1. Wearable text Lesson plan for Year 9 © Commonwealth of Australia, 2010, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy, communicate and modify this material for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the material.

2. Class discussion Do you wear clothes such as T-shirts that have any text on them? Is this text simply the branding of the manufacturer or does it have a message of some kind? Can you think of any groups in society that use clothes to convey a particular message about themselves to the world? Do you think this approach is an effective form of communication?

3. T-shirts The following three T-shirts are in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.

4. Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of Australia

7. Small group analysis In your group, focus on one T-shirt. What is the message? Elaborate on what the words, symbols etc mean. (You may need to research the issue that the design represents.) What other icons or symbols does the T-shirt reference? How does the design enhance or add to the message? Who do you think this T-shirt would appeal to? Does it speak to a particular audience? If so, how and in what ways?

8. Individual book work Consider all three T-shirts. Do you think these T-shirts are aimed at a mass market or specific groups of people? Do you think their effectiveness depends entirely on how many are sold? Would the wearers of these T-shirts necessarily be politically-minded? Explain your reasons. Which of the three T-shirts do you consider to be the most persuasive? Explain your reasons. Why do you think the Museum collects T-shirts like these?

9. Design project As a class: 1.Brainstorm the kinds of writing that you have seen on clothing. 2.Sort them into two lists – ‘messages’ and ‘brands’. 3.Think about an issue that is affecting your school or your community. 4.Come up with some text that you might wear on a T-shirt to inform people or promote your issue. Consider what factors will make this text as persuasive as possible.

10. Design project On your own or in pairs: Think about an issue you are interested in. What message would you like to convey about it? Design a T-shirt. Think carefully about the style you will use. How will you make it persuasive? What imagery (pictures, colours, symbols) will you use? Produce your design via Zazzle.Zazzle

11. Curriculum links Year 9 English Language Expressing and developing ideas: Understand that visual texts can be multi-layered and complex and that the use of symbols and icons augment meaning of print in multimodal texts Literature Responding to and creating texts: Experiment with different structures, modes, media and language features to create imaginative and playful literary texts for particular purposes and effects. Literacy Texts in context: Analyse how texts have been or are created and interpreted within the context of other texts and are influenced by cultural perspectives Interpreting, analysing, evaluating: Purpose and audience: Interpret, analyse and evaluate texts critically for different perspectives Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives Creating texts: Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view, advance or illustrate arguments