Resource+2

 ** Shark Report **  A shark is a type of fish that lives in the sea. It is one of the largest sea creatures. There are over 350 species. A shark is shaped like a torpedo. It has rough skin like sandpaper. Instead of bones it has elastic cartilage which helps them to move easily. It can grow up to 8 metres. Sharks are found in all oceans around the world. The type of shark found will depend on the water’s temperature. A shark has to keep moving when it is asleep because it will either sink or suffocate. It has to keep moving because it needs to breathe through its gills to keep alive. When sharks are hungry, they look for food. Different sharks eat different food. Harmless sharks eat plankton but harmful sharks eat meat. Sharks have up to forty two babies (which are called pups) at a time. When the pups are born, they leave straight away because the mother shark does not have teats. Some sharks have their pups in different ways, some lay eggs while others have them alive. When they are born they need to defend themselves because they have no one to help them. (Board of Studies, 2007, p. 227) __Brief Explanation & Rationale:__

This Information Report on Sharks has been taken from the Stage 2 section of the K-6 English Modules (page 227). It is a very simple, yet efficient, example that can be used to highlight specific text structures and language features. I have chosen to use this particular resource for Lesson 3, as it also comes with teaching notes and any other relevant information that is needed. It is also a very short piece of text that will not take very long to analyse its features.

__Relevance to Outcome:__

Although this piece of text is not directly related in content to the Unit Outcome, it plays a very important role in developing students’ understanding of Report Writing. Using the elements of structure and language features gathered from this particular resource, students are later required to write their own Information Report on a chosen topic from Ancient Egypt.

__Aspect of Literacy explored & link to overall Multimodal Text__

The main aspect of literacy explored through this resource is Report writing, its text structures and language features. This resource is particularly very important to the overall multimodal text being created, as it acts as one of the essential features of the final news report. Students are given roles, such as the reporter, and are therefore required to speak in a way that suits their medium. This resource provides a good example of the kind of language features that needs to be included in students’ final multimodal text (i.e. the documentary). Also, by viewing different resources of Information Report, he shift from written text (i.e. Information report) into spoken text (i.e. Documentary) is made easier for students.

Reference

Board of Studies. (2007). //English K-6 module////s//. Sydney: Board of Studies.