This assignment first introduces the rationale and local demographic info as it affects childrens schooling and a myriad

of other factors related to it, then the choice of topic or lexical theme (Great Barrier Reef) is explained and how the chosen 5 texts, or more accurately, meaning-making extracts (or chains-of-signs, according to Kress and Bezemer, 2009) help develop and consolidate the new knowledge. Research findings from the referenced below readings are used to substantiate the points made and outcomes aimed at; and finally, a detailed analysis of language features of one text, in this instance, a poster produced by Marine Park Authority (Australian Government agency) is attached in the Appendix. The rationale for changing the topic of this assignment and choosing a mainstream public primary school scenario, the Great Barrier Reef as HSIE section in Heritage Listed Sites of Year 3 HSIE module Australia, You Are Standing In It over a private ELICOS college and Australian Naval Fleet Review and upcoming events in Sydney topic is the longevity, the practicality and the variety of texts and tasks that can be worked on and saved, edited and polished for use in later years. I have a personal interest in this topic too: my son is in Year 2, will be studying this topic next year, we enjoyed our holiday in Port Douglas, been to the Great Barrier Reef and took part in all the offered activities. The photos taken, as Freebody (2008) explains, would provide the experience side to the topic and make it more interesting and relevant to students. This assignment material, edited after the markers feedback is received, can be offered to school as a unit of work or a collection of learning sequences to choose from should they decide to accept it for next years Year 3 HSIE module Australia, You Are Standing in It. Demographics. Over 80 per cent of children in our local school speak languages other than English at home, come from low income families and have very few opportunities outside the class to learn about Australia. Therefore, the role of the classroom teacher is to be an ESL teacher as well as the content teacher. The school employs 2 bilingual Teacher Aides who do not have TESOL training. To be able to read successfully, as Heath (1994) explains, children need to become (again) active in searching for meaning in books, able to decontextualise that meaning and knowledge, and link it to other aspects in their environment. (Heath, 1994, p.92) Table-top activities widely used in our local school are a very good way to decontextualise the meaning from books or other lesson materials, and consolidate that new knowledge under teachers guidance. Since these table-top activities are usually done in small groups, it is usually possible to group children not only according to their level of proficiency in English with tasks pitched to their i+1(Krashen as referenced and cited extensively in Lightbown & Spada, 2011), but also based on personal compatibility or interests of the children. Decontextualisation and understanding of the text comprehension and production dialectic or textin-and-out-of-context is emphasised in another publication (Freebody, 2008). The author, in asserting that there must be a proactive approach to literacy and, namely, text construction, goes further by highlighting that interpreting and producing texts is a way of rendering experience more understandable, of transforming experience... (Freebody, 2008, p.117). This has important implications not only on the choice of resources, but more importantly, on the way these resources are presented to the learners. The chosen topic Great Barrier Reef with the obvious learning activities link to an excursion to the Sydney Aquarium and watching the movie Finding Nemo will reenergise and motivate the students, enable them to understand better what they (possibly) could not entirely understand from the printed texts, give them an opportunity to practice both the target language and informal social skills (often lacking) in English. According to Freebody, the experience

side is very important the learning will be more actively informed (Freebody, 2008, p.117) and could be used as a momentum for higher level scaffolding. The role of personal experience, as well as of experiential learning is also mentioned in Donovan and Smolkin (2001) quoting Rutherford (1991): The learning of science begins with a childs personal experience of this world, ... questions, not answers,...with finding out, not being told; with butterflies and Tinkertoys, not books.( Donovan and Smolkin, 2001 p.415) This statement can be extended to other areas of learning, not only science. Discovery learning is very rewarding and motivating, however, learning from books can be made motivating, rewarding and interesting too. It is important to discuss the selection and, possibly, development of appropriate resources here. My generation (pre-world-wide-web) studied using textbooks and limited teacher-developed resources. Nowadays the availability of resources is significantly wider, however this does not always translate to better choices. For example, many ELICOS colleges in Sydney use graded Headway, Cutting Edge and other courses published in the UK or the USA; many websites designed for information or teaching purposes have the look and feel of commercial dont leave before you buy portals. One of the most difficult problems to overcome in resources research is to find material with content suitable for children rather than adults. Board of Studies NSW, the decision-making body of all public schools recommends a topic for Stage 2 (Year3) Information Report writing Singapore is a bustling, modern Asian city providing a high standard of living (Board of Studies NSW, K-6, p.224). This is a High School-level writing topic in view of Primary teachers I spoke to recently. In some staff rooms there are lists of websites with www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au, www.factmonster.com and the like, which seem to be universal and a quick answer to almost anything, however not many teachers put in the necessary extra work of customising the worksheets or editing the downloaded texts let alone matching those (not only the title and the topic) against the curriculum and unit-of-work goals. Donovan and Smolkin (2001) studied 10 teachers selections of childrens books, and the underlying assumptions, as noted by the teachers on the feedback forms as to the use of the selected books to teach 2 modules of science Life Cycle and Properties of Matter at primary school level. Among the teachers most frequent comments were good graphics (drawings and photos which made the books visually appealing), content, readability, and whether or not the book had multiple uses and was suited to the particular age. The teachers also made a point that entertaining stories and texts that both entertain and inform would make more interesting and valuable lessons compared to lessons based on information reports with their unsuitability for reading aloud. The authors warn via a voice of 1 out of 10 teachers that learning science via stories may cause confusion about stance in texts (Donovan & Smolkin,2001, p437) and add missed opportunities and misinformation to their concerns. The researchers also make a striking discovery that none of the teachers addressed the issue of genre other than describing 2 books provided as fun stories. Only one teacher had selected a sizeable collection of genres, and even this teacher could not comment nor positively identify any genres other than nice ... presentation. There are several flaws in this research, it seems that some of the very general comments like nice to read are not a true reflection nor should these be seriously considered as relevant feedback, however, several important findings are made, and the main argument, proven successfully on this, however small, sample of primary school teachers is that teachers want to inform AND entertain.

The surveyed teachers view purely informative texts as difficult to read, boring and something that should happen later at school. Genre is not the main consideration when selecting resources. This finding mirrors the experiences of my many colleagues and my own. Theme or module (unit of work etc) would dictate the choice of content and some materials, and those in turn can be adapted, reworded, transformed if necessary, or developed from scratch, which can be very time consuming, but when done properly, matched perfectly to the TLC dots. It is important, however, to develop the genre control skills in students for a myriad of reasons, the main one being a genres social purpose. If students know how to inform, instruct, argue and agree, they will recognise these social features in the texts they are given and will be able to identify the pattern structure, which in turn makes dexontextualisation easier. There is a lengthy (stating the obvious and irrelevant to the publications theme) discussion of what a caterpillar does NOT eat, the explanation how the writers poetry or aesthetical cocoon won over the scientifically correct chrysalis in A Very Hungry Caterpillar( Donovan & Smolkin, 2001 p. 436). The researchers comment on the questionable suitability of the 2 chosen books to teach Life Cycle, however, they themselves make assumptions on the way those teachers would use the books with incongruent to the actual facts information. Were the teachers, the researchers or both Judging the book by its cover? It is regrettable that the study did not look a step further and show how the chosen books were actually used (if they were used) in the classrooms by the teachers, how the students responded, what learning outcomes were met, where there were gaps, confusion, etc. In the context of this study probably the only advantage of using stories other than affect (visual appeal) would be more effective vocabulary acquisition of list items (provided that the teacher edited the stories) compared to learning the vocabulary as list items from an Information Report (Lightbown & Spada, 2011) Most likely, the selected books were supplemented by other paper or medium-based resources (provided by the school or brought in). As technology use in classroom grows, so does the potential for producing and using high-tech materials such as CD-ROMs, presentations for screen projectors, class computers or material for interactive whiteboards, and, of course, numerous educational websites which give a different perspective on how a text, and learning material in general, are organised in an interactive medium. As Kress and Bezemer (2009) explain, without understanding the conventions or code of such resources it is difficult to read them or even see their value as it may be encoded in Signs requiring understanding of social semiotic production (Kress and Bezemer, 2009, pp171-172) What do the above publications mean for the selection of appropriate resources and techniques for teaching the chosen Unit of work? In addition to previously justified resources (The model text of Information Report Sharks (provided by NSW Board of Studies K-6 Syllabus, p.227), the poster (cause and effect explanation: how Climate Change affects the Great Barrier Reef (in which I would probably draw students attention to the 2 errors rather than ignore them in the text of the poster, to emphasise that it is human to make mistakes)). The compulsory set of resources would also include a website devoted to the Great Barrier Reef, starting with its history, and tentatively an excursion to the Sydney Aquarium and viewing the Disney movie Finding Nemo. A number of other resources produced with different tenor and register variables are referenced here and are

available for the teachers, who would make their own judgement as to the suitability and learning value for their students. I would not hesitate in recommending the Finding Nemo movie and would not, contrary to Donovan & Smolkin (2001) be deterred by inaccuracies (for example, Bruce, the Shark becomes the fishes friend and swears not to eat them) there is plenty of news coverage on shark attacks, the children of this age are unlikely to venture in deep enough waters to be exposed to real life threats from the sharks, and will be informed and alerted continuously at school and by media. In discussing the movie and doing the activities related to it I would draw the students attention to this fib as well. The benefits of the social aspects, experience, medium alteration to name a few, far outweigh the search of true factual information. The Youtube activity (with some answers provided below the clips) and the child-friendly website with characters telling the story of the Great Barrier Reef, engaging and easy, bullet-pointed Reef facts website would be very useful resources for independent work to allow for students varying levels of English proficiency: some students may want to complete all three sets of activities in their entirety, some may only be able to understand a small part of each text. The colourful moving images provide visual stimulation and add to the excitement and students motivation to work on the topic. The teacher can choose to pair up a native speaker or a student with higher level of English with a lower English language ability buddy to work on these. I would also recommend and be happy to help design a set of re-usable models or stencils for table-top activities - to consolidate what the children learned from the texts, the websites, their excursion and the movie: create a scene activity for example, where a group of children make paper models of fish, coral, seaweed etc., and arrange these in their Sea and then tell another group about their scene, or create a cause-and-effect Effects on the Great Barrier Reef diagram similar to the one they would have made for Water Cycle in Year 2, or using sticker books as a guide, draw their favourite part, and so on. In conclusion, I would like to add my own observations and beliefs from many years of teaching at almost all levels: neither resources (book selections) nor curriculum knowledge (syllabus) alone provide for excellence in teaching. It is the teachers skill and knowledge of the above, his or her attitudes, creativity and dedication, the desire to fulfil the students learning ambitions, ability to sense the shifts in class dynamics and act on those, and nonetheless importantly, linking those to flow seamlessly from one learning sequence to another to achieve the curriculum, students personal development and own satisfaction (very important in my experience) goals.

References
Climate Change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef a poster produced by Australian Government, Marine Park Authority, available from http://www.reefed.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/41178/GBRMPA_Reef_Beat_Poster_3.pdf viewed October 2013 Donovan C. and Smolkin L., 2001. Genre and other factors influencing teachers book selections for science instruction. Reading Research Querterly, Vol 30, N 4 International Reading Association. Freebody P., 2008. Critical Literacy Education: On Living with Innocent Language Encyclopaedia of Language and Education, 2nd Ed, Vol. 2 Gibbons P. 2006. Second Language Learning and Teaching. In: Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom. Continuum, London. Great Barrier Reef (for Kids) available from http://www.greatbarrierreef.com.au/great-barrierreef-facts/for-kids/ - viewed October 2013 Heath S.B., 1994. What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative Skills at Home and School. - Language and Literacy in Social Practice. Multilingual Matters History of the Great Barrier Reef available from http://www.greatbarrierreef.org/history.php viewed October 2013 Kress and Bezemer, 2009 Writing in a Multimodal World of Representation from The SAGE Handbook of Writing Development SAGE Publications LTD, London, available via SAGE eLibrary. Lightbown P. and Spada N. 2011. How languages are learned, OUP, 3rd Ed. The Great Barrier Reef 2 Youtube clip available from https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QuNjwg7YyoN59h0lZTmiLrRnNdUEvI9Knvkz6TTaGo/viewform viewed October 2013 Squid Squad Reef Bits available from http://squidsquad.com.au/reef-bits.html viewed October 2013

Appendix. Assumptions, Learning sequences and text analysis.

As per Yr 3 HSIE guidelines, approximately 8 weeks are allocated to Australia, you are standing in it and it is assumed that at least some of the planned outcomes are achieved prior to commencing the topic of Great Barrier Reef via work on Sydney Heritage Listed sites Hyde Park Barracks, The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House the Blue Mountains and, possibly, some other prominent landmarks such as Uluru or The Great Ocean Road. It is assumed that students prior experiences with written genres allows them to differentiate between factual and fictional texts, and work on this unit should help understand the distinction. It is important that before commencing students are familiar with some geographic terminology (the concept of distance may still be challenging for many students however), as per the syllabus significant natural, heritage and built features in the local area, NSW and Australia, and their uses and management and care of features, sites, places and environments (K-6 Syllabus p. 81) A suitable warmer would be a re-cap of the kinds of heritage listed sites and their features (buildings, land areas (parks), land formations (e.g. Blue Mountains), that these can be specific (Opera House) or very vague (Tasmanian Wilderness), can include man-made or natural (dead or live) features, they can be even under water, like shipwreck sites. Then a show of hands to name some states in Australia and their location, possibly with some info about them. Then either in a playful put on your wings, we are flying to Queensland! or more serious aka weather-forecastzoom-in on North-East Queensland, hovering over the GBR... I personally always start building the field with elicitation students are proactive, sharing what they know, and with the right (and motivating) approach even the shy ones would hopefully participate. Students vocalise and teacher jots down ideas associated with pictures of scuba divers, coral and fish, floods and storms damage, sugar cane farms, estuaries with muddy waters near the ocean, etc. Building the field could also include fragments of TV news footage about QLD floods, and other visuals. To avoid marginalising and putting some students at a disadvantage, images of Nemo and friends should possibly be saved for later this will also bring the class discussion closer to the point in terms of vocabulary learning and forming a narrative. Reading and discussing a printed text (History of the Great Barrier Reef, for example) would be my next chosen activity, followed by a visit to the library to do some activities on the computer, then closing in on inhabitants of the Great Barrier Reef the Information Report Shark by Board Of Studies NSW, followed by (the next days work) work on understanding the causes and effects of Climate Change on the Great Barrier Reef poster. (analysed below the Shark Report) .

Shark Report
Text Structure
General statement identifies and classifies the subject of the information report

Language Features A shark is a type of fish that lives in the sea. It is one of the largest sea creatures. There are over 350 species. A shark is shaped like a torpedo. It has rough skin like sandpaper. Instead of bones it has elastic cartilage which helps them to move easily. It can grow up to 8 metres.
Use of present tense, typical of much scientific writing Use of technical language, eg elastic, cartilage, plankton

Description appearance habitat behaviour

breeding

Sharks are found in all oceans around the world. The type of shark found will depend on the waters temperature. A shark has to keep moving when it is asleep because it will either sink or suffocate. It has to keep moving because it needs to breathe through its gills to keep alive. When sharks are hungry, they look for food. Different sharks eat different food. Harmless sharks eat plankton but harmful sharks eat meat. Sharks have up to forty two babies (which are called pups) at a time. When the pups are born, they leave straight away because the mother shark does not have teats. Some sharks have their pups in different ways, some lay eggs while others have them alive. When they are born they need to defend themselves because they have no one to help them.

Use of word families to build information, eg shark, fish, sea, species, oceans, water, gills, plankton Use of shark as beginning focus (theme) for organising information in the clause. This pattern plays a part in the successful organisation of the text. Use of noun groups to build descriptions, eg different sharks, harmless sharks Use of relating verbs, eg A shark is a type , it has rough

The posters intended audience is older and more proficient in English than Yr 3 students at the local school, however, its visual appeal and valid (complementing images) can be made digestible by the students here by using it after the less demanding texts and spending time on more than the 2 language features below. It is assumed that some work has been previously done on cause and effect explanations, like in Yr 2 Water Cycle and some units in Yr 3. Metaphors like Sea change probably need to be explicitly explained at this level, however, some children may be able to handle the polysemy well. Analysis of 2 features (nominalisation and cause and effect or arrow verbs) on the example of the poster:

Climate Change - Impacts on the Great Barrier Reef

The real sea change
Climate change is one of the greatest threats to coral reefs worldwide. More than 30 per cent of coral reefs throughout the world have already been affected and scientists fear that 60 per cent of reefs may lose many corals by 2030 due to increased coral bleaching. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the largest and healthiest reef systems in the world and can cope with stress better than most reefs, but it is not immune to climate change.

Impacts on coral reefs the ecosystem effect

Already, coral bleaching and other signs of coral stress are evident. But climate change affects more than corals. Seabirds, marine mammals, turtles, plankton, invertebrates, marine plants, fish and habitats such as wetlands and islands are also under threat. Because plants, animals and habitats are integrally connected, the impacts of climate change will have far reaching impacts on every part of the coral reef ecosystem.

affect to make a difference (often negative or bad) to cause an effect (physical or emotional) elevate to raise, make higher intensify to make smth more intense (or stronger, faster, larger etc) can flood to cover with water, to submerse due to a flood impact (on) similar to affect above to cause a change

lead to to take smth to a new (changed) state, form etc make smth+verb/ adjective to create conditions for a new (changed) state, action reduce to make smaller, here: to prevent something from happening magnify Rising sea level
Increased sea levels elevate the risk of coastal flooding from storm surges and intensify coastal erosion. Rising seawater can flood important bird and turtle nesting sites, wetland areas, mangroves and coastal towns.

Changing ocean circulation

Ocean currents transport oxygen, nutrients and an array of marine life. These ocean conveyor belts connect reefs to each other and connect the coastline to the Great Barrier Reef. Changes in ocean circulation impact food webs and influence the productivity of the ecosystem.

Altering rainfall, drought and run-off patterns

Rain patterns are changing. Some places are drier while others receive more rain. Intense rain leads to increased erosion and floodwaters that carry sediments, nutrients and pesticides to the Reef impacting on the plants and animals that live there.

Ocean acidification
Higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are absorbed by the oceans, affecting the chemistry of the ocean and making it more acidic. This reduces the growth rate and strength of corals and affects the limestone foundations of the Reef.

Increasing frequency of intense storms

More intense storms will magnify physical impacts on coastal areas, mangroves, seagrass beds, shallow reef habitats, islands and coral cays in the Great Barrier Reef.

Increasing sea temperature

Increases in sea temperature results in more frequent mass coral bleaching and a decrease in the overall growth of the Reef. Temperature increases will impact other marine animals such as fish, turtles and seabirds. Nominalisation: Climate change coral bleaching coral stress (physical) impacts erosion productivity growth rate overall growth

Long-term (longlasting) change in climate because of higher atmospheric temperature When coral loses colour and turns white also because of temperatr Unhealthy state in coral caused by typhoons, floods, crown-of-thorns starfish, higher temperatures and other factors How something causes or makes changes in something else Surface soil washed away by water How well a system or group can work together to a common goal How fast something grows How everything in the (Reef) environment grows

To conclude the work on the unit and to highlight the importance of preservation and maintaining balance in nature a video report about the new crown-of-thorns-starfish outbreak. I would suggest this as Information and some discussion only.