Resource+3

**Resource 3:** Newspaper Editorial Fairfax Media. (2010). //What does it mean to be Australian?// Retrieved September 29, 2010, from Fairfax Digital: []



__**Description/Explanation of Resource:**__ The newspaper editorial 'What does it mean to be an Australian' presents a view about some of the qualities and values that many Australians would like to be described as having. As this editorial was published in 2009 in the time of global financial crisis, many of these qualities such as a sense of the fair go and mateship were deemed as insufficient and lacking in positivity to buoy up the spirits in the year to come. The editorial reminds Australians that they should not lose sight of what could be seen as irrelevant- they should enjoy and cherish the beauty of what is around them

__**Relevance to Outcome:**__ The unit of work aims to assist students in making meaning of rich multimodal texts by exploring how written and visual grammar contribute to their overall meaning-making. In the unit, students make use of the techniques that other composers of multimodal texts use to create their own.

This newspaper editorial links strongly with the topic of cultural identity- what it means to be Australian. It also serves to give students an insight into the language features that composers use to persuade the reader to share the same point of view. In particular, the persuasive language used to convince the reader to share a common outlook- to become a part of the Australian culture.

__**Aspect of Literacy to be Explored:**__ The newspaper editorial is a piece of written text that displays an opininon. Students can benefit from reading an example of how modal language is used to present a point of view and the effects of words from varying modality. Although there are not many modals used in the text, it can be modified to suit the lesson's learning outcomes e.g. to help students learn about the varying effects of words of a high modality and how this differs to the effect created by words of a lower to least modality. Through the exploration of this resource in lesson 4, students are engaged in developing their written grammar techniques as well as continuing to explore the HSIE outcome CUS2.3.

Through the exploration of this text, students develop skills in grammar, particularly focusing on modality as a means of expressing a writer of speaker's degree of probability, usuality, obligation or inclination (Droga & Humphrey, 2008, p. 58). This focus on modality provides students with a foundation for further learning in relation to persuasive texts and provides students with the tools to create persuaive pieces of writting. Modal verbs present in this text include, 'will', 'would', 'should', 'should never', as well as phrases/clauses such as, 'Everyone will...'. Moreover, through the analyse of modal verbs in texts students are able to determine the underlying motive of the writer, thus engaging them in the role of the text analyst, an important role of the reader (Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl, & Holliday, 2007).

Additionally, this resource is used to explore the way the media present messages and the influence the media has on society. This is of particular importance for students learning throughout this unit and contributes to students work towards creating their rich task. The learning throughout this unit is culminated through the students creation of their own piece of media, creating an advertisement promoting Australian Identity through positively presenting the diversity of cultures evident in Australia. Whilst this Rich task is not a newsreport, the exploration of newspaper articles provides students with insight into the media.

Thus, this resources provides students with a rich stimulus for the exploration of modality in written texts, as well as exploring how modality is used by the media to present a particular view or opinion. These two aspects of written grammar provide students with an extensive foundation for their development of an advertisement later in this unit.

__**References:**__

Winch, G., Johnston, R. R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2007). //Literacy: Reading, Writing and Children's Literature.// New York: Oxford University Press.

Droga, L., & Humphrey, S. (2008). //Grammar and Meaning: An Introduction for Primary Teachers.// Berry: Target Texts.