This unit will provide a review of the theory and practice of contemporary literacy studies in the context of the Australian Curriculum. It will provide an overview of the literacy issues in contemporary classrooms by focusing on literacy as a social institution as well as a system of knowledge. It provides a detailed understanding of the literacy demands required for students to successfully negotiate the various domains of knowledge in each level of schooling. The unit seeks to develop skills to use multimodal means of communicating in settings that aresocially and culturally diverse. In this unit literacy and its relationship to language teaching is examined from multiple perspectives: reading, writing, oracy and digital literacy and the teaching of these in the classroom are examined. The Australian Curriculum: English is a key context for this unit as is the central focus on providing practicing teachers with ways of considering how these contemporary perspectives in literacy can be translated into effective practice in the classroom.