ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how teachers have worked with students to produce a range of texts, featuring material and social place, through film, reports, autobiography and so on. It shows how teachers build on student's personal experiences and cultural resources as a bridge for introducing more abstract ideas and conceptual knowledge. The chapter discusses academic discourse, identity and place, and argues that place-conscious pedagogies have particular affordances that allow children to assemble new and unfamiliar academic discourses. It also explores the potential of place-conscious pedagogies for students learning academic literacies within rural and regional communities. The work of two experienced teachers, Wendy Renshaw and Helen Grant, illustrates how a focus on an aspect of the local natural environment enabled teachers to build student's deep field knowledge of the topic, and develop the appropriate academic literate repertoires to communicate their learning. The chapter focuses on how teachers could develop children's environmental communication repertoires.
