Four Resources Model (Freebody & Luke)
The Four Resources Model, developed by Freebody and Luke (1990), describes what effective readers must do simultaneously when engaging with text. It is not a hierarchy or a sequence — all four practices operate together.
Later work (Luke, Dooley & Woods, 2011) expanded its use as a curriculum and instruction framework, not just a reading model. It applies to all texts — print, digital, multimodal, and generated.
The Four Resources
| Resource | Also called | Core question |
|---|---|---|
| Break the code | Code Breaker | How does this text/system work? |
| Participate in meaning | Meaning Maker | What does this mean to me, in my context? |
| Use texts functionally | Text User | What can I do with this, and how? |
| Critically analyse and transform | Text Analyst | Whose interests does this serve? What is it doing to me? |
1. Code Breaker
Recognizing and decoding the rules of a text: letter-sound correspondences, morphemes, grammar, vocabulary, genre conventions, screen and print conventions. Knowing how the system works at a structural level.
2. Meaning Maker
Constructing meaning by drawing on prior knowledge and existing schemas. Accessing both literal and inferential meaning. This is where the reader brings themselves to the text — it cannot be outsourced.
3. Text User
Understanding how texts function in social contexts — what different text types do, when they're used, and what purposes they serve. Knowing why a text exists and how to use it to accomplish goals.
4. Text Analyst (Critical Analyst)
Recognizing that texts are not neutral. Detecting bias, propaganda, and embedded assumptions. Understanding who made the text, for whom, and what it positions the reader to think or do. Acting on that understanding — accepting, challenging, or transforming.
Why It Matters for Digital and AI Literacy
The model maps directly onto the challenge of AI literacy. Most classroom AI work develops only Text User (how to prompt, how to evaluate outputs, which tool to use). The two most neglected practices:
- Meaning Maker — making your own judgment about what an output means in your specific context
- Text Analyst — understanding that AI outputs are not neutral; they encode the choices of their creators
See: AI Literacy Beyond Tools Helping Learners Think With Not Forfeit Thinking To AI
The model also maps onto the distinction between orchestrating (staying in dialogue, preserving all four practices) and outsourcing (delegating the meaning-making and critical analysis to the AI). Outsourcing atrophies the two practices where your judgment lives.
Applications
- Reading instruction — ensure tasks develop all four practices, not just decoding
- Curriculum audit — diagnose which resources a unit emphasizes or neglects
- AI literacy — frame what full AI literacy actually requires beyond tool use
- Assessment design — tasks that require Meaning Maker and Text Analyst can't be completed by AI alone
Related Notes
- Code Breaker - Decoding the Rules of Text and Systems
- Meaning Maker - Constructing Meaning from Text
- Text User - Using Texts for Social Purposes
- Text Analyst - Critically Reading Texts and Systems
- AI Literacy Beyond Tools Helping Learners Think With Not Forfeit Thinking To AI
- Transdisciplinarity as a Gateway to Critical Literacy
Sources
- Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(3), 7–16.
- Luke, A., Dooley, K., & Woods, A. (2011). Comprehension and content. In ALEA/AATE joint conference.
- Winch, G., Johnston, R. R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holiday, M. (2010). Literacy: Reading, writing and children's literature (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.