At the time of this interview Garry and Anne teach English at Penguin High School. Although they taught in different areas of the school, they shared resources, ideas and did a lot of collaborative planning. In this interview, Garry and Anne discuss how they work with their students, in particular the different ways they use texts with their students in the classroom.

How do you try to meet your students' needs and interests?

Are the texts you use with your current students different from those you used in the past?

Garry:

The types of texts we use now are very different. A lot of that comes out of the English Key Teacher Program and our personal interest in the use of a wider range of texts , visual texts particularly. We find that we're using visual texts much more than we were three or four years ago.

Anne:

Five years ago I only used a film to support a text that I was teaching. Not only do I still do that, but I now teach film as a separate text in itself. At the moment I'm doing a unit on static images with my Grade 9s and the study of posters is one of the things that we're looking at. In the past, I would never have thought of using posters as a means of teaching texts to any class. Because our students live in a world full of images, Garry and I believe that it's important for students to learn to be critical viewers.

What are some of the ways you have used different texts with a class you are teaching this year?

Garry:

I'll talk about some of the things I've done with my Grade 9 class.

Television soapies

I started a unit that I had done in previous years on television soapies, focussing on Home and Away. The work on soapies aims to teach students to be critical viewers of this television genre. The unit develops knowledge that applies across a whole range of fiction - for example,the development of character, plot and setting - but also focusses on the features of visual texts.

Comics

We used some of the skills developed in this unit to undertake a study of comics. We studied the use of fixed frame visuals, colours and extreme close-ups as well as the strange camera angles. We also looked at the stereotypical storyline and characters that came out of comics. The unit was meant to conclude with the students constructing their own comics using the digital camera to photograph themselves in poses and in costume. They used programs like Publisher to put photos into photographic frames with captions and speech balloons. But at that stage the work started to die because the computers started crashing on us. After a time, the class, through agreement and frustration, temporarily abandoned the unit, but they will be coming back to it this year when the technology is more reliable. I found the students were really motivated. They had planned out the storylines and frames they needed to photograph; they'd actually taken the photographs. Finding a way to print the finished comics in colour was going to be a challenge. However, even if they had been printed in black and white, the purposes of the unit would have been achieved.

Song Lyrics

After the unit on comics, we did a unit on song lyrics. We took the Top 40 chart and had a random draw around the class - each student had to investigate the lyrics of two or three songs and work out a theme for each. We charted all that on a wall chart with a series of simple statements. For example, a song might be about relationship problems or a misunderstanding. We also worked through a variety of songs from The Beatles to older songs comparing themes and looking at the use of words and imagery. Students then selected a couple of songs of their own that they particularly liked. The only restriction was that the songs had to be very different: a current one and an old one; heavy metal and a ballad; one that was optimistic and one that was pessimistic. They then wrote detailed analyses of those songs. In groups the students then graphed popular themes on the current Top 40 - the vast majority were about relationships. At the end, they did an evaluation of their performance on the unit. A lot of students from that said that they mainly listened to the beat or the music of the song and that the lyrics were only another part of the rhythm. They hadn't stopped to think that the words actually meant something. Because the songs dealt with problems that some of these students themselves were familiar with, they felt they had learnt something through doing the unit.

Novel and film study

We have done some novel study, but instead of a novel for the whole class there is a choice of novels. We have also done film study and at the moment we're doing a mini negotiated study for a period of 3-4 weeks. I've given them the choice of their own topic. A great variety of things has come out of that.

How do you work with your classes, Anne?

Anne:

I'll talk about my Grade 8s.

Getting started

When I first meet a class, I always get the students to write me a letter. I like them to tell me something about themselves. I also ask them to tell me what their strengths and weaknesses are and what they like and don't like about English. This gives me a starting point to gauge what the student interest is and it gives me somewhere to go to begin the year.

Letter writing

At the beginning of the year, we started writing to a class at Devonport High School and we've been writing to that class all year. I did hope to be able to use the Internet so that they could e-mail but, as Garry has explained, the technology failed us. We've been sending handwritten letters all year and we are having a couple of visits with this class later this year. Hopefully the kids will continue writing to each other. I've found that their letter writing skills have improved dramatically since the beginning of the year. To begin with they didn't know what to write; now they can write one or two pages quite easily without me prompting them.

Comparing novel with film

After this, I wanted to go to something that was a little bit more challenging. I went on to gothic horror and we had a look at Bram Stoker's film of Dracula and we compared it with the novel. I decided to use the abridged version that is illustrated by Tudor Humphries. It's an Eyewitness Classic and it's very visually appealing. It deals with the socio-cultural context of the novel and vampires in general. We made some comparisons between the story and the film and even though the film is rated M (I had to send letters home to parents asking permission for students to see the film - none of them objected) the students were able to discern why there had to be a sequence of love scenes in the film - that the film would be sold to a general audience. The students came out with some fairly sophisticated comments about the commercial basis of the film industry. That was a very successful unit of work.

Peer assessment of speaking and listening

With every speaking unit we do, the students do peer assessment using a sheet devised by Garry. The kids have to give an assessment for content, presentation, preparation and organisation. Then I ask them to write a sentence about every person in the class, justifying their reason for giving a particular assessment to that child. We had an open forum at the end of it. I have also filmed their speeches so students can see some of their errors: that their stance isn't right, or that they've scratched their head, or that they've fiddled with their cue cards, or that they mumble, or that they say "umm" all the time. We found it was all very well for us to write down comments on paper, but when the students actually saw and heard their speeches, they became more aware of what they needed to work on.

Poetry

We did a unit on poetry beginning on a really simple level looking at acrostics, alphabet poems, haikus and cinquains. We started with the students' names. Some of the poetry was published on the Penguin High Web site developed by Garry. We just had fun with words, fun with the language - I think this is important because kids often feel threatened by poetry and I wanted them to have a good time. We discussed how poets use words in particular ways to create effect, for example to make a description more colourful . That led on to a more intensive unit on poetic devices that I didn't think they would handle very well. But they did. We looked at onomatopoeia and personification. They wrote a personification story and we looked at a ballad (The Man From Snowy River) which I think they enjoyed.

Shared novel study

At the moment, we're doing a unit on Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo which I'm reading with them because there are one or two in that class who are reluctant readers. We share the fun of Lockie Leonard. We stop every now and then for discussion. They're very open about the references in the book and I guess that's the kind of relationship that I have with them. I'm open with them and I like them to be open with me. Sharing texts is really important.

I'm really fond of this class. They are very lively and there are lots of different characters in the class. They love doing new and different things and you've got to keep them on the ball.

How do you see the influence of technologies in your classroom now and in the future?

Garry:

It's a fascinating area. It's interesting that technology is now one of the criteria to be assessed in English because it presents probably the most frustrating and the most exciting of possibilities in English. Frustrating in the sense that we are restricted by lack of equipment - either it's not available or it doesn't work at the time you want it to; exciting because it opens up huge possibilities in changing the way we look at English and things we do with classes. Technology opens up a much wider variety of visual texts. For instance, it allows English classes to look critically at computer games and the Internet, both of which occupy a lot of time with a lot of our students. Similarly, the possibilities of students using word processing and desktop publishing programs to publish their own work and exploring the visual possibilities of all that are enormous. So many things are available, yet we find here that it's frustrating when we can't always get the equipment when we need it.

Teaching about technology

We can learn a lot from students, but we still have a crucial role to play in helping them become explicit about what they know. We need to give them a structure. We need to do some basic teaching so they can understand some of the finer points - page design for instance. My students can go to a computer and sit down and type up a story and even add some graphics to it but they don't understand the way fonts work, they don't understand the use of white space on a page, they don't understand much about balance and layout. These things need to be taught to them before they can take that next step further.

What action do you take if something is not working with a class?

Anne:

I do have my failures. Recently, I was doing a unit on multi-layered stories with my Grade 9 class and it was not working. They were bored, they didn't understand the work and I could tell from the pained expressions on their faces that they weren't enjoying it. I said to them, "Right, this is a failure. This unit of work that I'm doing with you is a total and utter flop. What do you suggest?" They came up with the idea of writing their own units. In groups, they wrote between 10 and 15 activities using the Novel Assignments by Susan Williams and Jane Rogers as a model. This gave them an idea of the variety of activities that is needed to motivate students and to inspire them to want to keep doing the work. They came up with some great ideas. One of them was looking at the book covers. In designing their own book covers, the kids looked at the colours used in the After Dark series - they're all blacks and reds with a bit of green. One of the activities that a group came up with was changing the colours to yellows and blues and discussing why that would or wouldn't work. That ended up being a very successful unit. The kids turned it around so that it became something that they had a say in. Not only was it challenging, but it also gave them responsibility and it gave them the opportunity to be the teacher. Knowing that their audience was for people of their own age made a big difference.

Garry:

Sometimes it's not the whole programme, it's just an individual lesson that changes direction totally from what you would expect.

Anne:

I think that's one of the great things about teaching and especially teaching English - the limitless variety of things that you can do within the classroom and the flexibility that there is within the subject matter allows us to be responsive to their needs while still developing the appropriate skills.

Where do you get your ideas for teaching?

Anne:

Resource books are really useful. But I should point out at this stage that, while I might like a chapter in a particular book or I might like some features in some books, I don't follow the whole chapter or set of suggestions. I pick out ideas and adapt them to suit myself. With one class, for example, at the moment we're doing a static images texts unit. I have based my work on a book called Visual Literacy - Static Images by Pauline Scanlon which is terrific. However, I use only what I think will work with my kids. Sometimes what will work with one class in one year won't necessarily work with the same grade class in another year.

Some seminars can be really helpful for getting ideas. A recent seminar I found valuable was one I went to with Peter Gouldthorpe. We looked at his book covers and how the publishing company influences what actually appears on the covers. Peter gave an example of a cover he designed for a novel by Robyn Klein. It's a story about a girl who wears glasses and I remember him saying that he was told to take the glasses off the girl because the image wouldn't appeal to an audience. He revised the illustration and had the girl carrying the glasses in her hand. He went back to the publisher and was told to get rid of the glasses altogether because people wouldn't buy the book. These are the sort of things that I think it is important to share with students because it develops their contextual understanding.

A successful English classroom then?

Anne:

A successful English classroom depends on a combination of a number of things. At the beginning of every year with every class, I establish my routines and ground-rules. I explain to the students the reasons for these, and I give them the opportunity to be critical of my set routines. I tend to find that students prefer to work in an environment where there is strong, but fair, discipline and where their parameters are set. Because I like my students to be frank and open, they are always welcome to be critical of my methods, even my discipline, so that they feel they are valued and that their opinions matter.

Variety is essential. Children become easily bored doing the same sorts of activities all the time. In this current day and age, we have to compete with television, videogames, computers and other 'infotainment'. It is important, then, to use the media with which they are familiar and to give them the critical skills necessary to avoid being manipulated by these. We have to captivate their attention, too, and use our "acting skills" to motivate them. At the same time, children need to see the relevance of an exercise, otherwise they will switch off and it will be a failure. This means co-operating, as in the Lockie Leonard unit previously mentioned, to achieve our aims.

Students need continual feedback and reinforcement in order for them to see what their weaknesses are and how they can improve them. It is really important for students to have regular opportunities to reflect in Teaching English. Teachers need to be open with them in discussing their skills and ways they can improve. This is something I now find hard to do because of the extra demands and work required of a teacher.

The other essential element of a successful English classroom, as Ann has discussed, is variety because students soon become bored if they feel that a particular text or topic has laboured on for too long. There is a fine balance to be achieved here. To study any text, such as a Shakespeare play, in sufficient depth requires a considerable period of time to allow for reading, discussion, group interaction, creative thinking, and written tasks. This could become a term's work and needs to be carefully managed so that the class continues to see the relevance of what they are doing.