This really is a great educational resource website for both teachers and students. It features a great variety of ABC educational resources and supports the teaching of English (including all other subject areas) to both primary and secondary students as part of the Australian Curriculum.
Teacher resources and notes
I decided to check out the topic: Discussing and Evaluating texts. Found in the link below:
education.abc.net.au/home#!/topic/494720/discussing-and-evaluating-texts.
From this area, I found a resource called the ‘Riddle of the Black Panther: The Search’, found via the following link http://education.abc.net.au/home#!/media/31473/riddle-of-the-black-panther-the-search
This is a fun middle years English/Literacy based online game (aimed for grades 4,5,6) where you track down a black panther reported to be prowling around a town. In the game, players are required to interview witnesses and gather information from sources such as a website, an advertisement and a newspaper article.
It's a great activity to demonstrate and teach students about interpreting, analysing, evaluating information which they are reading or hear, and shows that they need to be wary: some of the statements may be wrong and the opinions biased. Students are required to select the evidence most likely to be accurate. They can rate the reliability of source and content by using the SAFE test (Source, Attitude, Facts, and Emotions). The end aim of the game is to identify when, where and how to find the panther.
This is a great resource for incorporating a multimodal approach to learning. Students are given the opportunity to use interactive IT styled learning, research and critical thinking skills; reading, analysing and evaluating information.
Limitations of the resource are:
Must have access to a device which can link to the internet and have suitable software and internet speed.
Some students may need extra assistance/enabling prompts to enable them to effectively use the game
It links directly to the following Australian Curriculum codes:
Substrand: Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Description: Identify and explain characteristic text structures and language features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text
Substrand: Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Description: Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources
Substrand: Language for interaction
Description: Understand that patterns of language interaction vary across social contexts and types of texts and that they help to signal social roles and relationships
Substrand: Language for interaction
Description: Understand how to move beyond making bare assertions and take account of differing perspectives and points of view
(https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)