The document critically assesses the Four Resources Model by Luke and Freebody, which supports student engagement with literacy by focusing on decoding, making meaning, using texts, and critically analyzing texts. It emphasizes the need for educators to incorporate a variety of teaching practices that align with these four resources to enhance students' literacy skills in diverse contexts. The model encourages an expansion of literacy practices, promoting the integration of multimodal texts and critical thinking in teaching strategies.

1. UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST
FACULTY OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
CHARLES KATEY ADABAH, GRADUATE STUDENT, UCC
charleskatey@ymail.com (+233247781516)
CRITICALLY ASSESS THE FOUR RESOURCES MODEL (LUKE AND FREEBODY,
1999) AS A FRAMEWORK OF SUPPORT FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WITH
LITERACY AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION.
The four resources model was propounded by Luke and Freebody in 1990, but as years
went by, the work was revised to meet current trends. It is important to note that the 1999 edition
does not invalidate the one which was originally published in 1990 because the contents are most
the same.
The four resources model involves mutiliteracies perspective or framework that supports
students to decode, make meaning, use and critically analyse multiple text types for multiple
purposes in diverse contexts (Luke & Freebody, 1999). The four resources model is a framework
that “avoids a model of literacy as the artifact of pedagogical styles or preferences; rather it
draws attention to the kinds of practices students need to learn” (Comber, 1997, p. 32). The four
resources model expanded the definition of reading from a simple model of decoding printed
texts (Gough, 1972) to a model of constructing meaning and analysing texts in sociocultural
contexts (Gee, 1996). The goal is to shift the focus from trying to find the right method for
teaching children to read to determining whether the range of resources available and the

2. strategies emphasized in a reading programme are indeed covering and integrating the broad
repertoire of practices required in today’s economies and cultures (Luke & Freebody, 1999).
Effective readers go beyond breaking the code and making meaning to evaluating how well the
author and /or illustrator achieved his/her purpose. The four resources model by Luke and
Freebody (1999) includes:
i. Breaking the code of texts (code breaker);
ii. Participating in the meanings of text (meaning maker or text participant);
iii. Using texts functionally (text user); and
iv. Critically analysing and transforming texts (text analyst or text critic).
Let me now look at each of them in detail.
In code breaking, the question that is asked is this: How do I crack the code of this text?
The reader as a code breaker must be able to successfully recognize and engage the technology
of written texts, with an emphasis on decoding the symbols of written, spoken, and visual texts.
The code breaker uses what he/she knows about the alphabet, sounds, spelling, sight vocabulary,
conventions and patterns of print to decipher texts. The five semiotic systems form the focus for
decoding: linguistic, oral and written language (vocabulary, generic structure, punctuation,
grammar, paragraphing); visual, still and moving images (colour, vectors, line, foreground,
viewpoint); gestural, facial expressions and body language (movement, speed, stillness, body
position); audio, music and sound effects (volume, pitch, rhythm, silence, pause); and spatial,
layout and organization of objects and space (proximity, direction, position in space). (Bull, G.,
& Anstey, M., 2010).
Here are some of the ways by which teachers or educators can help to support code
breaker skills. The teachers or educators should:

3. i. promote development of phonological and phonemic awareness among students;
ii. develop letter recognition and sound to letter correspondence; and
iii. expand sight vocabulary through a word wall, letter manipulation, games such as Snap or
Fish among others.
Under meaning making (the second resources model), the question that is asked is this:
What does this text mean to me? The reader as a meaning maker or text participant entails
understanding and composing meaningful written, visual and spoken texts from within particular
cultures, institutions, families, communities, nation-states and so on which draws on the existing
knowledge of the reader, his/her schemas and situational models. The reader as a meaning maker
integrates knowledge from the illustrations: visual features such as graphs, labels, or headings;
background knowledge, among others. He/she thinks beyond what is explicitly stated in the text
to what is implied. He/she looks for clues provided by the author or illustrator that lead to
understanding the text at a different level of comprehension. The reader as a meaning maker
must exhibit what we normally call semantic competence. He/she uses his/her background
knowledge to construct meaning, compare personal experiences with similar texts; interprets
words, clauses, sentences texts, visual, non-verbal and auditory texts and looks at the way texts
are constructed to make a specific meaning (Ludwig, 2003); and identifies what the main ideas
are and analyses them from different point of view.
Here are some of the ways by which teachers or educators can help support meaning
maker skills. The teachers or educators should:
i. pose questions that address literal and inferential interpretations;
ii. help students discuss a story from a different point of view; and
iii. before reading a story, access and/or build on students’ prior knowledge.

4. The question that one may under the third model, using texts functionally (text user), is
this: What do I do to use this text purposefully? The reader as a text user has an understanding of
genre and uses this knowledge to approach a text appropriately. He/she expects, for example, to
read fictional narratives for an understanding of character and plot development, and, most
importantly, for enjoyment. The reader as a text user means that he/she must able to take part in
social activities in which the written text plays a major part (Freebody, 1992), with an emphasis
on knowing how to use texts – appropriate audience and purpose, the right type of text for the
right context and purpose. This includes understanding cultural and social contexts which dictate
the way texts are structured; using appropriate text types for specific purposes; recognising the
particular structures and features of texts; and understanding the options for using certain texts to
convey particular meanings (Ludwig, 2003).
Here are some of the ways by which teachers or educators can help support text user
skills. The teachers or educators should:
i. use shared texts from a range of genres to explicitly teach students how to
approach and interpret the information contained in these texts;
ii. encourage students to write in a range of genres based on the purpose of the
writing; and
iii. ensure that students have access to a wide range of fiction and factual texts for
independent reading.
The final resources model is critically analysing and transforming texts (text analyst or
text critic). This model involves the ability to look at the meaning and purpose of written texts,
visual applications, and spoken words to question the attitudes, values, and beliefs behind them.
The goal is development of critical thinking to discern meaning from array of multimedia, visual

5. imagery, and virtual environments, as well as written text. A text analyst learns to evaluate a text
to determine the author’s purpose and the conscious decisions the author made to include or
exclude certain information. He/she considers point of view, as well as social and cultural
fairness or bias. A text analyst also considers how well the author achieved his/her purpose and
how he/she might have written in a different way.
Here are some of the ways by which teachers or educators can help support text analyst
skills. The teachers or educators should:
i. choose texts carefully and engage students in discussions that lead to the development of
analytic skills;
ii. discuss the author of a text in a way that may lead to realizing their point of view or
biases; and
iii. encourage students to critique their own writing and determine whether or not their texts
meet their objectives.
The four resources model focuses on the range of practices which, if emphasized in a
reading program, will be able to cover and integrate a repertoire of textual practices needed in
today’s new economies and cultures (Freebody and Luke, 1999a). Literate Futures also
acknowledges the fact that effective progress in schoolwork is highly influenced by the
acquisition of reading (Luke, Freebody and Land, 2000). The four resources model does not
discard the current and well-developed techniques used by teachers worldwide to train their
students in becoming literate, but rather attempts to recognize and incorporate them. As such, the
model becomes a map of possible practices dependent on the teacher’s reading of his or her
students’ existing linguistic, cultural, and textual practices (Freebody and Luke, 1999).

6. The four resource model by Luke and Freebody (1999) has pedagogical implications for
educators or teachers in student engagement with literacy. Some of the pedagogical implications
are as follows:
First, teachers need to audit their literacy programmes to ensure that they support students
to engage with all four resources of decoding, making meaning, using texts and critically
analysing texts. They should examine the content of their teaching and assessment to ensure all
four resources are being addressed and taught explicitly. The four resources model ensures
effective delivery a of balanced literacy programme (Santoro, 2004).
Second, teachers must consider how to reconceptualise literacy and literacy practices in
order that there may expand literacy repertoire by increasing the variety and types of texts they
use with students in a literacy class.
Furthermore, teachers need to feel free to experiment with the wave of new multimodal
texts that draw upon audio, gestural, linguistic, spatial and visual codes and conventions to
communicate.
Again, teachers will need to engage in direct acts of teaching to support students to take
ownership of the metalanguage of critical multiliteracies and apply it across their everyday lives
in and out of school. Teachers and students will need to revisit the metalanguage as they engage
with a variety of texts for a variety of purposes across the curriculum.
Finally, teachers should ensure that students are able to identify and trace the
development of an author`s argument, point of view, or prospective in text and assess the
adequacy, accuracy, and appropriateness of the author`s evidence to support claims and
assertions without instances of bias and stereotyping.

7. Based on the four resources model by Luke and Freebody, (1999), I would conclude by
saying that whenever a teacher is engaging his/her students in a reading activity or other literacy
activities, the teacher must ask himself certain questions. These are but a few of them.
i. Am I using a range of texts or sources in my classroom?
ii. Am I imposing the meaning of the text on the students or allowing them to come out with
their own interpretations?
iii. Are the students allowed time to analyse everyday texts?
iv. Do I use a context in my teaching that is actually relevant to the needs of my students
today?
v. Am I providing support to ensure that students engage with all the four resources model?
References
Bull, G., & Anstey, M. (2010). Evolving Pedagogies: Reading and Writing in a Multimodal
World. Carlton, Vic: Curriculum press. (p. 10, 19)
California Department of Education (1998). English Language Arts Content Standards
for California Public Schools.
Gee, J.P. (1996). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses. London: Taylor &
Francis.
Healy, A., & Honan, E. (2004). Text Next: New Resources for Literacy Learning. Newtown,
NSW, Australia: PETA.
Ludwig, C. (2003). Making Sense of Literacy. Newsletter of the Australian Literacy

8. Educations` Association
Luke, A. (1995). When Basic Skills and Information Processing Just Aren’t Enough: Rethinking
Reading in New Times. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 95–115.
Luke, A & Freebody, P. (1999). A Map of Possible Practices: Further Notes on the
Four Resources Model.
Santoro, N. (2004). Using the Four Resources Model across the Curriculum. In A. Healy & E.
Honan (Eds.), Text next: New resources for literacy learning Newtown, NSW, Australia:
PETA. (p. 51–67).