DOCSLIB.ORG

Public Literacy: a Curriculum for Adult Basic Education

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 384 783 CE 069 470 AUTHOR Moraitis, Peter; McCormack, Rob TITLE Public Literacy: A Curriculum forAdult Basic Education. INSTITUTION Adult, Community, and FurtherEducation Board, Melbourne (Australia), REPORT NO ISBN-0-7306-7927-6 PUB DATE 95 NOTE 320p. AVAILABLE FROMARIS, National Languages andLiteracy Institute of Australia, GPO Box 372F, Melbourne,Victoria 3001, Australia ($35 Australian pluspostage). PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adult Basic Education; *Adult Literacy;Curriculum Guides; *Debate; Foreign Countries;Instructional Innovation; Instructional Materials;Learning Activities; Letters (Correspondence);*Literacy Education; *Persuasive Discourse;*Public Speaking; Writing (Composition) IDENTIFIERS Australia; *Letters to the Editor ABSTRACT This curriculum guide for a publicliteracy course uses letters to the editor as a wayof introducing adult literacy and basic education students to public debate.. Itconsists of three parts. Part 1 is an introduction thatprovides background, describes how to analyze letters, and details the coursestructure. Pert 2 is a comprehensive teacher.'s guide. The curriculumis divided info three stages. The first stage familiarizes'studentswith letteri to the editor and presents them as examples of publicdiscourse. It starts with problems and solutions'and then showsthat what is a problem or a solution depends on theangle from which it is viewed. It then points out that point of view is determinedby a number of general values. The second. stage introduces theidea that public discourse is argumentative. It covers these ideas: argument,rationality, and rhetorical structures for argument. Thethird stage shows that traditions are the source for the reasoningthat occurs in argument. It introduces the main traditions:conservatism, liberalism, socialism, and scientific management. Eachof the 21 themes or sections consists of teaching notes, transparencymasters, student activities, other possibilities, and homework.Part 3 contains sample letters categorized as follows: those thatraise problems, respond to a policy, support other letters,reject other letters, or are grouped around traditions. Each letter is presentedin a one-page format with a section for student notesat the bottom. (YLB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that canbe made from the original document. *********************************************************************** I A N00 : et 00 LU e , O S DEPARTMENT OF h./LIGATION V 0 ice of Educational Research and improvement E UCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS CENTER (ERIC) MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY This document has been reproduced as ' received Irom the person or organization \C) originating it 0 Minor changes havo been made to C- / rnprove reproduction quality 1 ,--/ <,,,, ,..,4-.66''.-1--,' Points Of view or opinions stated in this BEST COPY AVAILABLE (-- document do not nocossanly represent TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES official OERI position or policy 2 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) " Public Literacy A Curriculum for Adult Basic Education by I Peter Moraitis and Rob McCormack Public Literacy: A Curriculum for Adult Basic Education Authors Peter i/loraitis and Rob McCormack Footscray Campus Western Metropolitan College of TAFE Victoria Design & layout Clint Smith LeamWorks Publisher The Adult, Community and Further Education Board, Victoria, 1995 This Curriculum was produced with funding from the Adult, Community and Further Education Board, Victoria. The views expressed are the authors' and not necessarily those of the Adult, Community and Further Education Board, Victoria. © State of Victoria, 1995. Designated forms and handouts may be photocopied for use by individual tutors, teachers or trainers. Otherwise no parts may be reproduced by any process except with the express written permission of the Attorney General for the State of Victoria, or a person under her authority, or in accordance with the Copyright Act. All enquiries about this publication should be addressed to: The General Manager Adult, Community anf Further Education Division Office of Training and Further Education Rialto South Tower 525 Collins Street Melbourne. VIC 3000 Every attempt has been made to contact the authors and therefore the copyright holders of the letters to the editor used in this publication; further information pertaining to any of the letters would be most welcome. ISBN 0 7306 7927 6 Acknowledgements This adult basic education project was initially funded by the Division of Further Education, now the Adult, Community and Further Education Division, Victoria. An earlier draft of this curriculum has been photocopied and used by teachers in various settings over a number of years. It has been hard to find the time to turn a working document into something fit for publication. We would like to thank the authors of letters to the editor that we have used in Public Literacy. Many authors were unable to be contacted or did not respond to our request. However the following authors specifically agreed to our request to use their letters, and we thank them for their support: Ken Aldred, MHR -Mitcham Judith Bessant Arnold Bonnet, for the IFS Friendly Society Elina Dalziel, for the Disability Resources Centre Jennie Fickling Babette Francis Jim Groutsch John Halfpenny, for the Victorian Trades Hall Council Murray Keable, for Friends of the Earth Frank T. McDermott Gareth Owen, for the Tenant's Union of Victoria Bruce Turner. We would also like to thank Clint Smith whose patience and commitment to design and editing the document went far beyond any recompense for his work. Without his involvement the document would not have reached its current state and would have remained a photocopied draft. We can't thank him enough. 5 Public. Literacy A durriculum for Adult Basic Education Pat 1 Introduction Course Background 3 :Analysing Letters . 15 :. The.Structure of the Course 25: Further Information 29 Riv." IN1N'ODuCI.C)N 6 BEST COPY AVAILABLE COURSE BACKGROUND S 1 Why develop a public literacy curriculum? Definition 11) Public literacy is the ability to participate in public discourse and argument. This notion of public argument is inextricably tied to the idea of IDdemocracy and to the idea of citizenship. The aim of this public literacy course is to provide a framework which helps Adult Literacy and Basic Education (ALBE) students to understand this public debate and 111 ultimately to participate in it. Schemas or facts? Our experience is that most students are unable to make much sense of the 'news items' concerning public controversy and debate that 110 bombard them in the mass media. The reason for this seems to be that they do not possess any schemas abstract enough into which these news items could be slotted and thus make sense. One common suggestion is that what these students need is more 'facts', more experience. But their case is that of having too many facts, too many media-mediated experiences. They do not need more experiences; it is not that they need to see or hear more of what happens inside public institutions or buildings. In fact, the media have already 11) provided them with many glimpses of the physical settings and rituals of social institutions. Our view is that what they do need is to understand the interconnections between these disconnected 'media blips'. They need to understand the conflicting forms of reasoning, the values, the traditions and the forms of interpretation which are mobilised in public debate and embodied in social institutions, legislation and practices. c. The aim of this public literacy course is to provide a framework which helps Adult Literacy and Basic Education (ALBE) students to understand this public debate and ultimately to participate in it. " S S S PART 1: INTRODUCTION 3 COURSE BACKGROUND 2 How the course developed This material developed out of work at Footscray TAFE College with Year 12 students who had to write essays giving their opinions orpoints of view on public issues. Such issues as gun laws, smoking in public, genetic engineering, drink driving laws, logging of forests, etc. issues which are matters of publicly contested evaluations. We came to realise in helping these students that what distinguished successful and unsuccessful student writers was not just poor 'grammar' (knowing prescribed formal English usage), nor even a lack of sufficient information about a particular topic. What made an essay a good essay was much more complex than this. Both 'ideas' and lingUistic conventions It had to do with the understanding of the kind of social domain,what Foucault' calls a discursive formation, which students were expected to participate in through writing an essay, and this included who the writer took, or even unconsciously presupposed, herself to be. And it had to do with specific kinds of linguistic resources that students needed to mobilise to participate in this social domain, linguistic resources which need never have been 'accessed'by students in other domains of their life. In short, to help students write a good essay we had to help them understand both 'ideas' (including their relatioriship to those ideas) and the structures and conventions of language which typically realised those 'ideas'. Understanding the public domain Our notion of public literacy is enabling students to participate inthe powerful discourses used to shape; understand,
Recommended publications
  • Journal of the C. J. La Trobe Society Inc. Vol 17, No 1, March 2018 ISSN 1447‑4026 La Trobeana Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Inc Vol 17, No 1, March 2018

    Journal of the C. J. La Trobe Society Inc. Vol 17, No 1, March 2018 ISSN 1447‑4026 La Trobeana Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Inc Vol 17, No 1, March 2018

    SPECIAL EDITION Journal of the C. J. La Trobe Society Inc. Vol 17, No 1, March 2018 ISSN 1447‑4026 La Trobeana Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Inc Vol 17, No 1, March 2018 ISSN 1447‑4026 The C J La Trobe Society Inc was formed in 2001 to promote understanding and appreciation of the life, work and times of Charles Joseph La Trobe, Victoria’s first Lieutenant‑Governor. www.latrobesociety.org.au La Trobeana is published three times a year: in March, July and November. The journal publishes peer‑reviewed articles, as well as other written contributions, that explore themes in the life and times of Charles Joseph La Trobe, aspects of the colonial period of Victoria’s history, and the wider La Trobe family. La Trobeana is kindly sponsored by Mr Peter Lovell LOVELL CHEN ARCHITECTS & HERITAGE CONSULTANTS Editorial Committee Helen Armstrong and Dianne Reilly (Honorary Editors) John Botham, Loreen Chambers, Susan Priestley, Fay Woodhouse Designer Michael Owen [email protected] For copies of guidelines for contributors contact: The Honorary Secretary: Dr Dianne Reilly AM The C J La Trobe Society P O Box 65 Port Melbourne Vic 3207 Phone: 9646 2112 Email: [email protected] FRONT COVER Thomas Woolner, 1825‑1892, sculptor Charles Joseph La Trobe, 1853 Bronze portrait medallion showing the left profile of Charles Joseph La Trobe, diam. 24cm. Signature and date incised in bronze l.r.: T. Woolner Sc. 1853: / M La Trobe, Charles Joseph, 1801‑1875. Accessioned 1894 Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria, H5489 2 • Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Contents La Trobe and the Aboriginal People II 4 A Word from the President Reports and Notices Articles 65 Forthcoming events 5 Fred Cahir 67 Contributions welcome Charles Joseph La Trobe and his administration of the Wadawurrung, Note 1839‑1853 This edition of La Trobeana includes images and names of deceased people; it may also include 17 Maggie Black words offensive to Indigenous Australians.
  • Conference Speakers KEYNOTES Associate Professor David Goodman

    Conference Speakers KEYNOTES Associate Professor David Goodman

    Conference Speakers KEYNOTES Associate Professor David Goodman Goldfields Comparisons: Georgia (USA) 1820s, New Zealand, California and Victorian Goldrushes David teaches US history at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of the 1994 book Gold Seeking: Victoria and California in the 1850s (Allen and Unwin and Stanford University Press) and more recently of Radio’s Civic Ambition: American Broadcasting and Democracy in the 1930s (Oxford University Press). Leigh Olver “Blood and Bone”: Discovering Ned Kelly: Using DNA to trace an ancestor resulting in family reconnections Born and raised in the Victorian central goldfields town of Maryborough, Leigh was awarded his Fine Arts Degree (Ballarat CAE),Post Grad Dip Fine Art (RMIT), Dip Ed (BendigoCAE), awarded RMIT Painting Travel Scholarship and travelled extensively throughout Europe/USA. He has since held various exhibitions and worked as a Secondary Art Teacher for over 22 years (various schools). He has an avid interest in Ned Kelly Family History and is a Ned Kelly descendant via the King branch. Involved with various Ned Kelly events, including recently providing the DNA sample which assisted with the identification of Ned Kelly’s remains. Professor Robert Pascoe The Footy Tribes of Ballarat Robert Pascoe is a Professor of History and Dean Laureate at Victoria University in Melbourne and the author of the The Winter Game (1995). With Mark Pennings of QUT he is co-authoring a new multi-volume series on football in colonial Victoria, published in Ballan by Connor Court. Robert is a well known historian, author & experienced media commentator. Conference Speakers KEYNOTES Susan Fayad Heritage at Your Fingertips Susan Fayad is the Coordinator Heritage, City of Ballarat.
  • History of the Art Horses

    History of the Art Horses

    05/10/18 CURATOR’S STATEMENT - ART HORSES AUSTRALIA ART HORSES - A Sculpture Exhibition of Painted Horses These Art Horses have their genesis in the phenomena of painted animal-art that has swept the world. It has included exhibitions of artist-designed cows in Zurich, Calgary, Chicago and New York, pigs in Seattle and moose in Toronto. In Australia, the horse was selected for its unique role in our history, from the settlers to the legendary Phar Lap - and, of course, the “race that stops a nation” - the Melbourne Cup. These uniquely painted and designed life-size horse and foal sculptures created by prominent and emerging Victorian artists provide an unprecedented blend of art, imagination and fun. The exhibition combines elements of street theatre and public art and they create a memorable spectacle wherever they ‘graze’! Each horse is brightly and amusingly painted to reveal the individual artist’s distinctive perspective on the tradition of ‘equine art’. They have become synonymous with the famous Spring Racing Carnival over the years. The Art Horses Collection originally included over fifty wonderfully painted horses on many themes, ranging from wild and zany to more classically executed pieces. They have been displayed throughout the City, beginning in 2000, with exhibitions running through 2015. In 2001, a major three week event entitled “Birth of an Art Horse” was staged at the Melbourne Museum, featuring notable artists at work designing and painting them. Art Horses Australia has three simple goals: • to generate artistic creativity & showcase local artists • to bring smiles & chuckles to the faces of children and adults - Melbournians and visitors alike • to raise substantial funds for a nominated charity with a major auction to be held at the conclusion of the exhibition run.
  • Ned Ludd's Diatribes Whatever the Social Problem, Technology Is Not

    Ned Ludd's Diatribes Whatever the Social Problem, Technology Is Not

    NED LUDD’S DIATRIBES WHATEVER THE SOCIAL PROBLEM, TECHNOLOGY IS NOT THE ANSWER! Ellen Jose – Song Journey Illustration Front Cover FLOATING 2005 Ellen JOSE Oil on Linen 25.5 x 25.5 cm Copyright Ellen Jose AUTHOR: Gerry HARANT a.k.a. Ned Ludd PUBLISHER: ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE P.O. BOX 20 PARKVILLE 3052 MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA Tel: 0439 395 489 Email: [email protected] Web: anarchistmedia.org Message Centre: (03) 8508 9856 ISBN: 0 9758219 2 X Published December 2007 Copyright remains with the author Gerry Harant. Material can be published by ‘not for profit groups and organisations’ as long as source and publisher are acknowledged. All other people who want to republish material need to contact the publisher for permission to republish. PREFACE Philistines, Anarchists and Luddites have long been considered to be beyond the pale. Recent research has shown that the inhabitants of Philistia – an ancient country on the west coast of the Mediterranean - were much more cultured than the surrounding barbarians that finally overran them. Anarchism is enjoying a revival as a political ideology and a social movement as a consequence of increasing population growth, finite resources and the domination of the planet by an economic system that demands increasing profits, irrespective of the human, social and environmental costs. Only the Luddites continue to shiver outside the tent in a society where it is believed that every problem has a technological solution and the path to human happiness is a life burdened by technological innovation. Ned Ludd’s Diatribes – a collection of essays written by Gerry Harant and used as the basis for an ongoing discussion between Gerry Harant and Dr.
  • MELBOURNE: SETTLEMENT to GOLD 21,221 Words, 23 May 2012

    MELBOURNE: SETTLEMENT to GOLD 21,221 Words, 23 May 2012

    School of Design (TAFE) MELBOURNE: SETTLEMENT TO GOLD 21,221 words, 23 May 2012 Week 26 Terms Sod, wattle and daub, slab, adobe, cob, Pattern Book. Background Journey to Australia. Trauma of settlement in the wilderness. No building skills. Buildings first influenced by English rural vernacular. Historic development Settlement at Sorrento, 1803. Failed, due to a source of sufficent fresh water. Settlement at Corinella, Western Port Bay, 1826. Only some bricks survive. Melbourne was settled in 1835, illegally, by land-hungry pastoralists from Launceston. The District of Port Phillip, in the Colony of New South Wales was imposed on the settlers. Although not generally acknowledged as such, it was the only settlement in Australia unsanctioned by any government. Gold was discovered in 1851, at Warrandyte and Clunes: instant wealth. Gold towns Clunes. Building types: cottages, post office, banks, rail link (in 1862 to Ballarat and 1864 to Castlemaine), hotels, store, town hall, and schools particularly following the Education Act, 1873. Primitive buildings: material types Thatch, eg: haystacks and barns using reeds, near Hopetoun. 1 School of Design (TAFE) Sod, eg: at Parwan. This was the main material for early Melbourne, particularly for labourers houses. The was turf selected, mown, ploughed, and cut with a hatchet. Walls were 1,300 mm thick. Bark, eg: at the Seven Creeks Station, near Longford. Roofing and cladding. Poles frame and holding down. Axe cut, singed. Wood pegs fixing. They lasted 10-12 years. Two men could strip 40 - 60 trees/day. Wattle and Daub, eg: near Alberton, French Island and at Bacchus Marsh. More sophisticated, generally not in Melbourne.
  • Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner the Involvement of Aboriginal People from Tasmania in Key Events of Early Melbourne Acknowledgment of Traditional Owners

    Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner the Involvement of Aboriginal People from Tasmania in Key Events of Early Melbourne Acknowledgment of Traditional Owners

    Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner The involvement of Aboriginal people from Tasmania in key events of early Melbourne Acknowledgment of Traditional Owners The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges that it is located on the traditional land of the Kulin Nation. This special place is now known by its European name of Melbourne. Today, Melbourne is one of the great multicultural cities of the world, and a significant meeting place. For the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Taungurong, Djadja Wurrung and the Wathaurung which make up the Kulin Nation, Melbourne has always been an important meeting place and location for events of social, educational, sporting and cultural significance. Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner: The involvement of Aboriginal people from Tasmania in key events of early Melbourne Clare Land 2014 Published by the City of Melbourne ISBN 978-1-74250-980-8 See also Forms for Monuments to Complex Histories ISBN 978-1-74250-979-2 Disclaimer While all due care has been taken to ensure that the content of this report is accurate and current, there may be errors or omissions in it and no legal responsibility is accepted for the information and opinions contained within. Contents Introduction 4 Note from the author 8 Detail of historical significance Crime and punishment 10 Bigger legal questions 16 Aboriginal people from Van Diemen’s Land in Port Phillip 18 Conflict between Aboriginal people and Men of the Sea 22 We ‘meant to have shot Watson’ 24 Whale-hunting: hard, dangerous work 26 Truganini’s involvement 28 Links between