3)+Kat's+Resource

 ​ **Visual Grammar Lesson Resource **

Baz Luhrmann’s Australian Tourism Campaign:  []   

The resource that is being used to support the visual literacy component of the Unit of Work is a series of advertisements that promote Australia as a tourist destination. In remaining consistent with the content knowledge and focus outcome designated for the Unit, the advertisements all focus on geographical and climatic aspects of Australia’s environment.  Relevance to the outcome ** The rationale for this is that climate and geography are intrinsically embedded in the various spheres that compose what can be deemed the ‘lifestyle’ of any given culture. This manifests itself in a range of ways, shaping everything from customs to how a cultural group views and projects themselves to other communities, for example through advertisements. Aspect of Literacy to be explored ** The key outcome this lesson addresses is an English outcome that requires students to discuss the grammatical features of a range of text types, in this circumstance, visual images. In selecting this resource, the lesson is clearly orientated towards a particular type of visual text, that is, advertisements. Critically, this specific type of visual text was chosen under the premise that it represents a reasonably familiar, and therefore accessible point of entry to the concepts addressed in the lesson.
 * Explanation of the resource **
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 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE;">

While there are a range of meanings that can be ascribed to the image, the lesson will predominantly emphasise concepts that relate to the interactive and compositional meanings within the image. This is a logical preference given that interactive meanings concern themselves with how the elements of an image combine to create a relationship between the viewer, the composer of the image and the image itself (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 88) and compositional meanings, that is, how the image is structured (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 26) are vital to how this interactive relationship manifests itself. It is natural that students would, at least initially, consider how the image relates to themselves, and thus an exploration of interactive meanings will facilitate the creation of a metalanguage to assist them in articulating their ideas. Moreover, as inherent in their purpose, advertisements such as this one strive to form a very specific type of relationship with the viewer, thus validating interactive and compositional meanings as a well-founded perspective from which to examine the images. Key elements that should be considered and scaffolded in the lesson include the use of offer or demand, the degrees of realism and the modality present in the images, as this will help inform an increasingly critical, aware manner of reading images.

In addition, in terms of compositional meanings, it is important to encourage students to consider the semiotic meanings that are foregrounded as a result of the deliberate construction of the image. Examining the layout and composition, through elements such as reading paths, framing and the given, new, real and ideal information will assist students in developing an understanding of how the various components of the image work concurrently to present a unified and consistent message. In the sample image, this manifests itself for example through the position of the writing in the given portion of the image, contrasted with the final message of the website being located in the new sector, the last sector that is traditionally read. Accordingly, as briefly illustrated here, the study of interactive and compositional meanings simultaneously will lead to a deep and significant understanding of the purpose of the image, that is, to sell and promote the ‘product’ of Australia.