year 3/4 - english - exposition writing (travel brochure)

Persuasive Travel Brochures

Section 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIT

This is a two week unit of work intended to be taught as part of a term long unit of work about

travelling around Australia.

1.1 YEAR LEVEL

Primary Years – Year 3/4

1.2 WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR STUDENTS TO STUDY THIS TOPIC?

Persuasive brochures and advertisements are readily available to all students and for

this reason students need to understand that these brochures are produced to

persuade them to purchase goods or services. In particular the students will learn the

structure, language features and visual elements of travel brochures and how they

can use these features to persuade the reader or viewer.

1.3 KEY ASPECTS OF ENGLISH TO BE TAUGHT

Through reading and viewing a variety of books, brochures, television programs and

websites, students will be taught;

-The structure of persuasive travel brochures; the thesis statement, arguments and

reasons and a conclusion.

-The language features of persuasive travel brochures; emotive and positive words,

second person pronouns, action verbs, abstract nouns, present tense and

conjunctions associated with reasoning.

-The visual elements of persuasive travel brochures; use of photographs, pictures

and maps

After being taught these features the students will be provided with a number of

opportunities to practice writing persuasive texts, through modelled, guided and

independent writing.

1.4. SPECIFIC REFERENCED TEXTS SELECTED FOR NOMINATED

CATEGORIES

Starting point text

"Disneyland Resort brochure" – a fifty page coloured brochure that asks the reader to

celebrate at ‘the place where dreams come true’. It shows photographs of Can’t-Miss

Attractions as well as places to shop, eat and stay.

Brooke Two Week Unit of Work

Literature text

Alison Lester “Are We There Yet?” – a picture book about Grace’s recount of her

family’s holiday around Australia, filled with maps, her journal and many pictures.

Media text

Online websites

“Disneyland Resort” – builds on the Disneyland Resort brochure with video footage of

Can’t-Miss Attractions and the Disney District.

“Getaway” – details must-see places and must-do activities that have been aired on

the television program.

“The Great Outdoors” – details must-see places and must-do activities that have

been aired on the television program.

“NT travel” – all the information you need for travel to the Northern Territory, including

where to stay, what to do and package deals.

Television program

“Getaway” – a variety of television episodes of must-see places and must-do

activities.

Everyday text

A map of Australia

A variety of travel brochures from around Australia that detail places to visit, where to

stay, what to do and package deals.

Alex’s family travel program – a travel program of Alex’ family’s expected holiday

around Australia.

1.5 HOW ARE THE CHOSEN TEXTS SIGNIFICANT TO STUDENTS’ LIVES IN

RELATION TO LEARNING

WITHIN THE CLASSROOM PROGRAM AND

BEYOND SCHOOL?

Persuasive brochures are easily accessible to every child therefore it is important to

teach children about brochures so they understand that they carry a message, that

information is available in a variety of forms and from a variety of sources and that

brochures are written for a purpose, in this instance to persuade the reader.

Travel brochures may not be as easily accessible to students as other persuasive

brochures however they take the same form of persuasion and therefore are a useful

tool within the classroom to link what the students are learning at school with their

everyday lives outside of school. In making this link the students are often engaged


and find pleasure and enjoyment during their learning. The websites and television

programs that the students will be exposed to within the classroom are used for the

same reasons as was detailed above.


Section 2. THE PROGRAM PLAN

2.1 ENGLISH LEARNING OUTCOMES THAT REFLECT THE KEY ASPECTS TO

BE LEARNED IN THIS UNIT

By the end of this unit the students will be able to;

-Listen to, read and view a range of persuasive texts and make a connection to their

everyday experiences with persuasive texts

-Listen to, read and view a range of persuasive texts and identify the structural

features of the text

-Listen to, read and view a range of persuasive texts and identify the language

features of the text

-Share a persuasive conversation about travel to another state in Australia using the

structural features and language that is being learnt

-Write a persuasive travel brochure with the necessary structural, language and

visual features

2.2 RICH TASK

“Will you never, never know if you never, never go?”

Alex and his family have recently left Adelaide to travel around Australia, you will

follow his travels learning about cities, towns and sights along the way. Read and

view a range of travel brochures, travel websites and travel television programs to

examine how they influence you in what to visit in the Northern Territory.

Use this information to persuade others to travel to the Northern Territory by

electronically creating a brochure of where to stay and what to visit (cities, towns and

sights).

2.3 ASSESSMENT TASK

DESCRIBE THE ASSESSMENT TASK

Write a persuasive travel brochure for travel to the Northern Territory, ensure it

follows the structure of persuasive texts and uses appropriate persuasive language

and visual elements to encourage others to travel there.


SACSA OUTCOME

2.8 (Writing – Language)

CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT BASED ON THIS OUTCOME

The persuasive brochure will include;

-A title or statement that grabs the readers attention

-Five arguments for travel to Northern Territory, with the strongest argument first.

-Visual elements that portray a positive image of Northern Territory

-Positive persuasive language, for example, emotive words, abstract nouns and

action verbs

-Use of second person pronouns, present tense and conjunctions

-A conclusion

ASSESSMENT STRATEGY

Product Analysis – persuasive brochure about travel to Northern Territory.

WHO WILL ASSESS?

The teacher will assess.

RECORD OF ASSESSMENT

A copy of the student’s persuasive brochure and the teacher’s analysis of the

brochure. The teacher and students will work collaboratively to design the

assessment rubric that will determine how well the students will produce a persuasive

brochure. The persuasive brochure will be displayed in the classroom before being

placed with the assessment rubric in the student’s individual portfolio.

2.4 LINKS TO SACSA

APPROPRIATE ESSENTIAL LEARNING THAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS AND HOW IT

CONNECTS TO YOUR UNIT

Thinking – students will be required to participate in a wide range of thinking modes

throughout this unit, in particular thinking about patterns of writing, thinking about

creative and imaginative writing and thinking about their own opinions and reasoning.

ICT’S THAT STUDENTS WILL LEARN TO USE IN THIS UNIT

- Computer

- Search engines on the internet

- Scanner


- Inserting found or scanned pictures and photos into their brochure

- Microsoft Publisher

- Printer

From SACSA

STRAND: Language

MODE: Writing

KEY IDEA: Students plan and compose, with increasing independence, a range of

texts about familiar, new and imaginary experience. They demonstrate knowledge

about, and increasing control of, language choices in written texts.

OUTCOME: 2.8 - Uses aspects of language when planning and composing a range

of well-structured texts about familiar and new experience.

2.5 (10) SEQUENCED ACTIVITIES

STEP BY STEP DESCRIPTION OF EACH ACTIVITY SPECIFIC RESOURCES

ACTIVITY 1

Build the field of knowledge

In shared reading display an enlarged version of the

Disneyland Resort brochure to identify language used in

persuasive brochures.

1. Read the front cover, pages 1-13, 16, 20 & 21 and

the back cover of the brochure to the class. Discuss

how the brochure made the students want to visit

Disneyland.

2. Point out the language used in the brochure,

especially the emotive and positive words and action

verbs. Discuss.

3. Start a word wall of these types of words, students

can contribute to it.

Disneyland Resort

brochure

ACTIVITY 2


Watch a Getaway episode to identify emotive and

positive language, action verbs and visual elements.

1. Remind students of the language that was used

when viewing the Disneyland Resort brochure. Refer to

the word wall.

Getaway episode, Castle

Mountain Farmstay

Castle Mountain Farmstay


2. Watch the Getaway episode of Castle Mountain

Farmstay and ask the students to participate in Focused

Listening and listen to and record any emotive or

positive language and action verbs that were used.

3. Discuss the language that was used and add any

additional words to the word wall.

4. Ask the students what made them want to stay at

Castle Mountain Farmstay. Discuss the visual elements

of the television program.

5. Read & View the Castle Mountain Farmstay website

and look for and record any further emotive and positive

language, action verbs as well as the visual elements.

6. Use the Disneyland brochure and Castle Mountain

Farmstay website to record common visual elements.

Display this list for further use.

website

Disneyland Resort

brochure

Word Wall

ACTIVITY 3


Review a variety of travel brochures to identify the

structural features, continue identifying the language

and briefly continue looking at visual elements.

1. Provide the students with multiple copies of Sno ’n’

Ski NSW & Victoria brochures to read, direct them to

the first few pages.

2. Ask the students to compare the brochures and

record the similar structural features in their workbooks.

3. Have some students share the similar structural

features they found.

4. Link the structural features to the thesis statement

(gains attention and gives information to hold the

reader’s interest), the argument (appeals to the reader’s

emotions) and the conclusion (demands action by the

reader) that all persuasive brochures have.

5. Record the structural features on a Feature List so

the students can refer to it during further lessons.

6. Ask the students to look at the brochures again and

identify language features, in particular second person

pronouns and abstract nouns. Add these categories to

Sno ‘n’ Ski; Ski NSW

brochure

Sno ‘n’ Ski; Ski Victoria

brochure

Word Wall

Visual Elements List


the word wall.

8. Briefly discuss the visual elements in the brochures

and add any further elements to the list constructed in

Activity 2.

ACTIVITY 4

Modelled Writing

Look at the Disneyland Resort brochure to identify

structural features, language features and visual

elements before the teacher models writing a

persuasive brochure.

1. Use the Disneyland Resort brochure the teacher

explicitly identifies the structural features of the

brochure by underlining them. The teacher must explain

what elements of the brochure fit into each of these

features and hence it’s purpose. For example,

appealing to the reader’s emotions in the argument.

2. Continue using the brochure to explicitly identify the

language features; emotive words, positive words,

second person pronouns, action verbs and abstract

nouns. Underline these words in different colours.

3. Continue using the brochure to identify the visual

elements, in particular the coloured glossy photographs

of

4. Read and view the Disneyland Resort brochure

(pages 14 & 15) and the California Adventure Park

video as a class. This is the stimulus for the teacher’s

modelled writing.

5. When modelling writing use think aloud statements to

express thoughts while writing, refer to the previous

brochures and video, the Feature List, the word wall

and the visual elements list.

6. Begin by writing a thesis statement to gain the

reader’s attention, ensure emotive and positive words

and abstract nouns.

7. Write the strongest argument first with evidence and

reasons to support it, ensure action verbs and

conjunctions are used, e.g. because, therefore and so.

Disneyland Resort

brochure

Disneyland Resort video

recording of California

Adventure Park

Feature List

Word wall

Visual Elements List


8. Write further arguments and ensure they are

structured like the first.

11. Write a conclusion that asks the students to visit

California Adventure Park.

Note: Use second person pronoun.

12. Draw a couple of pictures of happy people on the

brochure.

13. Identify the structure and the language features with

the student’s assistance.

ACTIVITY 5

Shared Writing

As a class write a persuasive brochure about travelling

to Queensland.

1. Read ‘Are we there yet?’ to the class.

2. Remind students of structure and language features

of a persuasive brochure by directing them to the

Feature List and word wall.

3. Begin a draft of the persuasive brochure by allowing

the students to share the pen.

4. Start with the thesis statement.

5. Go back to the story and reread from The Far North

to Surfers Paradise.

6. Students brainstorm arguments and reasons for

travelling to Queensland.

7. Students choose the three strongest arguments to

use.

8. Finish with the conclusion.

9. Review the brochure to check for emotive and

positive words, action verbs and abstract nouns. If

necessary add these words to the brochure.

10. Students to identify the structure by pointing to the

thesis statement, arguments and conclusion on the

board.

11. Students to highlight persuasive language.

12. Students highlight arguments in a different colour.

Are we there yet?

Feature List

Word wall


13. Keep for reference in future activities.

ACTIVITY 6

Guided Writing

Students are provided with a cut up persuasive travel

brochure on Tasmania and must work in pairs to piece it

together.

1. Display the persuasive brochure that was written

during Shared Writing.

2. Guide students to piece the text together in the

correct structure.

3. Students to identify the thesis statement, arguments

and conclusion

4. Students highlight the emotive and positive language,

action verbs and abstract nouns.

5. Students highlight the arguments in a different colour.

6. Provide explicit feedback to the students about the

structure and language features of the brochure they

construct.

7. Students share their brochure with the class,

explaining the thesis statement, arguments and the

conclusion.

8. Students share one argument and one new word to

add to the word wall.

Blank A4 paper to stick cut

outs on

Tasmania 2009/2010

brochure – AAT Kings

Tasmania 2009/2010

brochure – Scenic Tours

Feature List

Word Wall

ACTIVITY 7

Mini-Workshop - Proof Reading

Teacher to hold a mini-workshop as a refresher for

students on how to proof read their brochures before

publishing them. In particular the teacher will be

refreshing the students on how to check for correct

punctuation and spelling.

1. Model checking punctuation in the Shared Writing

text written in Activity 5. Check for full stops, capital

letters, apostrophes and exclamation marks. Use think

aloud statements.

2. Write a checklist of the punctuation that has been

Shared Writing from

Activity 5

Student’s work samples


checked.

3. Check the Shared Writing text for spelling errors and

underline each word that is incorrectly spelt. Use class

resources to check the spelling of the word, for example

the word wall or a dictionary.

4. Add these steps to the checklist.

5. Display a student’s sample of text, refer to the

checklist the teacher created, students proof read the

sample and make any necessary changes to the text.

6. Students find a piece of their own work that has not

been proof read and proof read the text, referring to the

checklist.

7. Students make any necessary changes and markings

on their work to show they have proof read and refined

their work.

8. Students complete the checklist and attach to their

proof read text.

ACTIVITY 8

Guided Writing

Students work in pairs to orally persuade the rest of the

class to travel to a state of their choice.

1. Each pair is provided with one travel brochure for a

state in Australia.

2. Students must draft an oral persuasive conversation

after viewing their brochure. The persuasion must

include;

-A thesis statement to get the class’s attention,

-Three arguments for travel to the state

-Persuasive language

-A conclusion

3. Remind the students to refer to the Feature List, the

word wall and the Shared Writing text from Activity 5.

4. Students persuade the rest of the class to travel to

their state by reading their conversation to the class.

5. Students to identify the thesis statement, the

arguments and the conclusion in other student’s

conversations.

Queensland 2009-2010

brochure – Scenic Tours

Queensland 2009-2010

brochure – AAT Kings

Sydney Sightseeing 2009-

2010 brochure – AAT

Kings

Southern Australia 2009-


Kings

Melbourne Sightseeing

2009-2010 brochure –

AAT Kings

Western Australia 2009-


6. Students to identify the persuasive language used

during the other student’s presentations.

7. Students to provide positive feedback to the pairs by

finishing this sentence, “I would travel to <state>

because you…”. For example, “I would travel to

Tasmania because you used the words beautiful, fun

and exciting in your presentation.”


Kings

Western Australian 2009-

2010 brochure – Scenic

Tours

Feature List

Word Wall

Shared Writing from

Activity 5

ACTIVITY 9

Independent Writing

Students begin to collect information and arguments for

their persuasive brochure about travel to the Northern

Territory.

1. Students view and read a variety of travel brochures,

online websites and television programs for the

Northern Territory looking for reasons to travel there.

2. Students refer to the Feature List, word wall and

visual elements list to assist them.

3. Students begin their planning in their workbooks,

their planning should include;

-A thesis statement that is attention grabbing

-Recordings of their arguments about where to stay and

what to visit; cities, towns and sights.

-A conclusion with action for the reader

4. Students should be looking for photographs or

pictures for their brochure and scanning and saving

them for later use.

5. Students write their draft in their workbooks when

finished planning.

6. Upon completion of their draft the students need to;

- use the Feature List as a checklist

- refer to the word wall categories as a checklist

Feature List

Word Wall

Visual Elements list

Northern Territory 2009-

2010 brochure - Infinity

Holidays

Northern Territory 2009 –

2010 brochure - Scenic

Tours

Northern Territory 2009 –

2010 brochure - AAT

Kings

Computer & Scanner

Internet access


- proof read their brochure

7. Students make necessary changes after using

checklists and proof reading.

Getaway episodes;

Kakadu scenic flight

Jumping crocodile cruise

Katharine River heli-

kayaking

Kakadu animal tracks

Getaway website

Great Outdoors website

Northern Territory travel

website

ACTIVITY 10

Independent Writing

Students will complete their persuasive brochure about

travel to the Northern Territory using Microsoft

Publisher.

1. Students to refer to their draft while creating their

brochure.

2. Students to add in the pictures and photographs they

previously saved.

3. Students to print the brochures in colour

4. Students show brochures with the class, sharing

either their thesis statement, one argument or their

conclusion.

Computer

Microsoft Publisher

Printer

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year 3/4 - english - exposition writing (travel brochure)

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