Resource+2

**Resource 2** Letter to The Prime Minister **Resource:** Prime Minister ofAustralia Parliament House CanberraACT 2600
 * Your Address Kevin Rudd

Dear Prime Minister

The New South Wales Government has refused all efforts to see reason with regard to the historic Graythwaite Estate in North Sydney and is proceeding to try to sell the property to the highest bidder. I would like to sincerely thank you for your $25 million election promise to Save Graythwaite and the efforts of your Government since the election to keep that promise. Graythwaite is a vital part of our ANZAC heritage and its loss would be a national tragedy.

I would like to encourage you to continue to do everything possible to honour your election promise and use your full resources to pressure the NSW Government in every way possible to save Graythwaite and keep it in public hands.

The Graythwaite Estate is a vital part of our local, state and national heritage. The Estate was entrusted to the people of NSW in 1915, in the immediate aftermath of the news of Gallipoli, for the care of our wounded ANZACs. The magnitude of the gift shows just how great an impact the news of Gallipoli had on those at home and of the shared grief, suffering and pride that is now so recognised as a pivotal moment in welding Australia together as a nation. Graythwaite is one of our very few remaining living links to our Gallipoli heritage and this hugely important event in building our nation and its identity.

Graythwaite is also because it is the largest remaining green space close to the North Sydney CBD. Sydney City has Hyde Park, the Domain and the Botanic Gardens. The population of North Sydney doubles each work day with tens of thousands of visitors and students travelling to the CBD and surrounding areas. The CBD was planned without a park and desperately needs a real park where people can get away from the noise and traffic that dominate a commercial centre.

Graythwaite should remain in public ownership for the benefit of all people and to ensure that we pass on this national treasure to future generations. Please don’t let slip this last opportunity to save a key part of our national heritage. Please honour your election promise and save this special place for all time.

Yours sincerely || This resource was retrieved from @http://www.graythwaite.org.au/action.html

__ **Evaluation:** __
The resource ‘Letter to the PM’ was retrieved from the Save Graythwaite website, composed by members of the group to encourage support for the conservation campaign. This letter was devised to persuade the past Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to show support for the conservation cause, urging the PM to uphold his promise and save the Graithwaite site from private development. In the letter, the Graythwaite site is promoted as a vital component of the local, state and national heritage, with historical and contemporary importance highlighted alongside future values concerns of the local community. In this unit, students will examine the role of significant and heritage sites on a local, state and national level. Associated issues incorporated into the unit include conservation, decision making, community involvement and responsibility. These issues will encourage students to critically consider different perspectives on these significant issues and develop an argument which supports a local conservation cause, which they will develop in the form of a multimodal promotional campaign. This resource will be used in Lesson 5 in which students will revisit the Exposition text type from previous units and start to devise their own exposition piece to support the campaign to save the Graythwaite site. The aim of this lesson is to publish an exposition of greater demand in terms of topic, audience and written language. This resource will demonstrate to students how depth and effectiveness can be achieved in their exposition writing, by taking a position on a local matter and using content and persuasive language to convey their cause to a particular audience. Producing a text on the Graythwaite conservation debates is supported by syllabus documents which state that students should be ‘working with issues arising from local community concerns’ (Board of Studies, 2007, p. 250). This resource, to be used as a catalyst for the lesson, is authentic, relevant and deals with the community issues and concerns which the students have already been exploring in the unit. The use of this resource will build upon student’s background knowledge and enhance connectedness with the issue, which are principles of the Quality Teaching Framework, and demonstrate how these community issues can be communicated.

As a grammar lesson, this resource will provide an opportunity to assist students in learning to interpret persuasive discourse (Fabiano & Goodson, 1993, p. 50) and further develop their understanding of grammatical patterns, such as modal verbs, to convey a certain perspective on a significant relevant issue. The use of persuasive language throughout the resource demonstrates how different grammatical patterns work together to achieve the desire outcome of the exposition, in arguing a perspective. It is very important that students have access to real-life and relevant resources which can build upon their content knowledge whilst encouraging students to consider, understand and appreciate how different perspectives can be communicated through persuasive texts within society.

Board of Studies. (2007). English K-6 Modules. NSW: Board of Studies NSW Department of Education and Training. (2003). Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from [] Fabiano, T.F, & Goodson, F.T. (1993). Political rhetoric and the English classroom. //The English Journal, 82//(8), 50-52. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/819592.