UWA Micro-Credential units
UWA Micro-credential Units 2023 English Teachers
Schedule
Schedule
University of Western Australia
Unit Title | Dates/Time | Delivery Method |
April 16, 17, 18 | Online and On Campus | |
April 27, May 4, 11, 18, 25, June 1 | Online | |
July 11, 12, 13 | Online and On Campus | |
July 20, 27, August 3, 10, 17, 24 | Online | |
October 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Online and On Campus | |
October 12, 19, 26 Nov 2, 9, 16 | Online |

NB. Units may be repeated throughout the year depending on popularity.
The Units
All micro-credentials will provide participants with opportunities and support to develop their own teaching and learning resources will be mapped against the AITSL standards and will be led by educators with extensive experience in producing resources for the classroom and for publication. It is supported by research jointly conducted by UWA English and Literary Studies and the English Teachers’ Association of WA. Visit UWA Plus to see full details of how micro-credentials work.
Upon successful completion of each micro-credential, you’ll receive:
• Two PD Points (to be used for further study if you should choose to)
• A Certificate of Achievement
• A UWA Plus Professional Development Transcript, listing all successfully completed micro-credentials
Unit Study Dates
The schedule of units and class times have been planned around the 2023 school term dates. Some units will be delivered in an intensive mode during school holidays when teachers can participate on campus or online. Other units are paced for learning within school term with classes scheduled online and outside of school hours
ENROLMENTS ARE OPEN NOW FOR UNITS OPERATING IN SEMESTER ONE
Unpacking Texts and Producing Resources for the English Classroom
The unit explores the process of teaching fiction and non-fiction texts, from initial teacher reading to classroom delivery. Through a series of lectures, interviews, workshops and activities, participants will investigate different reasons for selecting texts for study and consider how to structure student learning for the classroom and online. Each week the unit will model effective teacher practice demonstrating text selection, syllabus and concept identification, learning structures and activity sequencing, and discuss methods of measuring students’ skills, knowledge and progress. This unit will provide participants with opportunities and support to develop their own teaching and learning resources, will be mapped against the AITSL standards and will be led by educators with extensive experience in producing resources for the classroom and for publication.
Each session will consider a fundamental question of text selection and conversations (lectures and tutorial discussions) will explore this question with reference to a particular text/s. The unit runs over three day, with two tutorials a day. Lectures are pre-recorded and readings will be available online.
Day One
Session 1
Exploring Text Selection and Engagement (Coraline, Neil Gaiman)
Session 2
Genre and the Democratisation of Texts (You versus Wild with Bear Grylls)
Day Two
Session 3
Coming of Age and Classroom Concerns (Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson)
Session 4
To teach or not to teach: classics and canonicity (Persuasion, Jane Austen and Twelfth Night,
Shakespeare)
Day Three
Session 5
Novels, Text Selection and High Stakes Testing (Cloudstreet, Tim Winton)
Session 6
Disruptive Modes and Teaching Methods (Kae Tempest)


Teaching Poetry: From Anon to AI
The unit provides interactive instruction and collaborative opportunities to explore the role of poetry in English education. Through a series of lectures, workshops and assessments, participants will track the notion of the lyric I through time, beginning with anonymous poetry, through Romanticism, the rise of identity politics, and finally to the frontier of AI – with some other steps along the way. This content will be complemented by considerations of the history of poetry in the
classroom, as well detailed discussions from poets of creative practice that teachers might find useful for designing programs and lessons. The unit will be mapped against AITSL standards.
This unit includes lectures from Lucy Dougan, John Kinsella, Tracy Ryan, Samuel Wagon Watson, Tim Dolin, Dennis Haskell, Kieran Dolin and more.
Week 1
Introduction: From Anon (Poetry By Heart Project and School Poetry)
Week 2
Conversations through Time (Eliot’s The Wasteland and Seamus Heaney)
Week 3
Romantic Legacies (Unacknowledged Poets, Dead Poets and the Sublime)
Week 4
Poetry of Protest (Activism, Revolution and Metatextual Poetry)
Week 5
Poetry and Place (Haunted Spaces and Global Connections with Samuel Wagon Watson and Alice Oswald)
Week 6
Poetry of the Present (Science and Digital Poetics
Teaching Historical Fiction
The unit provides interactive instruction and collaborative opportunities to explore historical fiction in English education. Through a series of lectures, workshops and activities, participants will track the genre of historical fiction through time, considering traditional engagements with the genre, as well as exploring examples that blend aspects of other genres. The unit will also pose some questions about the relationship between history, narrative shapes and storytelling methods, as well as social, cultural and political uses of historical fiction. This content will be complemented by considerations historical fiction in the classroom, as well detailed discussions about creative practice that teachers might find useful for designing programs and lessons. The unit will be mapped against AITSL standards and is supported by the research findings of The Big Picture Project, a joint UWA and ETAWA initiative.
This unit is run over three days with two tutorial sessions each day. Lectures are pre-recorded and available online, along with reading materials. This unit features lectures and interviews from Tony Hughes d’Aeth, Jo Jones, Ashleigh Angus and Adam Kealley.
Day One
Session 1
Genre and Context: Reconstructing the Past (Ideas from Walter Scott, Hilary Mantel and Cloudstreet)
Session 2
Educating Audiences: Epics, Children’s Literature and Biopics (Number the Stars)
Day Two
Session 3
Writing Back and Australian Historical Fiction (The Secret River)
Session 4
Real or Fiction: Unheard Voices of the Past (That Deadman Dance and No Sugar)
Day Three
Session 5
Disrupting Reality and Magic Realism in Historical Fiction (Sula)
Session 6
Blended Genres and Experiments with Time (Northern Lights)

Professional Reading for English Teachers
The unit explores seminal texts in the field English teaching and considers ways to embed professional reading throughout your career. Through a series of lectures, set readings, workshops and assessments, participants will track trends and developments in the history of subject English from Matthew Arnold to John Dixon to Terry Eagleton and Ian Hunter, as well as engaging with contemporary professional publications and literary releases. This unit lets teachers dive down
some research ‘rabbit-holes’ while closely considering professional reading goals, the continuing conversations between the classroom and research, and maintaining academic passion throughout your future career. The unit will be mapped against AITSL standards and is supported by research conducted by the UWA and ETAWA joint project. The Big Picture.
This unit is run over six weeks with weekly tutorial sessions. Lectures are pre-recorded and available online, along with reading materials.
Week 1
English, Reading and School History: considering Wordsworth, Arnold and Eliot
Week 2
A ‘civic’ education and workplace reading cultures
Week 3
Growth through English, democratisation and Subject English networks
Week 4
Australian Subject English and Reid’s The Making of Literature
Week 5
Fiction, Theory and Subject English: rabbit-hole or wormhole?
Week 6
English Teacher Identity and Reading Networks
Programming and Planning for Subject English
The unit explores the different methods through which English teachers can strategically plan and program classroom
teaching and learning. Through a 6-week series of lectures, interviews, workshops and activities, participants will track trends in educational planning and consider the efficacy of various programming theories in their own English teaching context. This unit provides opportunities for participants to learn from other classroom practitioners and consider practical influences and constraints alongside theoretical frameworks. The unit supports participants to develop classroomready programs for specific school contexts and supports teachers in their professional practice. The unit will be mapped against AITSL standards and is supported by research conducted by a UWA and ETAWA joint project.
This unit is run over five days with a tutorial session each day. Lectures are pre-recorded and available online, along with reading materials. This unit features lectures and interviews from Trish Dowsett, Jennifer Shand, Josefine Wang, Kathryn Shortland-Jones, Bree Hanson and Jenny Miraudo.
Session 1
Subject English, Curriculum and Programming Choices
Session 2
Models of Programming: Storytelling, Concept-based and Backward Mapping
Session 3
Models of Programming: Theme-based and Text-based
Session 4
Learning Programs and Assessment Design
Session 5
Context, Collaboration and Continual Review
Teaching Short Story: Creative Writing and the Classroom
The unit provides interactive instruction and collaborative opportunities to study the form of Short Story and consider how it can be explored in the English classroom as both a close study and creative writing opportunity. Through a series of lectures, interviews, workshops and activities, participants will engage with classic and contemporary Australian examples of the form and consider ways of developing structural and stylistic elements of the short story such as voice, plot, character and symbolism. This content will be complemented by considerations of how short stories are studied in the classroom, as well as detailed discussions from writers about creative practice that teachers might find useful for designing programs and lessons. The unit will be mapped against AITSL standards and supported by the research findings of The Big Picture Project, a joint UWA and ETAWA initiative.
This unit is run over six weeks online with a weekly tutorial session. Lectures are pre-recorded and available online, along with reading materials. This unit features lectures and interviews from scholars and writers in Australian Literature.
Week 1
Aussie Classics: Exploring Form and Favourites
Week 2
Contemporary Australian Realism: Landscapes and Characters
Week 3
Contemporary Indigenous Realism: Tony Birch’s “Sissy”
Week 4
Australian Surrealism and Julie Koh
Week 5
Indigenous Speculative Fiction and Children’s Literatures
Week 6
Contemporary Micro Fiction: local writing scenes
The English Teachers Association of WA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. Country has, for thousands of years, been a place of learning. We at the English Teachers Association of WA are proud to share in this long tradition
© 2020 English Teachers Association Western Australia. All rights reserved.