Unit+Overview

**HSIE:** **ENS2.6 –** Describes people’s interactions with environments and identifies responsible ways of interacting with environments. || **English:** **RS2.7 –** Discusses how writers relate to their readers in different ways, how they create a variety of worlds through language and how they use language to achieve a wide range of purposes. || **Indicators:** **//Students://** - Role-play findings from a local case study on conservation. - Plan for/take part in debate, presenting either the for or against argument for human industrialisation which affects the environment. - Write a discussion presenting both sides of the conservation argument. - Create a promotional poster for a conservation organization, taking into consideration the features of visual texts. - Take part in class creation of a multimodal video clip. - Create storyboards, taking into consideration the elements of multimodal texts.  Work in groups to plan and create a rich multimodal text about the impact humans are having on an environment or animal of their choice.
 * __Unit Overview __**
 * **Key Learning Area(s):** HSIE, English || **Stage:** 2 ||
 * **Unit Focus/Aim:** To develop student’s understanding of the way in which our actions and decisions have consequences, in particular the impact humans are having on the environment, and to foster an awareness of and appreciation for responsible ways of living. ||
 * **Focus Outcome:**
 * **Other Outcome(s):**

**Assessment Strategies:** **//Formative://** - Observations - Monitor participation and involvement in class activities - Student evaluation notes - Mark and evaluate tasks – as per indicators **//Summative://** - To consolidate learning, students will be required to design and create a rich multimodal text that demonstrates their understanding of the impact of human activity on a particular Australian environment or endangered Australian animal of their choice.

**__Teaching and Learning Activities: __** **Lesson 1:** Research a local case study of a particular area around the school that human activity has had an impact on, and come up with some sustainable solutions.

**Lesson 2:** Explore a variety of different environments and the animals that live there, their natural habitat, why they are important to the area, what they do, what they need to survive, etc.

**Lesson 3:** Explore different human industries and activities that have had a negative impact of the environment, why they are important industries, the ways in which they affect the environment, if there are any alternatives, etc. Plan and carry out a debate with one team representing the human companies and the other side the conservation groups.

**Lesson 4:** Building on from the debate, explore different aspects of written grammar through planning and writing discussions.

**Lesson 5:** Look at different organizations and groups that work with endangered animals/environments that aim to preserve/manage/sustain them, how they go about this, how students can help, etc.

**Lesson 6:** Students explore different aspects of visual grammar by creating a promotional poster advertising one of the conservation organizations looked at in the previous lesson.

**Lesson 7:** Introduce and explore multimodal texts through a video presenting a case study of an endangered species. Break the video into the various elements (written, visual, audio, etc) and use this new knowledge of film as a multimodal text to create a short video clip as a class.

**Lesson 8:** Students continue to explore visual aspects of multimodal texts through the use of storyboards and elements within this (i.e. camera angles and shots). Teacher scaffolds visual part of storyboard and students use this knowledge and their prior learning about the environment to create their own storyboard within groups.

**Lesson 9:** Students collaborate with their group members to plan the sequence of their multimodal text, adding plans for written text to the storyboards from lesson 8. Using group roles, they create visual images of the chosen environment based on prior field knowledge and visual grammar understanding, and create short written phrases to support the visual.

**Lesson 10:** Students film, edit and add music or sounds to their multimodal texts using JayCut.

**__Resources: __**

- Internet/library access

- Local case study

- Image of the bulldozer clearing the land: []

- Australian Government website of threatened species list: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/index.html

- Advertising images: []; []

- Loggerhead sea turtle video clip: [] covery.com/videos/ operation-wild/

- Storyboard video clip: Storyboarding (AFI’s Lights, Camera, Education!) []

- Storyboards

- JayCut.org

- Video cameras for each group - Music and/or sound effects