A.C.E. English
A.C.E. English PACEs focus on developing writing skills including word usage, grammar and sentence structure. Students use these skills to plan, outline and compose texts of various types. English PACEs are sequential through to Year 10/11; after this, students may choose what level they wish to study. The following table is a guide (Click to enlarge). Contact us for more detailed assistance.
Creative and Critical Writing skills
English PACEs focus on mastering reading and writing skills, starting with basic grammar and progressing to creative and critical reading and writing. Literature and Creative Writing PACEs examine a range of literature styles, including novels, biographies and expositions. Activities include using the imagination, re-writing endings, preparing book reports and creating persuasive arguments.
Click on the levels below for more details on topics and books covered.
Level 2 - 1013-1024
English
Words that rhyme; learn about poems; learn how to write personal letters.
Literature & Creative Writing
Put sentences and pictures in order; know and write what is happening in a picture.
Interpret pictures and imagine what someone is saying or doing.
Choose story endings; finish stories.
Answer questions and write sentences; write sentences with adjectives; read and write stories.
Level 3 - 1025-1036
English
Write letters and address envelopes.
Learn about poems.
Literature & Creative Writing
Read through the books, Summer Fun with Ace and Christie and Christians Courageous.
Tell what happened in a story; characters, plot, setting and order in a story; visualize setting and Characters; heroes and enemies in a story; tell when and where things happen.
Put instructions in order; follow directions.
Answer questions from pictures; recognize things that belong together;
write sentences in order; write what is happening from pictures.
How action words make writing more interesting; choosing the best answers and answer questions; write words that tell how, when and where; change “what kind” words to “how” words; decide “Which is…”; learn and write words that describe; write by answering who, what, when, where and why questions.
Rhyming words.
Write story titles and choose story endings; write another ending to a story; write about “What you would do if…”; think and write; use my imagination; unscramble a story and put it in the correct order; place pictures in order and write my own story from the pictures; write about myself and others; create a story from pictures.
Write a story report;
Learn about limericks.
Level 4 - 1037-1048
English
Review how to write sentences and paragraphs;
how to be polite; how to write friendly letters, business letters and postcards; how to address envelopes.
Literature & Creative Writing
Read and examine six books.
Opportunities for using imagination and practicing handwriting.
The Little Green Frog – Using a dictionary; think how things are the same or different; predict the end of a story; find phrases within sentences; make action words; use action words; follow directions; draw conclusions.
Saved at Sea – Write what is happening; look up words; learn about a famous poet; learn about the dictionary and the alphabet; write a poem; find the main idea of a paragraph; learn how words can paint pictures in our minds.
The Red Rag Riddle – Learn about riddles; learn words that show contrast; read and find misspelled words; think what you know; learn words used to compare; learn about and write a summary; think how things go together; learn about news stories; learn about heroes and heroines.
Charlotte’s Web – Follow directions; learn the meanings of new words; find the main idea in a paragraph; draw conclusions; find hidden words; remember and write what I have seen; think and write what I hear, see and smell; Learn about libraries; learn about biographies and autobiographies.
Children’s Missionary Library –learn to make word clusters; write a letter to a missionary; write a sketch; learn about short stories.
Choice Stories for Children – Write a different ending to a story; find valuable lessons in stories; write an invitation; learn more about literature; learn about “alike” and “different”; learn about and write an anecdote.
Level 5 - 1049-1060
English
Complete sentences and sentence fragments;
Writing interesting paragraphs;
Writing friendly and business letters.
Literature & Creative Writing
Read and examine six books.
Choice Stories for Children – Learn more about literature and writing creatively; learn about anecdotes and write an anecdote; use edit marks; setting, characters, plot and order in short stories; finding the main idea; learn about similes; study a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.
North to Amaroqvik – Paint word pictures with similes and metaphors; the four kinds of conflict, or struggle, in stories; more about writing a summary; learn about and write anagrams.
Heidi – More about analogies; learn about a novel, a blurb, and a preface; cause and effect; alliteration; similes; learn about Switzerland; topic sentences and supporting sentences; nouns; personifications as a figure of speech; how quotation marks are used; write a book report.
Miracle at Camp Friendship – Synonyms and antonyms; point of view; answer thought questions; practise being observant; review homophones; writing summaries; use of edit marks; comparison and contrast; four kinds of conflict in stories; quotation marks; write a book review.
A Dog of Flanders –expository writing; difference between facts and opinions; use facts to draw correct conclusions; practise reading and observing carefully; some art terms; practice some art concepts; personification; persuasive writing; practice writing a persuasive paragraph; facts and opinions; see the correct order of things.
Star of Light –similes and personification; understand word meanings from sentence clues; lively, descriptive verbs; descriptive writing; words used as adjectives; time order and narrative writing; use adjectives to compare; use analogies to compare.
Level 6 - 1061-1072
English
Improve sentences by using: interesting verbs, exact nouns, adjectives, comparisons, adverbs, prepositional phrases.
Writing interesting paragraphs; friendly and business letters.
Preparing an outline; write several interesting paragraphs about one idea.
Literature & Creative Writing
Read and Examine six books.
The Fugitive King – Learn some facts about literature; work logic puzzles; write a paragraph of contrast; homophones and synonyms; answer questions about the plot; use coordinating conjunctions; follow guidelines for answering short answer questions; determine meanings of new vocabulary words; solve different kinds of word puzzles; determine cause and effect; write a three-paragraph essay.
Christians with Courage – Biographies and autobiographies; read and answer thought questions; test skills of observation; learn terms related to news stories; write headlines and leads for news stories.
Alexi’s Secret Mission – Idea of same and different; compare things and ideas; write using comparison and contrast; see how comparison works in maths; recognise and write figures of speech; foreshadowing and predicting; use specific nouns and lively verbs in writing; add adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases to improve writing; fact and opinion; suspense.
Grandpa’s Christmas Gift – Use confusing words correctly; learn new vocabulary words; how the focus of the setting can change in a story; put things in order; follow directions; use logic to figure things out; write directions; learn about diaries; write diary entries; show understanding of certain vocabulary words; learn about poetry.
Little Pilgrim’s Progress – Learn about The Pilgrim’s Progress and John Bunyan; discover things about a book by looking at its cover; how expository writing explains, answers questions, compares or contrasts, gives reasons and tells “how to”; idioms; allegory; review Biblical allegories (parables); learn about the man Aesop; characterization; read some of Aesop’s Fables; examine an allegory in poetry; understand the allegories of Little Pilgrim’s Progress.
Treasures of the Snow – Learn about a novel and narrative writing; story structure; conflict and point of view; time order; identify figures of speech; answer THINK questions; identify sensory details; write THINK and SUPPOSE paragraphs of five or more sentences; write descriptive paragraphs using sensory detail; plot development; identify the climax and resolution of a story; expository writing; persuasive writing; write a persuasive paragraph and advertisement; determine the kind of writing needed for a specific topic.
Level 7 - 1073-1084
English
How sentences vary: in the ways they are used, in word order, when the voice of the verb changes, in the kinds we use; sentence variety; paragraph structure.
Proofreading and outlining as an aid to writing; write three paragraphs from an outline.
Writing an interesting paragraph by using examples and details.
Friendly letters and business letters.
The structure of a paragraph: the first word is indented, it covers only one idea, the topic is stated in the topic sentence, the last sentence often restates the topic;
Basic Literature
Read and examine six books.
Writing activities include analysis for style, plot and character development. Compositions based on some of the books give students to prepare outlines, write first drafts, correct their writing and turn in final drafts for assessments.
George Mueller – Composition writing exercise of four paragraphs using outline
D.L. Moody – 300 word composition using outline
Through Gates of Splendour – 300 word composition using outline
God’s Smuggler – 300 word composition using outline
By Searching – Five paragraph report using outline
Swiss Family Robinson – Four or five paragraph composition using outline
Level 8 - 1085-1096
English
Improve sentences using exact nouns, descriptive phrases, interesting verbs, comparisons, adjectives and adverbs.
Identify and write topic sentences.
Four kinds of paragraphs (text types: expository, descriptive; narrative; persuasive).
Writing outlines; proofreading work.
Letter writing: friendly letters and business letters; addressing envelopes.
Write a short biographical report.
Basic Literature
Read and examine six books.
Writing activities include analysis for style, plot and character development. Compositions based on some of the books give students to prepare outlines, write first drafts, correct their writing and turn in final drafts for assessments.
God’s Adventurer – Multi-paragraph composition using original or sample outline provided; Opportunity to research
Little One, Maid of Israel – Four paragraph composition using outline
When Science Fails
Abraham Lincoln
Ann of Ava
In His Steps
Level 9 - 1097-1108
English
Phrases and clauses; simple, compound and complex sentences.
Literature: Parts of a book; elements of a short story or novel.
Read and analyse The Swiss Family Robinson and Twice Freed.
Learn about exposition, complication, and resolution of story plots.
Essay questions.
Poetry.
Letter writing.
Writing skills: Sentence fragments and run-on sentences; use nouns to improve writing skills; use verbs in good writing; develop writing skills in comparison and contrast.
Chronological order, spatial order, and order of importance to develop paragraphs.
Figures of speech – simile, metaphor; personification, hyperbole.
Outlining: sentence and topic; write a biographical sketch from an outline; write a short biographical sketch.
Basic Literature
Read and examine six books.
Writing activities include analysis for style, plot and character development. Compositions based on some of the books give students to prepare outlines, write first drafts, correct their writing and turn in final drafts for assessments.
Up From Slavery – Six to eight paragraph composition using outline
Michael Faraday
Pilgrim’s Progress – Six to eight paragraph composition using outline
The Hiding Place – Six to eight paragraph composition using outline
Did Man Just Happen?
Robinson Crusoe – Six to eight paragraph composition using outline
Level 10 - 1109-1120
English
Writing: Learn the parts of a paragraph; review outlining; learn to develop paragraphs by using examples, facts, reasons and details; use of participles to improve writing.
Four kinds of paragraphs: descriptive, expository, narrative and persuasive; formulate a plan for writing each kind of paragraph.
Method for answering essay questions; answering essay questions.
Purpose and style of newspaper articles; write newspaper articles.
Form and purpose of social letters; form and purpose of business letters; write a letter of application.
Literature: learn the characteristics of biographies and autobiographies; write a chapter of own autobiography;
Read The Hiding Place; Examine the setting, plot and characters; examine some things about the author’s style; meaning and pronunciation of new vocabulary words in The Hiding Place; review the plot; answer essay question.
Text Types and A.C.E.
Text types are different ways of writing that suit different purposes and different audiences.
A.C.E. teaches text types throughout its English (including Literature) course. Other subjects and resources cover some specialised text types.
Different educational groups may give different names to these ways of writing, but the skills are much the same in every group.
Samples of English PACEs
Click an image or description to open a pdf glimpse of a few pages.
 | Lower Primary English |
 | Middle Primary English |
 | Upper Primary English |
 | Lower Secondary English |
 | Secondary English |
 | Upper Secondary English |
From a Year 12 Graduation Speech...
I have been home schooled from the very beginning using A.C.E, for which I am very thankful. This taught me to be self-motivated, set and accomplish goals, understand written instructions, and many other things. My favourite subject would have to be English, not only because it was an interesting subject, but also because of the biographical sentences about the lives of famous Christians that were interwoven into the PACE text. The WISDOM pages were a blessing also. They showed me how a Christian should talk and discuss Biblical topics, and I also gleaned many things from the topics discussed. - Hannah, NSW Back to top of page
Distinctions and High Distinctions in Essay Writing
Alex is studying a Liberal Arts degree at Campion College Sydney. He completed the Year 12 English PACEs up to 1144. At College, he has been writing essays, discourses and arguments (using the Platonic and Aristotelian method) and achieving Distinctions and High Distinctions on average. He is sure that the emphasis on grammar, logical construction of paragraphs and outlining methods have really helped him achieve these grades. He is competing against high achievers who have written essays for years so, initially, he was concerned about how he would compare. In fact, many of the Lecturers (all of whom have Masters and/or PhD degrees) have commented on his mastery of Grammar and History- both of which he studied through A.C.E. - Toni, NSW Back to top of page
A.C.E. English excellent preparation for essay writing
I finished A.C.E. only to year 11, but English to year 12 (1121). I believe A.C.E. English gave me a great foundation for a smooth transition into tertiary study. I was accepted into Laidlaw College as a 20-yr old, and took three papers part-time over two years while working to pay for my study. This was with the intent to eventually apply for the full-time Counseling degree programme. The first paper I took was recommended to me by the head of the Counseling school as a good way to assess whether Counseling was the right thing for me. What I didn't realize was the paper was a 2nd/3rd yr level paper. It being my first step into tertiary study, I found it very daunting at first; there was a very high standard of essay writing required to pass the paper. However, my A.C.E. training saw me through and I coped fine and actually passed with a high average. The same was true of the next two papers I took. All three papers were without exams and graded entirely on the ability to write a good essay. The grading criteria includes, "ability to construct a logical, well-argued point backed by proper research, depth of treatment, research skills, flow and clarity of essay, grammar and style." Most of these things are grounded on being able to write proper sentences and paragraphs, and that is where I believe the strength of the A.C.E. English lies. The focus on correct sentence and paragraph structure gave me the best preparation for writing academic papers. A.C.E. also covered learning how to write a Bibliography, which is an important skill for tertiary study. - Tessa (student), New Zealand Back to top of page