Resource+2

Resource 2 Focus: Visual Text  

Description of Resource

This resource is a poster which was used at a 2007, Harmony Day University/ Tafe competition, titled “Australia a multi-layered Country” by Sherley Visinoni, Wilari Tedjosiswoyo, and Salvatore Mangiafico that informs people about the diversity of Australia- from its vast landscape to its mixture of cultures. The Australian people are portrayed by a multitude of faces, with a number of different cultural and ethnic groups prevalent; adding flavour and colour to our country; ultimately, stigmatising Australia’s multiculturalism. The different people presented within this are medical researchers and students which are placed at the centre of this poster representing the future of Australia, through discovery. We come from diverse backgrounds from Europeans to Asians and Africans and hold a strong value of tolerance and acceptance, which is emphasised through this image as people look happy, with smiles on their faces. Furthermore, there are other aspects of Australia’s diversity which we enjoy day to day which are prevalent within this image, being the range of sports, foods and traditions that originate from around the globe. More so, the background of this image is a mosaic of the diverse Australian landscape. Relevance to Unit Outcome

This poster has great amount of detail which emphasises the diversity of Australia and links to the HSIE outcome **ENS2.5 Describes places in the local area and other parts of Australia and explains their significance** (Board of Studies, 2007, pg57), as students are able to use visual literacy as a means to uncover Australia’s multilayered continent, learning about Australia’s different places and features of the Australian continent and in what ways this country is diverse. Students have the opportunity to discuss the literacy outcomes explored in this unit as this poster visually supports the information students are learning about from previous lessons and their prior knowledge. By deconstructing the visual information they are able to identify representational, compositional and interactive meanings prevalent and their purpose. Learning experiences which allow students to think critically about how images convey meaning should be essential inclusions in the classroom literacy programs, as in our society, we are being constantly bombarded by visual messages through non-print media such as television and the Internet (Visual literacy and picture books, 2011, []). This resource assists students in constructing and interpreting visual literacy; inevitably providing them with skills in doing so. Aspect of LIteracy Addressed Students will use this resource to create a poster to demonstrate Australia’s significant places. They will be able to choose a specific landmark or something about Australia’s diversity that they are interested in and consolidate the skills they have learnt when deconstructing this image as a class. Students will learn that images are used within information reports to support the written components and this is what they will construct as their multimodal text (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2011, p. 1). They will be able to use colour, shades, vectors, written captions, reading paths and salience for example when constructing their posters.