Editorial comment.

Fellowes, Janet ; Oakley, Grace

Dear Practically Primary readers,

Welcome to the October 2007 edition of Practically Primary, which addresses visual and critical literacy. Being able to comprehend, critically evaluate and compose texts for a variety of purposes, whether visual or not, is becoming increasingly important in our society, with the Internet, TV, and magazines constantly bombarding children with persuasive and value-laden messages, and everyday texts becoming increasingly complex and multimodal. The understanding that texts are not constructed in a cultural vacuum and that authors make certain choices in composing texts is central to becoming literate, and in operating as an informed citizen.

In this issue, educators from around Australia share their ideas and teaching strategies for helping children become critically and visually literate. Geoff Bull and Michele Anstey discuss visual and multimodal texts, and how teachers might assist children in deconstructing these to understand their semiotic systems and purposes. Susan and Philippa Statkus have contributed highly practical ideas about how to teach visual and critical literacy through the use of children's literature and other everyday texts, and Joy Lawn has also suggested how children's literature might be used to liven up critical and visual literacy in the classroom. We also include some excellent articles on the use of ICT in the classroom, for teaching a range of literacies.

We thank all of the contributors, some of whom we were lucky enough to meet at the ALEA/AATE national conference in Canberra in July. Eminent speakers, including Michel Apple, Peter Freebody and Linda Darling-Hammond stimulated and impressed us with their wealth of experience and innovative ideas. We encourage you to consider attending the next national conference, in Adelaide, in July 2008.

The next issue of Practically Primary will focus on teaching writing, an area that appears to lag behind reading in the amount of research that has been done internationally. We look forward to receiving your ideas and contributions. What is important in writing? What works for you? How can we improve our students' writing?

We hope that you find this issue of Practically Primary useful and interesting. We would be most interested to receive your feedback and comments.