Investigating the influence of communicative technologies on written

language using Twitter

Year level: 7

Lesson Objectives:
Analyse and identify the effect communicative technologies has on written language
Use communicative technologies to analyse an article and participate in a group
discussion
Class Organisation:
Whole class teacher led, Individual/groups depending on amount of resources

Resources:
iPads / Laptops
Gold Coast beaches news article (adapted from) :
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/climate-council-report-predicts-rising-sea-
levels-will-wipe-out-gold-coast-beaches-and-cause-200-billion-of-damage-to-coastal-
infrastructure-by-2100/story-e6freon6-1227061467454

Learning Sequence:
1. Ask students to read the news article and analyse key features and information
2. The teacher will post questions onto Twitter and the students will have to respond to
these questions using the features of Twitter and share them with the group to
create an online group discussion
3. Students will then be asked to discuss how innovations such as Twitter have impacted
on written language and whether or not it has had a positive or negative outcome

Curriculum links:
Analyse and explain the effect of technological innovations on texts,
particularly media texts(ACELY1765)
investigating the influence on written language of communicative technologies like
SMS, text, email and Twitter
Understand the way language evolves to reflect a changing world, particularly in
response to the use of new technology for presenting texts and
communicating (ACELA1528)

Adjustments:
Different articles ranging in reading difficulty can be used for students with different
levels of literacy capabilities