Teaching Ideas and Units - Teaching Units

Become a Media Megastar

The students for whom the unit was developed:

This grade 8 English class is heterogeneous and very energetic with a wide range of abilities and levels of motivation.

The class includes 3 deaf students and the classroom is therefore bilingual and is taught in a team teaching situation by Teacher of the Deaf, Mr David Buchanan and regular classroom teacher, Libby Robinson. There is also an interpreter in the classroom, facilitating communication between hearing and deaf members of the class.

Context/background/educational purpose:

This unit was the first for the year. It was the first time the Deaf had been in this class so all of us were learning about working in a bilingual class and I was learning about the abilities of our 3 new students. I already knew the hearing students, having taught them last year. So, David and I discussed the idea of a unit of work, which was motivating and exciting but highly relevant, challenging and accessible to all students. We were also keen to have a sound practical learning outcome related to the students' everyday lives. 

Another factor in choosing our topic was our school's focus this term on living sustainably, so a health focus was topical and allowed for excellent cross-curricula study. As a result, David and I also discussed our unit with the science teacher who went on to study the chemistry of the topic we were studying in English.

What we did:

During the summer I was introduced to a book called, Fed Up by Sue Dengate.  It is a book describing the phenomenal effect that food has on children, particularly ADD and ADHD children. I was concerned with the way in which our children have become victims of commercial negligence in children's health. Australian and particularly Tasmanian society does not question the malnourishment of our children and we therefore have the highest rate of obesity in the world.

I initially began with a single inquiry, "You are what you eat but do you know what you are eating'?  But ended up with two more focussed inquiries so that I could explore more issues and more texts in this field. So, I ended up with "Is television making Aussie kids fat?' And "Energy drinks may make you feel more alive now but how will they make you feel later?'

Frontloading: (See also "Introduction to Units of Work")

The students are already very familiar with the genre of study but we wanted to build knowledge by focussing on the way in which they view and use these everyday texts. As the study progressed we used more complicated texts such as letters to the editor and informational websites. We found that from the basis of a very familiar text we could use more complicated and demanding texts because the content was linked.

The structure of the following presentation:

I have copied the unit as I used it in the classroom and added the texts we used throughout the unit.

Personal note:

I have used much of the thinking gleaned from the workshop in all of my other subjects and I found that for the first time I knew what I was doing and why. I had used many of these techniques before but intuitively rather than in a planned way. Student learning and teaching satisfaction have increased immensely as a result. I feel that as I increase my understanding of the concepts workshopped at Bicheno further developments will occur.

BECOME A MEDIA MEGASTAR

WITH

Brilliant Buchanan

And

Rapping Robinson

Doing this assignment will actually bore you to death because it contains dangerous levels of thinking (701) and illegal levels of written work (325). Unfortunately for you we are your only English teachers so as consumers you have no choice. This assignment also contains preservative (828) so it won't rot away in your locker.

Inquiry Question:

1. Is television advertising making Aussie kids fat?

Many people think that advertising aimed at children is wrong and should be banned. 
Discuss:  What ads, aimed at children, are currently being televised?

Preparing:  How do you know which ads are aimed at children? 
Think about products, colours, shapes, characters, images, words and music.

Homework:  In teams of 4, organise a TV viewing roster for tonight, between 4pm and 7pm.  Use the attached viewing log to record your findings.  In the boxes record the details for ads aimed at CHILDREN and also count the total number of ads that appeared in the time you were watching.

This task was designed to use speaking, listening, and viewing. I wanted the students to consider their own viewed texts in a critical light and then share their findings.

When we came back to class after the logs had been completed we put our observations onto a large sheet of butcher's paper showing what was being shown, how often and when. I then demonstrated how to write up a conclusion about children's television advertising based on the data collected. They were very animated and co-operation was essential if every group was to cover the large time frame and both commercial stations.

Ad Viewing Log

Team Member:
Channel

Time	Product	Images	Words	Special effects

Total number of ads shown:
Total number of ads aimed at children: 

Read the following script from BTN and answer the questions in your English workbook. http://www.abc.net.au/btn/scripts/2001/08-07/caffeine.htm

Do you think there should be a ban on advertisements for junk foods during children's programs?  Write at least 100 words giving reasons for your opinion.

Incidentally, Ronald McDonald actor, Geoffrey Guiliano quit his job and publicly stated, "I brainwashed youngsters into doing wrong. I want to say sorry to children everywhere..."  This was during the McLibel trial in Britain.

Inquiry question:

2.  Energy drinks may make you feel alive now but how will they make you feel later?

The second inquiry was another look at advertising, which tended to appeal to young people but was a bit more sinister than the previous topic because this one had hit the media very recently.  Frontloading was easy because as soon as David and I walked in with 9 different kinds of drinks containing caffeine the kids were pretty excited. (See also "Introduction to Units of Work".) 

It was great because I knew that their first reaction would be to beg us if they could have the goods we had brought in. I also knew that by the end of the unit the drinks would interest none of them. I guess that was the test of success for us.

Task 1

Your group will be given a drink container or chocolate bar wrapper containing a product with caffeine in it. Apart from coffee, these products are very new to the market and there have been many concerns voiced about labelling.

Look carefully at the packaging, read the name of the product, the ingredients or contents and take particular note of the amount of caffeine. Note your information on a piece of paper, and then transfer it onto the class spreadsheet.

On the white board it looked like this

Task 2

In your exercise books rank them in order from most caffeine to least caffeine on a bar graph.

Task 3