Dear Students,

We have come to the end of the semester and this is a brief note to bid you farewell. I would like to wish you the best in all your undertakings in the future. I hope you have enjoyed the reading and writing class and the class blog. I must say that I am very happy you have learnt about blogging so quickly - I was just lucky to teach a group of intelligent bloggers in my class. Once you leave the class you can still have access to the class blog and all the material and links provided for you. You are very welcome to keep your student blogs active if you wish.

TEXTBOOK - SURVEYING

During your studies you will be exposed to different textbooks. In this class we will be studying the parts of the textbook, surveying the textbook and using the textbook effectively. This is to assist you with your further studies and more precisely with your assignments.

Media File
Each week you will need to collect news clippings about current issues and the most useful sources are The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph. Current concerns are usually, immediately covered by the press and it will mean you become familiar with some of the local and macro environment.

Class Activity - Take some notes using key words after reading the article.

Homework = Summary - Write a brief summary of the main issues the article deals with based on your notes.

Personal reflection - Respond in a written format about attitudes, feelings, reflections on the content and implications of the article.

Topic - Environment
Subtopics - Carbon Print/Global Warming/Alternative Sources of Energy
Text type - Survey Report
Assessment Task - Reading a Survey Report and Graphic Text


Our natural environment is something that we must forever take care of, treasure and respect. Unfortunately, we only have one planet, one earth, one environment and if we ruin it, we risk destroying it forever and causing irreversible damage that will be devastating for us and our generation but even more so for the future generations that haven't had a chance to live, experience and enjoy what we have.

There are many things that each and everyone of us can to do help protect our environment and reduce the impact that our life styles and way of living has on the environment. If we each do our bit for the environment, no matter how small, we can create a positive reversal on negative impact. By becoming more environmentally aware and through reducing each of our own carbon footprints, we can minimise the detrimental effect we have on our world.

Important Information

Dear EFS students,

Due to the weather conditions and family committments many students were absent last Monday which is of course understandable. Anyway, we spent some time practising and understanding Media bias - writing unobjectively or in other words taking sides and giving arguments with no evidence. Please come next class so we can consolidate the knowledge on the topic and we can also negotiate the day of the next assessment - Reading and responding to newspaper article. I know EFS class is an intensive class but I am trying to help you as much as I can as your Reading Teacher and EFS Coordinator of course following the EFS programme and curriculum.
Have a lovely weekend...

Dear Students,

I hope you are enjoying the holiday and I wish you all the best. Anyway, I have put some activities for you to practise - Model Essays and also some information on Media Bias, My advice would be to spend some study time to keep up with your work.

Reading Newspaper Articles

TASK - Read the statements on showing shocking images and agree or disagree giving good arguments based on the group discussion done in class.

1. "The public has a right to know what's happening. I think they should not cut out anything. People are mature enough to take in the reality of what happens in the world every day".

2. "TV news sometimes seems more like a show. They want a bigger audience so they show shocking or provocative images. TV news should report the news, not try to shock people."