Media studies private community
The media studies private community provides registered members with the opportunity to share the beacon schools' resources and discuss ideas, thoughts, and concerns with other members of the media studies community. Beacon schools' resources, completed in 2006, are now available in the private community for downloading.
To register to become a member, follow the instructions below. To find out more about the media studies beacon schools project, go to beacon schools.
How to register
You need a username and password to access this private community. To receive your username and password, you must register your school. The media studies community facilitator will respond to your submission for registration.
You need only register your school once. If you already have a password, then proceed to login.
Already registered? Login to access the private community.
Media studies beacon schools project 2006–2007
What is a beacon school?
What does a beacon school do?
What does the media studies beacon schools project look like?
What does it mean to be a beacon teacher?
What are the aims of the media studies beacon schools project?
What's in the resources?
What is a beacon school?
A beacon school is identified as a school of current or potential leadership ability for defined subjects or teaching/learning approaches.
What does a beacon school do?
Beacon schools receive resources and support from central agencies to further develop as 'centres of excellence'.
In return, a beacon school provides a source of best practice in the defined subject or approach – this may include professional development leadership and/or materials development leadership.
What does the media studies beacon schools project look like?
The Ministry of Education funds the media studies beacon schools project. The project focuses on developing teachers to build a sustainable community of practice for regional and national media studies.
In 2006 four clusters around the country developed these resources for senior and junior media. The resources have been trialled in secondary schools and evaluated by both teachers and students.
In 2007 experienced cluster members are conducting professional development workshops around the resources and coaching/mentoring new cluster members, some of whom are developing the resource materials further. A new cluster in Wellington is developing resources for 2008.
Beacon teachers and schools
2006 |
2007 |
Auckland cluster:
|
Auckland cluster:
|
Waikato cluster:
|
Waikato cluster:
|
Hawkes Bay cluster:
|
Hawkes Bay cluster:
|
South Island cluster:
|
South Island cluster:
|
Wellington cluster:
|
What does it mean to be a beacon teacher?
Each cluster has a leader who liaises with the national facilitator. Beacon leaders met at the start of 2006 to develop the aims for the project and a focus for the year. The leaders met on a regular basis with their cluster members. Throughout the year the clusters developed and trialled resources with students in their area. Every beacon teacher is encouraged to be reflective about his or her teaching.
The beacon leaders work with their cluster members to achieve goals they have set for the year around improving their media studies practice.
What are the aims of the media studies beacon schools project?
To develop schools as 'beacon schools' for junior or senior programmes.
- Each of the beacon teachers now has an expertise in an aspect of a media studies programme, which is being passed on to others through the resources, coaching/mentoring programme and national workshops
To improve student achievement and embed national standards
- Over the course of the project the materials and workshops will create a common understanding of what is expected of students
To improve teachers' comprehensive understanding of achievement standards
- Activities in each resource break down the achievement standard and each of the instructional words for teachers (and students)
To develop teachers' capacity to utilise current research about formative practices and effective literacy strategies
- Resources contain literacy techniques and formative strategies aimed at improving student achievement
To develop junior programmes in order to facilitate smoother transition to senior programmes
- A junior unit is included which focuses on media concepts and skills needed for senior media studies
What's in the resources?
The 2006 beacon school clusters produced resources for NCEA level 2 Media Studies, levels 2 and 3 Journalism, and Junior Media. Each resource has been written with a particular situation/class in mind and trialled with the students for whom it was written. It is very important that you contextualise the resources and adapt them for your community. These resources are not meant to be a one-stop shop or an end product. We encourage you to share with the media community, through the list-serv and forum, ways in which you have adapted the resource.
The resources are now available in the private community.
Each resource is divided into sections:
Background
This section has a rationale for the resource, hints for using the resource, a section on prior knowledge, and relevant links/resources.
Teaching and delivery
This section has a unit plan which outlines the processes and strategies used. The unit plan links to relevant handouts and activities. Although it is in chronological order, we encourage you to adapt the process to your own needs.
The unit plans contain learning outcomes and success criteria which we see as a necessary part of improving student achievement.
Where appropriate, the unit plan includes a breakdown of the achievement standard and ways to use that with students.
Assessment
This section contains advice on assessment and links to relevant NCEA material.
Evaluation
This section contains the evaluation process undertaken for this unit and gives some evaluation of the trials undertaken when developing the resource.
Using exemplars
A principle underpinning this project is that exemplar material is beneficial to student achievement. However, the exemplars must be used to aid student understanding of what they are aiming to produce – rather than as a quick-fix solution to examination answers. In order to be used successfully, exemplars need to be used alongside success criteria.
A group of beacon teachers has identified a set of synonyms and statements that help to define the instructional words of the standards so that students and teachers understand the criteria for success in each standard. These words could be used in many ways:
- as a matching activity to create discussion around the words
- on cards to be matched to exemplar sentences/paragraphs/essays
- displayed on the wall
- as sentence starters