Aboriginal Emu Caller

Consider the audience, purpose, main ideas and details of an informative text.

Before reading the text, revise the key terms audience and purpose using the NSW Syllabus glossary. Preview the textual features with the students such as the byline introducing the author Larry Brandy, call out box explaining how to make an emu caller and glossary defining key Wiradjuri words. Make predictions about the audience and purpose of this text, justified by examples. Sample answers are in the table below:

Audience: who is the intended reader?

-Age

-Gender

-Culture

-Country

The reader could be any age. The images and the craft activity suggest that it is for younger primary school readers.

This article has been written for all genders.

It is written for Australians: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. It provides information for people who might not be familiar with the Wiradjuri Nation.

Purpose: why has the author written this text?

-To entertain

-To inform

-To persuade

The author has mainly written this article to inform the audience. This is because it contains lots of facts and details about the Wiradjuri Nation that the reader might not have known before reading the article.

The author has also written the article to entertain because he has included a fun craft activity.

Next, read the text to the class. Explain that the article contains lots of information that can be sorted into the main ideas and details. Tell students that a main idea is an important idea about that topic. A text’s details are the facts, examples, and other stated information. The details support the main ideas.

Provide students with a copy of a summarising graphic organiser (suggested resource: Read Write Think Concept Map). Write the topic in the center of the organizer. Then in the surrounding circles, list the main ideas in the article. Provide students support in finding these topics as necessary and draw their attention to the topic sentences in each of the paragraphs. Some main ideas could be:

An overview of the Wiradjuri Nation.

The main rivers of the Wiradjuri Nation.

Some Wiradjuri words.

After students have listed the main ideas in the article, ask them to independently reread the article to find details. Explain that details are found in the same paragraph as the main idea. For example:

An overview of the Wiradjuri Nation.

Details :

-There are many Aboriginal Nations in Australia

-Second largest in Australia after the Pitjantjatjara

-Covers a large area in central NSW

These details should be written in the square boxes connected to the corresponding circle.

Once students have finished their concept map, ask them to provide an oral summary of the article to a peer.