Welcome to LCA English and Communications. Over the next two years you will build real pieces of communication: scripts, covers, journal entries, advertisements, spoken pieces and more.
Today you set up the two things that hold all of that work: your Communication Portfolio and your Reflective Journal. You will also write down the anchor text your class agrees — the one novel, short story collection or graphic novel you will all read together later this year — and three goals of your own.
Today's must-finish: folder, journal, and Course Brief filed in the folder. If time runs short, the course overview and the partner talk are what get cut first, so the brief still gets written.
This course runs across four modules and two years. You complete Key Assignments your teacher verifies, an oral examination, and a written examination. Your journal and portfolio travel with you the whole way; by the end they are strong evidence for the oral.
This is a map of the two years: you will come back to it, you do not have to learn it off.
| When | What you finish |
|---|---|
| Module 1, today | Portfolio folder, Reflective Journal, Course Brief |
| Module 1, next lesson | KA1: first identity journal entry |
| Modules 2 to 4 | Further KAs across research, media, advertising, film and personal writing |
| End of the course | Oral exam practice; every Key Assignment for the four modules, banked and ready |
Do these three things now. Your teacher will check each one before you write the Course Brief.
| What to do | Done when |
|---|---|
| 1. Create the folder | A named folder exists (digital at school, or paper with your books). Example name: LCA English Portfolio plus your initials. |
| 2. Start the journal | A document or notebook called Reflective Journal sits inside the folder, first page left blank for a title page. The first full entry comes next lesson. |
| 3. Record the anchor text (the book the class will read together) | The title the class agrees is written in your notes, ready for the Course Brief. |
Get the folder and journal done first while devices and materials are open. Then your teacher leads a short agree-and-write for the anchor title (about three to four minutes). Write whatever title the room settles on.
You’re making: a Course Brief, about 80 to 180 words.
Where: in the writing box on this page. You only need the first draft today.
When you’re done: copy it into your Communication Portfolio folder as m1_l1_course_brief_AB.
Write your Course Brief in the activity below: one continuous piece in your own voice. Name the anchor text the class agreed, how you will keep your journal, three personal goals for these two years, and one sentence on why the course matters to you.
This Course Brief is your first real piece of written communication for the portfolio; it is not a Key Assignment. KA1 is the identity journal entry next lesson.
When you finish, file it: if digital, paste or save the final version into your portfolio folder as m1_l1_course_brief_AB (AB stands for your own initials) (add .docx or whatever format your school uses); if paper, write the same brief on a sheet, put that name at the top of the sheet, and file it in your folder. Your teacher confirms the filed copy before the close.
Your Course Brief
Talk this through with the person beside you, or sit with it quietly. Talk only today: nothing goes in the Reflective Journal until the KA1 identity entry next lesson.
- Which of your three goals feels most like you, and which one might be harder to keep?
- What do you want future-you to notice when you open this journal at the end of Year 2?
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