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= Resource 1 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Website  http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/  h  =



Description of resource The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Website provides the gateway for information about the Great Barrier Reef & World Heritage Area. This resource provides all the things you need to know about the Great Barrier Reef including reports, zoning areas, climate change, fishing & boating, tourism and much more. The website provides the latest news and updates about the reef as well as reporting facilities where you can report oil spills, sick or injured marine animals and illegal activities that you have seen happening. The page also provides a wealth of educational resources that are suited to all ability levels. The resources in this section include posters, lesson plans, activities, videos, information on sea guardian schools and the sea country guardians and reef education information. The website also provides a forum to have your say about certain topics surrounding the reef. This source provides community input and allows people to see what other people are thinking about and allows you to have your say aswell.

Relevance to unit outcome The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Website is relevant to the chosen HSIE environment outcome which states that stage 2 students should be able to //describes people’s interaction with the environment and identifies responsible ways of interacting with the environment// (Board of Studies, 2007, p. 33). As the focus of the unit of work is on waste management, water management, land management & community engagement, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority website provides students with the opportunity to explore, understand and then demonstrate their understanding of this HSIE outcome. The website is relevant to the outcome as it provides the starting point for exploring and understanding the information regarding the Great Barrier Reef. It will provide rich information for both their exposition and multimodal task. The websites information, facts and statistics would be useful for students completing their individual or group research around the focus topics. Thus this resource could be used throughout the unit of work to provide contextual information and support students’ understanding of multimodal texts.

Aspect of literacy explored in unit L earning to read multimodal texts such as internet websites, is an important foundation in building literacy skills. According to Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu (2007) multimodal texts, such as internet sites, provide valuable opportunities for students to develop a range of reading and researching skills (p. 143). The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority website allows students to explore current news and information about the reef and surrounding heritage park, which enhances their knowledge of how multimodal texts by looking at how different features (text, pictures, videos) work together to create meaning. Also, the website allows students to engage in the four roles of the reader as they navigate the site to find and locate relevant information. The website is set out in a very logical manner, which allows them to evaluate which link would be the most appropriate to click to find the information they are after.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Finally, this resource also provides students with the opportunity to work towards stage 2 writing outcomes - <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//WS2.13 Discusses how own texts are adjusted to relate to different readers, how they develop the subject matter and how they serve a wide variety of purposes// (Board of Studies, 1998, p. 45). In this way, the website provides students with a variety of texts pitched to different age and reading abilities, which makes it a website that is universal in meaning and information. This allows all students, of all learning abilities in the class to gain the information they need. Students will also use the website to gauge the wealth of information about the Great Barrier Reef and see how different sections of the website serve different and various purposes.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">References <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Board of Studies. (2007). //HSIE K-6 Syllabus.// Sydney: Author <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Board of Studies. (1998). //English K‐6 Syllabus.// Sydney: Author Groundwater-Smith, S., Ewing, R., & Le Cornu, R. (2007). //Teaching: Challenges and Dilemmas.// 3rd edition. South Melbourne: Thomson