Minerals Downunder - Teacher Guide

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Transformations - Processing the Minerals

Activities for pages 8 and 9 of Minerals Downunder Student book:

• Download and print Transformations-Processing the Minerals, and make enough copies for students to work in pairs.

• Cut the text into strips separating the paragraphs and place a complete set in random order in an envelope. Give one envelope to each pair and ask the students to assemble the stips in the correct order. The students can then check their order with an adjacent pair and finally with the text in the Information Book.

• As a class, discuss the language features that helped them to assemble the text. This prepares students for the literacy activity later in this section.

• Now ask the students to use the visual text (images and layout) and the print text to identify the genre of Transformations-Processing the Minerals. They should be able to predict that it is a sequential explanation. Note that this example begins with a paragraph that prepares the reader for the detailed explanation of the process which follows.

At this level, students need to develop control over two key language features of the explanation genre. One relates to the direct links between the product of on stage of the process and the beginning of the next stage. The other relates to technical words that 'summarise' an action or series of actions.

• Download and print Textual links in Transformations-Processing the Minerals from this website and make enough copies for your students. Ask students to identify where the information in bold is introduced in the previous stage. Discuss how the information in bold picks up the end result of the actions in the previous section. Ask students to consider whether they used these textual links when arranging the strips in the previous activity. Encourage students to refer to the other explanations in the Information Book in order to identify similar textual patterns there.

• Download Transforming Language from the website and read aloud with the students the discussion on nominalisation contained within it. Students may need some preliminary scaffolding activity where you give some examples of your own before they complete the table Nominalisation-Transformation of Language. This activity can prepare students for reading and writing highly nominalised texts such as those in Environmental Management.

Literacy Activities:

> Transformations - Processing the Minerals (pdf:72kb)

> Textual Links in Transformations - Processing the Minerals (pdf:40kb)

> Transforming Language (pdf:48kb)