Levels 5 and 6

Achievement Objectives

	Using static and moving images, students should:
Level 5	use and combine verbal, visual, and dramatic features to communicate information, ideas, or narrative to an identified audience	Presenting
Level 6	use and combine a variety of verbal, visual, and dramatic features to communicate information, ideas, narrative, or other messages to different audiences
	In achieving the objectives of understanding and using visual language, students should:
Levels 5 and 6	using appropriate terminology, describe the conventions of verbal and visual language in several genres, and use them to create particular effects	Exploring Language
Levels 5 and 6	identify and analyse the effects of combining verbal and visual features in different ways for a variety of purposes and audiences	Thinking Critically
Levels 5 and 6	select and interpret information from visual texts and present it effectively, using appropriate production technologies for different purposes	Processing Information

Achievement Objectives
Presenting: exploring language; thinking critically

Teaching and Learning
Context: a study of persuasive language

The class looks at a poster together to identify how the visual elements, such as colour, graphics, juxtaposition, slogans, headlines, and symbolism combine to produce the meaning.
Students work in groups on different texts to analyse the use of language and present their findings.
In groups, students plan a campaign for a cause that is topical or which arises from their reading. They write a brief for the design of a poster, defining their message and audience clearly and suggesting specific design features and wordings to an artist. They may also brief the artist on associated visual material, such as a campaign button or pamphlet.
Each group discusses other possibilities for action in their campaign – street theatre, a meeting with an influential person, or contributions to an impromptu debate. They choose one for a role-play, which may be recorded on video.

Assessment

Students exchange the briefs they have prepared and produce an item, in sketch form, following the brief.
Students discuss how successfully they communicated the message, judging this by how well their instructions have been followed.
Students assess the effectiveness of their role-play from the responses of their peers.
The teacher notes how clearly the students defined their message and the effectiveness of their communication, in terms of understanding the uses of the different media.

Links With Other Strands
Listening, Speaking, Writing

Achievement Objectives
Presenting: exploring language; processing information

Teaching and Learning
Context: a study of poetry

The class hears, reads, and discusses several poems.
In groups, students select one of the poems. They discuss ways in which the content and mood could be presented visually, and consider sources for filming, such as locations, photographs, and suitable backdrops.
The teacher revises the terminology for shots, such as close-up, big close-up, long shot, high or low angle; and production terms, such as voice-over, imagery, editing, and sound effects.
Each group writes a script, choosing appropriate music and voice-over, and designs a storyboard to organise the sequence of shots needed.
If possible, students carry out filming according to the storyboard. Alternatively, each group could photograph a specified number of key shots, and use these to clarify their storyboard.
Students record voice-over and music on to the video, or read out the poem and play the video at the same time, or read the poem with audio-taped music and sound effects, and their storyboard.

Assessment

Each group assesses their production of their poem in terms of the combination of language features and their effectiveness in clarifying meaning.
The teacher observes and notes the students' understanding of the ways in which visual and verbal language are combined.

Extension Option

The teacher discusses with the class other examples of the different ways the same material can be presented in different media. Examples are shown of a dramatic scene from another written text, such as a novel which has been filmed or made into an opera.
Students discuss the effects of the language features which have been used when the text has been re-presented in another medium.

Links With Other Strands
Viewing, Writing, Speaking, Listening

Achievement Objectives
Presenting: exploring language; thinking critically

Teaching and Learning
Context: a study of advertising for television

Students select a current television series for which they will plan a full-page newspaper or magazine advertisement, and produce it as a concept sketch or a collage.
In groups, students discuss the ways in which visual and verbal features are selected and combined in newspaper and magazine advertisements to appeal to particular audiences.
Students discuss the series they have selected, identifying its genre, distinctive characteristics, mood, appeal, and principal target audience.
Students then select visual and verbal features for their advertisement, such as key information, slogan, choice of photographs, or cartoon elements.
They decide how best to combine and present these elements, using a range of graphic and layout techniques in their concept sketch or collage.

Assessment

Teachers and students assess the effectiveness with which the concept sketches or collages address a particular audience through the selection and organisation of components.

Links With Other Strands
Speaking, Listening, Viewing
Related example in another strand at the same level: Writing, Example 3

Achievement Objectives
Presenting: exploring language; thinking critically

Teaching and Learning
Context: a wide reading programme

Working in groups, students select a section of narrative text, for example, from fiction or biography, as a basis for a dramatisation.
Students analyse the characters, mood, and structure of the narrative, and decide on roles.
Using a narrator where appropriate, students improvise a dramatisation of the text.
Students revise their improvisation into a script for a series of short scenes, combining dialogue, narration, and stage action, and using language which retains the tone of the original text.
Students design simple backgrounds, costumes, and props, and choose and record or produce suitable music.
The dramatisations are presented to the class.

Assessment

Students assess the dramatisations in terms of the clarity of the storytelling, the creation of effects to convey mood, characterisation, and theme, and the interest created in the text.

Links With Other Strands
Speaking, Listening, Viewing
Related example in another strand at the same level: Speaking, Example 3