MEDIA RELEASE

21 July 2014

Teachers urged to back Aussie authors

As the country’s teachers dive into Term 3, the not-for-profit Copyright Agency is calling on 60,000-plus  teachers of English and Media to back Australian stories and authors in the classroom.

“Term 3 is traditionally the time for teachers to choose the novels and other texts their students will explore in 2015,” says Copyright Agency’s Zoë Rodriguez.

“We want teachers and librarians to teach Australian stories. So, to make their job easier, Copyright Agency has set up the Reading Australia website, featuring freely available teaching resources for Aussiebooks.”

“We developed the website and the resources with the specific aim of getting Australian literature back into primary and secondary classrooms,” says Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund Manager, Zoë Rodriguez.

In a recent survey, 200 teachers rated the resources as either “quite high” or “very high” in quality, while 87 per cent said they were more likely to teach the books on the Reading Australia website because ofthe availability of the teaching resources.

Teachers resources have been developed for both new classics, such as Oscar winner Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, as well as old favourites such as Miles Franklin’s My BrilliantCareer and Melina Marchetta’