HUMAN+ANATOMY


 * =====** **RESOURCE 2: HUMAN ANATOMY ** **=====

Lazetti, G. & Rigutti, E. (2007) //Human Anatomy//. China: Taj Books International LLP  || ||  || //'Human Anatomy' // is a scientific textbook which endeavours to provide the students information about the human body and how it works. The book consists of clear and concise written text, in addition to the numerous scientifically accurate illustrations (eg. diagrams, microscopic photographs, etc). To allow the reader to easily access information throughout the book, a content list and an appendix is included. A glossary is also included to allow students to easily access the definitions/explanations of terms that they may find difficult to comprehend. Clear written explanations of the human body and how it works are provided by the resource. Simultaneously, clear scientific depictions of parts of the human body are provided. Here, the written text and the visual text work together to support the students in developing and extending their knowledge and understanding about the body organs and their functions. Hence, this resource is clearly relevant to the Stage 2 //Living Things// outcome: According to the K-6 NSW English Syllabus, students need to develop the understanding that visual and verbal features work together to form meaning in a text. Visuals may complement, elaborate, extend, contradict, deviate and/or counterpoint the text (Doonan, 1993, p.18). This resource is particularly useful in allowing students to understand that non-fictions texts will provide visuals and written text to help the reader develop his/her understanding of the topic published. But most importantly, the teacher can use this resource to show that in __all__ non-fiction scientific texts, the visuals will never counterpoint the text. Rather the visuals will always either complement, elaborate, extend or deviate from the written text (and vice versa) to allow the reader to gain a better understanding of the concepts involved (Matthews and Matthews, 2000).
 *  **Screen capture/image or copy of the text: **
 * **Explanation of the resource: **
 * **Relevance to the outcome: **
 * LT S2.3 //Identifies and describes the function of living things and ways in which living things interact with other living things and their environment// ||
 * **Aspect of Literacy suitable to be explored: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">

Furthermore, the teacher may use this resource to help students identify the need to incorporate structured analytical and conceptual images when producing a scientific text, especially in relation to the human body. According to Mason (2006), the human body and other scientific processes (eg, evaporation, global warming, etc) involved are complex and often, large part-whole structures. As a result, when writing about part-whole structures, the reader is likely to become confused (Lorch and O'Brien, 1995). Hence, the importance of providing a clear and simple structured analytical and conceptual image/s to support the written text. This theory is applied throughout the resource as evident in its clear presentations (illustrations) of the features that make up the different systems and structures of the body. For example, the main organs in the digestive system. All the features in addition to each phase of the processes done by the human body are labelled. This ultimately constructs the illustrations in the resource as structured analytical and conceptual (Valtonen, 2003; Droga and Humphrey, 2005).

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Meanwhile, students can develop and extend their knowledge on the different usages of labeling in scientific drawings. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Like written texts, scientific drawings must also have a title. In addition, according to Mason (2006), when labelling, only a straight line is used to indicate particular features and the lines never overlap one another. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">These two aspects in labelling scientific drawings are important because it is a code applied by scientists and researchers worldwide. They may be perceived as the symbolic representations of a particular concept. Thus, if a student did not have the knowledge that one single line is to be used to label an organ of the digestive system and instead, drew a line that has an arrowhead, the scientists and/or people of expertise would believe that the line is pointing to a particular location or feature of the organ (Mason, 2006). As a result, this would produce the student's texst as unreliable. Therefore, one may see the relevance in using the resource to model how certain scientific drawings should be labelled. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Droga, L. & Humphrey, S. (2005) //Grammar and Meaning: An Introduction for Primary Teachers.// NSW: Target Texts <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2006) //Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design//. UK: Routledge. Chapter 3. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Lorch, R.F. & O’Brien, E.J. (1995) //Sources of coherence in reading//. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Mason, R., Morphet., T. & Prosalendis, S. (2006) R//eading Scientific Images: The Iconography of Evolution.// Cape Town: HSRC Press <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Matthews, J.R. & Matthews, R.W. (2000) //Successful Scientific Writing: A step-by-step guide for the biological and medical sciences// (Ed.) USA: Cambridge University Press <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Valtonen, T. (2003) //Visual Representations: Kress’s and Van Leeuwen’s Theory of Visual Semiotics//. Retrieved on May 22, 2008 from [|http://cs.joensuu.fi/~marjomaa/mr_files/tvaltone.htm]
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