are delighted to have engaged with teachers so far and look forward to engaging with more over the coming weeks. 

In advance of your cluster day, please watch this short 2-minute video which gives a flavour of what to expect!

https://youtu.be/kYNkAMyqAg4

You can also download the support booklet which accompanies the day here

The latest episode in our podcast series 'Conversations from the Classroom' features English teacher Patricia Wall from Scoil Chaitríona in Dublin.

Listen to Patricia talk about what the collection of student's texts looks like in her context, including some innovative portfolio use. Patricia also explores the use of playlists in the English classroom and the creation of a unit of learning around the theme of travel.

Please Note: You'll find this podcast in the 'In Conversation' section of our Podcast Resource page.

You can also search for 'Junior Cycle Talks' wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Some poetry and story resources which you might like to use in Junior Cycle English are available below:

Here will find a list of seasonal poetry

A Christmas Carol - excerpt from the 1939 Radio Play

Doc on One - Lumps of Coal

In our latest podcast series, ‘In Conversation with teachers..’ Patrick Huff from Ardscoil Mhuire Limerick talks about how audio books and short stories from Amnesty International work in his mixed ability classroom.

Listen to this 20 minute conversation here