ENGL001 – LITERACY PREPARATION FOR TEACHERS

(HSC BAND 4)

UNIT COORDINATOR: LISA WARD

ASSIGNMENT TWO

COMPLETED BY JULIE PAPPS

STUDENT NUMBER: 220076557

Assignment 2a.

In one paragraph, summarise the purpose, context and tone of the document, ‘Australian

Curriculum: Draft Consultation Version 1.0.1 (Learning Area: English)’ (access through

eReserve).

The Australian Curriculum: Draft Consultation Version 1.0.1 (Learning Area: English)

originated from an election promise by the Australian Labour Party prior to winning

government. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) was

appointed to develop the Australian curriculum, and receives guidance from a variety of

education professionals and political ministers in order to develop the best Australian curriculum

possible. The general public and any interested parties are then given the opportunity to revise

and make comment on the curriculum for ACARA to take into consideration. As a result the

context of the document is quality education in the future from a political framework. The

purpose of this document is to persuade teachers to rethink their current ideas and beliefs created

from the current curriculum, and educate them on the Australian Curriculum and how it provides

teachers with a premium foundation in which to provide high quality teaching to all students.

The document is written to provide a base for students’ future learning, development and

involvement in society, and also states the level of understanding expected of children at

different points throughout the school year. The text is professional in nature and directed at a

skilled audience. The author’s aim is to inform the audience; therefore the tone the author uses

throughout the Australian Curriculum is factual and objective.

Assignment 2b.

Write an essay that compares the meanings of the following texts:

• Prime Minister of Australia, ‘Transcript of Joint Doorstop with Julia Gillard

Amaroo School Canberra’.

• ‘National Curriculum on Trial’, Australian Teacher Magazine, 25 March 2010.

• Prime Minister of Australia, ‘Release of Draft National Curriculum’.

The three texts that will be discussed in this paper are ‘Transcript of Joint Doorstop with Julia

Gillard Amaroo School Canberra’ (JGT), ‘National Curriculum on Trial’ (NCT) and ‘Release of

Draft National Curriculum’ (RNDC). These texts all have a relationship either through the

subject, the composer and /or the political view. There are also similarities and differences in the

purpose, context and tone of the texts. The medium of production is also presented differently for

all three texts and this paper will discuss how this shapes the meaning of the texts.

The three texts all have relationships with each other. To begin with, all three texts have the

same subject, The Australian Curriculum. They also share an influence of politics, as the

Australian curriculum is a political decision. NCT mentions the same wording as the other two

texts at various times, forming another connection between texts. JGT and RDNS are actually

the same text, the difference being that RDNC is a much shorter version of JGT. JGT and RDNC

have the same composers, as they are both press conferences presented by Kevin Rudd and Julia

Gillard. Finally, JGT and RDNC also pose the same political view and they are both selling the

newly formulated Australian Curriculum.

There are several similarities and differences in the purpose of the three texts. Both JGT and

RNDC have the same purpose and achieve the same outcome. These texts are selling the benefits

of the Australian curriculum to the audience by persuading the listeners into changing their

beliefs, attitudes and ideas about the current curriculum, and selling the new curriculum as a

revolution that involves less work for teachers and more basic tuition for students. The difference

in purpose between the above two texts and NCT is that NCT uses humour at the beginning of

the article when discussing the curriculum being released to a national fanfare on Sydney

harbour. NCT then informs the audience by enlightening the readers to both the government and

opposition’s argument regarding the Australian curriculum.

The three texts being discussed are written in 2010, and the context of the three texts is actually

comparing the current curriculum with the curriculum of the future from a political point of

view. In both JGT and RDNC the prime minister makes two statements. The first being ‘after

110 years, next year, 2011, Australia will have its national curriculum for the first time’. The

second stating ‘children from large defence communities would say, why is it when we change

states that our kids are put at a disadvantage due to completely different curriculums. These

statements from the prime minister are obviously trying to challenge the beliefs and values of the

reader with those of the government.

The tone used in JGT and RNDC is convincing, motivated, sober and humourless. This tone is

used as the prime minister and his deputy are trying to sell the Australian curriculum to the

audience by giving all the details and reasons as to why this curriculum is good for Australia.

Where NCT uses shifts in tone throughout the article. Initially NCT uses a humorous tone when

discussing the fanfare and use of puppets. The text then moves on to a more neutral tone when

explaining both sides of the argument. Finally NCT uses a disapproving tone when discussing

the government’s previous lack of consultation when asking for feedback on the My school

website.

The three texts in this paper all utilise different forms of medium which helps to shape the

meaning of the texts. The JGT actually has two forms of medium. The first being print, as the

transcript is a written version of a press conference. The JGT text is actually a written

reproduction of a verbal press conference given by the prime minister and his deputy that has

sound as its medium of production. The RDNC example is a multimedia video of a press

conference given by the prime minister and his deputy. NCT is a written article from a magazine

and therefore has print as its medium of production.

The different use of medium in the three texts conveys the meaning of the text in different ways.

While JGT and NCT have written forms of medium they use language to shape their medium.

But if you watched or listened to JGT the author could use voice and / or expression to shape the

meaning of the text. This also occurs when watching RDNC. This text uses video as the medium

of production and therefore, can use voice and expression to shape the meaning of the text.

In conclusion, the three text samples all have a relationship with each other through subject and

political view, but also have similarities in purpose, context and tone. The most significant

parallel found was that RDNC is a shortened version of JGT so majority of the text was the

same. The biggest differences were found between these two samples and NCT as this was

written from a different perspective, therefore having slightly different purpose, context and

tone. The medium of production was different for all three texts, so the meaning was slightly

different for all texts.