NSW DET Stage 2 & 3 authority and argument–DESERT LAKE by Pamela Freeman (330+ pages)
Easy Preparation, comprehensive, ready-to-use 5-week unit designed to help students explore narrative and characterisation through Tim Winton’s beloved novel, Blueback.
This resource is
aligned with the NSW English syllabus and supports the teaching of Component B, providing teachers with a no-prep, high-quality learning experience that engages students while saving valuable planning time.
Why Choose This Resource?
✔ Time-Saving & Easy to Implement – Designed for busy teachers, this unit requires little to no preparation, allowing you to focus on teaching rather than planning.
✔ Multiple Flexible Formats – Available as a PDF for easy printing, an editable PowerPoint for customisation, and a Google Slides version for seamless online access.
✔ Professional & Polished Design – Includes Google fonts for consistent formatting, ensuring a professional presentation across all formats.
✔ Visually Engaging & Interactive – Colourful slides with embedded PowerPoint animations bring key concepts to life, keeping students actively engaged in learning.
✔ Aligned to NSW Curriculum – Explicitly mapped to the NSW English syllabus focus areas, covering:
- Oral language and communication
- Vocabulary development
- Reading comprehension
- Creating written texts
- Understanding and responding to literature
Unit Overview
In this 5-week unit, students will gain greater understanding of the textual concepts of argument and authority, and genre. Through study of the mentor text Desert Lake, The Story of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre and supporting digital texts, students will recognise that an argument can be presented as a single perspective and understand the difference between authority and authorship. Students will analyse digital texts to locate and retrieve relevant information to plan, revise, edit and publish a persuasive multimodal national park brochure.
Textual Concepts Covered:
✅ Argument and authority are the key concepts of this unit, explored through the mentor text Desert Lake, The story of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre and the supporting texts National Parks and Wildlife South Australia – Kati Thanda and South Australia's Guide to Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Travel blog.
✅Argument refers to a stated position about an idea. It is the way in which various dimensions of a text (such as theme, perspective, and style) can be understood to represent a particular position on an issue (NESA glossary).
✅Authority refers to authority of a text (how trustworthy, authentic or valid an audience may find the representation of ideas, experiences, perspectives and arguments in a text) and authority over a textStage 2 Learning Intentions:
- Students are learning to identify the genre of various texts and apply knowledge of genre to create hybrid texts.
Students can:
- understand that texts can be categorised into genres and that types of texts arise from similarities of purpose
- recognise that particular types of texts can be identified through features and structures
- create a narrative genre for a hybrid text
- create an informative genre for a hybrid text.
Stage 3 Learning Intentions:
- Students are learning to experiment with elements in literature that do not follow the form and function of a single genre to create a hybrid text.
Students can:
- understand that texts can be categorised into genres that have similar functions, ideas, forms and conventions
- recognise that particular types of texts can be identified through features and structures but may be adapted for interesting effect
- create a narrative genre for a hybrid text
- create an informative genre for a hybrid text.
Everything You Need in One Resource!
Editable PowerPoint with interactive slides
Google Slides version for online learning
Printable PDF for quick reference and hard copy distribution
Teacher Notes & Instructions throughout for effortless implementation
Engaging activities and discussion prompts
Perfect for Teachers Who Want:
✔ A hassle-free, engaging resource that requires no additional prep
✔ A high-quality unit mapped directly to the NSW syllabus
✔ A visually engaging, interactive PowerPoint to keep students focused and learning
✔ Bundles of resources available for different stages and terms
Take the stress out of lesson planning and bring DESERT LAKE to life in your classroom with this dynamic, fully prepared resource!
Attribution is given to: © State of New South Wales (Department of Education), 2023.
