Resource+2+(Holly)

** __[] __ ** ** Explanation and rationale of resource  **: www.cancer.org, supported by the Australian Cancer Council is an online website providing information about various types of cancer. The Sun Smart section of the cancer.org website informs viewers of the alarming statics relating to Australians and skin cancer and provides information about what skin cancer is, facts and figures, the risks involved and in particular; ways to protect yourself such as the 5 ways to protect yourself (focus for a lesson). Students can also look at campaigns which the Cancer Council has been involved in to raise the awareness of skin cancer and sun protection. This website will provide students with valid information to fulfil their final task as they are provided with persuasive texts.  **Relevance to the focus outcome:** The aim of the unit is for students to use persuasive language and visual techniques to create and present a multimodal advertisement to the class regarding sun protection. This text will help students to build on their knowledge of skin cancer and the effects that it can have on humans through the exploration of various text types. Students will also be provided with opportunities to explore how texts can be used to relate to different audiences and the types of language used to create meaning. The resources and information provided by this website are extremely useful as they are factual and statistical, providing teachers with a valuable tool for teaching students about skin cancer. The fact that this website ends in .org shows that it is a not for profit organisation and will not be plastered with advertisements and therefore is user-friendly for primary schools. It must however be noted that various pieces of information and videos are rather explicit and consideration should be made before using them. Using this website as the key component of a lesson allows the teacher to maintain some control over what students access on the internet as they should only be on the one site and having all this information in the one place is a great advantage.   ** Aspect of literacy to be explored:  ** ** Through the use of this website students are expected to explore aspects of literacy such as how to use persuasive language and identify the grammatical features of persuasive texts. The website’s primary function is to inform reader’s about skin cancer and to present them with the facts and how we can prevent skin cancer. Whilst the texts do not always follow the structure of an exposition this resource will help them to start looking at characteristics such as the language involved in persuasive texts and how it is single-sided, unlike a discussion. There are also plenty of narratives in there which reflect on real-life stories so student’s can identify with these and compare the texts to examine the differences. ** **  Droga and Humphrey (2005, p.1) clearly state that ‘the words we choose and the way we organise them within texts reflect on their functions and help the text to achieve its purpose’. As teachers we need to help student’s to identify these features and this can be done through the analysis of various text types to understand it’s function and how the text has been used to achieve this. Students will also begin to understand that language is used as a resource for making meaning and whilst this statement is supported by the NSW Boards of Studies K-6 English Syllabus (2007) as various outcomes, Winch et. al (2007) clearly support this notion as they believe that students need an ‘understanding of writing as a social construct, and practice in using language so that they can express themselves with confidence’. This website and the following unit of work will provide students with many opportunities to practise their reading and writing skills as they use language to persuade an audience to protect themselves from skin cancer. ** **//   References   //** Board of Studies (2007) // K-6 English Syllabus //. p.6 Sydney: Board of Studies. Droga, L. & Humphrey, S. (2005). //Grammar and meaning: An introduction for Primary teachers.// pp. 144-145. Marrickville: Target Texts. ** Winch. G, Johnston, R, March, P., Ljungdahl, L & Holliday M. (2007). // Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s literature. // (3rd Ed.). Melbounre: Oxford. **
 * __The Cancer Council Website __ **