Resource+2

**__Resource Two__**

Media Release from website of "National Trusts of Australia"

National Trusts welcome Julia Gillard **__Description of Resource:__**

This resource, which would be used in the second lesson of the Unit, is a brief media release from 2010 located on the “National Trust of Australia” website. This statement consists of Dr Graeme Blackman, the Chairman of the Australian Council of National Trusts, welcoming the then newly elected Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urging all Australians to understand their natural and cultural heritage and seek to protect it. The resource is an example of a formal and public address that was given at a specific time and reflects the context surrounding its delivery, that being the need for Australia to improve its conservation and preservation of local heritage sites. The resource particularly focuses on the political aspect of heritage protection by encouraging political parties to implement policies that are in line with the public’s desire to protect Australian cultural and built heritage.

**__Relevance to Outcome:__**

The focus outcome of our Unit of Work is centred on the relationship between people and their environments, and we have chosen to design our unit with a particular focus on how this relationship occurs through the preservation of heritage listed sites at both a local level and within a broader context. As such, this resource is highly relevant to this outcome as contained within this public address are messages that promote awareness of the environment and encourage the community to do their part in addressing environmental concerns. This is particularly seen in one of the comments made by Dr Blackman, where he explicitly states the importance of developing an Australian society that “values the heritage as part of a healthy environment” (National Trusts of Australia, 2010). By unpacking the content of this media release and extracting the environmental messages within it, students will be able to gain a broader understanding of heritage, yet also be able to localise this issue through the references made in the speech to certain heritage sites of Australia. As this resource would be used in the beginning stages of the Unit, its main purpose would be to gauge the interest of the students and act as a springboard for them to begin thinking about why we have heritage listed sites, what it means to preserve them and how this process of preservation actually takes place. We believe that this is important knowledge for Stage 2 students to develop and it is clearly aligned with aspects of the HSIE rationale that emphasise the importance of giving students the opportunity to ask challenging questions, engage with actual people and places and form thoughts about the past, present and future of our environment (NSW Board of Studies, 2001, p. 7).

**__Aspect of Literacy to be Explored:__**

There are several aspects of literacy that could be explored by using this resource; however the focus would be on identifying it as an example of a persuasive text and therefore examining its structure, content, language and grammatical features. Thus reading is the strand of the English syllabus that would be incorporated into this lesson, with students being encouraged to use various reading strategies in order to deconstruct the text. In deconstructing this text, students would be acting as text-participants as they link their prior knowledge to the new content, text-users as they discuss the purpose of the text and text-analysts as they dig deeper into the text an attempt to uncover any bias or opinions that are embedded within it (Winch & Holliday, 2006, pp. 46-47).

Due to the fact that this resource would be used in the first lesson of the Unit in order to introduce students to the concept of “heritage” and “heritage-listed sites”, the language would also need to first be explained and discussed, as some of the terms used in the media address might be unknown to the students. Examples could include “archaeological heritage”, “built heritage”, “conservation” and “cultural heritage” (National Trusts of Australia, 2010). As each of these terms relates to a specific aspect of what heritage is considered to be, it is vitally important that students have the opportunity to discuss what they think these terms are referring to and to be given clear direction from the teacher if they are unsure. This is an example of how students would also need to use their code-breaking practices in order to decode the print information (Winch & Holliday, 2006, p. 46).

As subsequent lessons will focus on expositions in a more in-depth manner, this text is a useful starting point for students to begin identifying the language and grammatical structures that feature in a persuasive text such as thinking and modal verbs and technical nouns (NSW Board of Studies, 1998, p. 249). This would be modelled to students, who would then be able to work on identifying these particular language features themselves, including identifying the arguments being made within the text, identifying persuasive language such as “should be”, “urge”, “much more needs to be done” and so on (National Trusts of Australia, 2010). However, teachers should ensure that it is clearly explained that this text isn’t actually a proper exposition as it is a segment from a public address of thanks; rather it just includes elements of a persuasive text which can then be further explored in other examples of the text type.


 * __References:__ **

National Trusts of Australia. (2010). //Media releases.// Retrieved September 24, 2011, from National trusts of Australia: [] Board of Studies NSW. (2007). //K-6 Human Society and Its Environment syllabus.// Sydney: Author. Board of Studies NSW. (1998). //K-6 English modules.// Sydney: Author. Winch, G. & Holliday, M. (2006). Reading. In G. Winch, R. Ross Johnston, P. March, L. Ljungdahl & M. Holliday (Eds), //Literacy: Reading, writing and children's literature (3rd Ed.)// (pp. 1-174). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.