WHAT IS IT, AND HOW IS IT USEFUL? The black hat requires learners to think critically and judgmentally  This is especially important in HSIE, which asks learners to “analys[e] and evaluat[e] their values and attitudes as well as those of others…[to]… develop informed and responsible attitudes” (NSW BOS, 1998, p.8).

ACTIVITY IDEA: After gauging emotional response to the article, the teacher then guides students to deconstruct the article to discover how the journalist engendered these feelings. This will be done by engaging students’ literacy skills, through explicit instruction of ‘how writers write’ in the style encouraged by the Accelerated Literacy program (Cowey, 2005, p. 5). To foster this level of critical thinking, the teacher will need to ‘loan their consciousness’ to students (Cowey, 2005, p.9), which in this case is their understanding of the discourse of ‘us and them’ that is implicit in the text. Teacher should model this deconstruction to the class, annotating the article and empowering students to think critically about a published piece of work.

The teacher should then introduce the Journalist Code of Ethics, and lead students into an activity wherein they write a reflection on whether the article adheres to the Code of Ethics (activity inspired by Face the Facts (AHRC, 2010, pp.6-7), a worksheet that could preface this reflection is provided on page 18).

LINKS TO SYLLABUS: As well as again adhering to the overarching values and attitudes of the HSIE Syllabus, this activity again makes steps towards achieving CUS3.3: Describes different cultural influences and their contribution to Australian identities, by first providing the counterargument.