English

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

It was an absolute pleasure to chat with Inua Ellams earlier this year. His text “The 14th Tale” is on the current prescribed text list for 2nd and 3rd year students.  

Listen to our full conversation in collaboration with Arts in Junior Cycle here

We hope you enjoy!  

JCT English are delighted to host 'Contemporary Poetry in Action' as part of JCT's autumn online learning events schedule. This event will take place on Monday October 18th from 7-8pm and will explore a unit of learning from English teacher Kevin Dowling and his students at St. Joseph's Secondary School, Rush, Co. Dublin.

Join us on the night by registering here

JCT are delighted to host two options to support the SLAR meeting process aimed at ALL teachers of Junior Cycle.

You can choose between SLAR facilitator or SLAR participant option. All take place this October. To register, please visit the website of your local education centre.

Revised arrangements (September 2021) for the completion of Classroom Based Assessments for students currently in second and third year, 2021-2022 can be found at this link

The Department of Education have issued Assessment Arrangements for Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Examinations 2022 -available here

Revised arrangements (April 2021) for the completion of Classroom Based Assessments for students currently in third year, 2021-2022 (cohort of students 2019-2022) can be found at this link

The Department of Education have issued Assessment Arrangements for Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Examinations 2022 -available here

Revised arrangements for the completion of Classroom Based Assessments for students in 2nd year in 2020/2021 (cohort of students 2019 – 2022) April 2021 can be found here

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Guidelines for Schools on Assessment and Reporting on Students’ Learning – Junior Cycle 2021 issued by the Department of Education in March 2021 are available here: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/bb7e4-assessment-and-reporting-on-students-learning-junior-cycle-2021/#

Digital supports for Junior Cycle English can be found here 

English teachers share their practice using digital platforms to support teaching and learning: 

Muireann Nagle  demonstrates her use of One Note in 'Class Notebook – Set-up and Features' and 'OneNote as a Collaboration Space' 

Joe Rolston shares his practice in developing the writing process in 'Using Seesaw to Support Student Learning'.

Short support videos on using Coggle Mind-mapping, Anchor Podcasting, Kahoot, Flipgrid, Adobe Spark are available here. 

Our online Cluster CPD is taking place from January to March. To access the Learning Log in advance please click here. 

To access our Webinars, in particular Webinar 6, Reconnecting with Reading please click here. 

We are delighted to announce an exciting new resource 'Between Land and Sea' designed by the JCT English and RE teams in conjunction with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and RTÉ. You can access the resource and a recording of the webinar held to launch the resource here.

The NCCA 'Report on the review of the enactment of Junior Cycle English 2020' may be found here.

This resource-   Interactive Planning Template - was developed by the English team to support teachers engaging with planning for 2020/21.