Resource+2

Resource 2 Chantel Mirzai

Video can be viewed at []

Description of Resource This resource is a video news report sourced from the popular weekly childrens news program Behind The News (BTN). The news report puts forward the point of view that plastic bags are having a detrimental effect of the environment. The multimodal text incorporates spoken text through voice-overs, written text, audio including a range of music and visuals (in the form of still images/pictures and short videos) to create a dynamic report that is engaging and informative. This is an example/model of the type of multimodal text the Stage 2 - Year 4 students will be developing throughout this unit of work. This video is being utilised as a resource/stimulus in lesson 2 so that the students can see how each element works together to create meaning and also to initiate their thinking about how they might create a similar type of text.

Relevance to the unit outcome

The BTN news video links perfectly with the Stage 2 environments outcome 'Describes people's interactions with environments and identifies responsible ways of interacting with environments (Board of Studies, 2007, p. 33). The news report addresses reasoning behind why plastic bags are harmful to the environment, what they are made out of, the effects of their production (with reference to carbon emissions) and the effects of plastic bags on animals (both land and marine). It provides both a national and international perspective on the issue and offers a range of facts and figures that utilise analogies useful and appropriately aimed at stage2/stage 3 students. It also relates to the outcome by providing possible solutions to the issue but as this is an ongoing problem, no concrete recommendations are made. Students are thus able to approach the issue in an open-ended fashion and consider their own solutions on a small community, state, national and/or international level.

Aspect of Literacy explored in the unit              While students will be using the BTN video to gather important HSIE content information, they will simultaneously be developing an understanding of multiliteracies. They will be analysing the BTN video to identity the design features that work in collaboration to create meaning. Healy suggests that these features can be categorised into five key interrelated sphere, the linguistic, the visual, the audio, the spatial and the gestural (2004, pp. 20-21). Throughout the learning activities students will learn about each of these spheres and will be required to pay close attention to their application in the BTN video (particular focus will be placed on the linguistic, audio and visual elements). Furthermore, students will work in their sustainability groups to suggest the effect that each element and/or the interrelationship between these elements has on the viewer/responder. In this way students are engaging in text-analysis practices by considering the purpose of the text structure and features (Winch & Holliday, 2006, p. 46). In addition, students will have the opportunity to consider the differences between this multimodal text format and other types of text e.g. print media. Students will discover that multimodal texts are 'not designed in a linear way, although the participant will create linearity in their efforts to make text cohesive and sensible' (Healy, 2004, p. 23). The key focus of the literacy activities is on understanding the way in which each feature and symbol utilised in a multimodal text works to create meaning and deliver some type of message. By demonstrating the way multimodal texts work through the BTN video example, the students are able to work collaboratively to suggest which features were most effective in creating/adding to meaning and can consider which elements they might employ in the design and creation of their own multimodal text. They are thus reflecting on the resource as a model of multiliteracies to enhance the meaning making process of their own work. References
 * Board of Studies. (2007). HSIE K-6 Syllabus. Sydney: Author
 * Healy, A. (2004). The critical heart of multiliteracies:four resources, multimodal texts and classroom practice in Text next: new resources for literacy learning (pp. 19-35). Newtown, NSW: PETA
 * Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2006). Literacy: reading, writing and children’s literature (third edition). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.