About English - Viewing

Especially for Teachers - About English

Viewing

There are a number of places in this site where teachers can find information about developing students’ viewing skills. Below are some useful starting points.

Teaching units
Beaut lesson ideas
Teacher interviews
What to teach when
An overview of visual texts grades 7-10

Teaching units

Although teachers designed these units for specific grades, most are highly adaptable for a range of grades.
Windows - a unit about viewing. Helen Behrens designed this unit for her kindergarten students. In it, the students learn about how photographs are produced, examine the structures and features of photos, construct meaning from visual texts such as photographs and illustrations, and create their own visual texts. The unit includes examples of the texts Helen used and work samples produced by the students.
Photographs - a unit for grade 3-4 students designed by Sue Clennett. In this unit, Sue focuses on analysing and creating photographs. The students learn about aspects of photography such as camera angle and composition and consider the importance of context in making meaning from photographs. When making their own photographs, the students are encouraged to plan and reflect carefully. They start with a single image and progress to a sequence of images that together tell a story.
A visual literacy unit for students in Years 7 and 8 by Annette Moult. In this unit, Annette focuses on the construction of a range of visual texts, starting with photographs and moving through to cartoons. She highlights the linguistic structures and features of visual texts and the contextual understandings students develop as they interpret them. The unit includes supporting notes, proformas, visuals and teaching techniques.

Sports Telecasts: Skills and thrills - is a unit outline developed for grade 4/5 students by Pam Powell. This critical literacy unit enables students to investigate attitudes, values and assumptions in sportstelecasts. The activities include a comparison of telecasts of netball and football, and opportunities to take social action.

What's in a Bag? - In this unit by Sally Gill, students learn how to critically analyse shopping bags as visual texts. They also create their own bags to match particular design briefs. The unit was originally designed for grade 6 but is adaptable for students of other ages.

Film study units

Cry Freedom (two units available) Charisma or Conformity? A study of Dead Poets Society Stand and Deliver
Teaching units on other sites There are many sites that help teachers to teach viewing skills. These are some of the most comprehensive and useful:
English Online New Zealand (New Zealand Ministry of Education)
This site contains units for grades 1 - 12 focusing on a range of visual texts including signs and symbols, films, television advertisements, cartoons, picture books, videos, documentaries, CD covers and web sites. Media Awareness Network (Canada)
This site includes units K-12 focusing on visual texts featured in the media, including television programs of all kinds and video games. It includes a special section on web awareness, designed to help students become more critical users of the web.

Teachers on-line
This part of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation site provides assistance in teaching the structures and features of television and film to students from grades 3 -10. One of the major contributors is Annemarie O’Brien, who suggests a range of viewing strategies teachers can use with their students. She moves from developing basic concepts about television and film to activities that explore particular genres such as animation and live action.

Beaut lesson ideas

Whose view is that?
A strategy for considering visual texts from different points of view. Questioning advertisements
A set of critical questions when analysing advertisements. Reading book covers
Viewing strategies to use when introducing texts. Story maps
A strategy for responding to books by creating a visual representation.

Teacher interviews

Christine Topfer explains the first steps she takes with her kindergarten children to develop their critical understanding of visual texts.
Linda Heerey explains how she uses Venn diagrams to focus on differences between the novel and film of James and the Giant Peach with her grade 3 students. She also describes the way she introduces cinematic technique, including different types of camera shots. Finally Linda explains how she uses picture book illustrations to help her students develop the understanding that people interpret visual images in different ways.
Anne Bloomfield describes comparing novel with film, using Bram Stoker’s Dracula as part of a grade 8 unit on horror.
Garry Foster discusses his use of television soapies and comics with grade 9.
Angela Bird discusses her use of television programs such as Frontline and Race Around the World to develop students’ critical viewing skills in grade 11. She also describes how she uses picture books and film ‘snippets’ to teach aspects of film technique.

What to teach when

Check the Bands at a Glance to see what kinds of visual texts and teaching activities are appropriate for the age group you teach.

Band A (Early childhood) at a Glance Band B (grades 4 — 7) at a Glance Band C (grades 7 —10) at a Glance Band D (grade 11-12) at a Glance

An overview of visual texts, grades 7 — 10

Michelle Graham constructed the following overview to help Kingston High School teachers with their programming. By referring to broad guidelines such as these, teachers can ensure that students’ cumulative experience of visual texts in English is a coherent one.

Kingston High School — Visual Texts Overview
Grade 7	Grade 8	Grade 9	Grade 10
In grade 7 students will have a developing awareness of:	In grade 8 students will be able to recognise and identify:	In grade 9 students will be able to explain, discuss and contextualise:	In grade 10 students will be able to critically examine, compare, analyse and consider:
Everyday Texts Codes and colours for effect How visual language works Cultural purpose and social context Codes of colour Visual techniques to create emotion Film Study Basic camera angles Lighting codes Sound and music Newspapers/ Advertising Messages from this medium Colour codes Stereotyping Types of language Magazine Study Non verbal language Stereotyping Layout Colour	Picture Books Colour codes Layout and design Audience Stereotypes Conventions of text Popular culture Film Study Non-verbal language Relationship of viewer to object Camera angles — low, medium, high Techniques of sound Newspapers/ Advertising Understand and deconstruct the language of the media Point of view Audience Novel Deconstruction Relationship of images with written text Relationship with reader Literal and social meaning Posters — Movies/Plays Target audiences Genre Layout/ colour/ technology	Everyday Texts Colour codes Visual language Purpose and context How images and words are sequenced to achieve a particular effect Film Study Filming, language — shot, tilt, pan, tracking, frames, sequencing Camera angles Stereotyping Symbolism Codes of colour/ light/ music Advertising and layout Newspapers/ Advertising Stereotyping How language manipulates Construction of text to appeal to different audiences Video/Television Study Codes of editing Race/gender/ class Popular culture Flashbacks Relationship between image and music	Picture Books Non-verbal language Layout Audience Relationship of text and pictures Relationship of text and reader Prediction using signs and symbols Film Study Camera language and techniques Symbolism Narrative code Music and lighting Flyers/ Posters/ Advertising Advertising Sub-cultures Popular cultures Stereotypes Static media Video/ Television Study Metaphors to create atmosphere Framing Symbolism Semiotics Print Media Stereotypes Cultural Values Technology