Unit plan designed for a 10-week term of 12 Essential English. It includes a subject description, a description of the unit, a list of unit objectives (from the syllabus), my planned teaching and learning cycle, the unit learning intentions and success criteria, assessment task details and a list of recommended resources. Also included are 3 word documents which I used on my word wall. Film specific language features – shot sizes, camera angles, lighting, colour, non-verbal communication, dialogue, audio, setting, props, costumes, characterisation, camera movement and symbolism. Film specific text structures – plot, character development, flashback, simultaneous time, montage, slow motion, accelerated video, time lapse, superimposition, transition, themes Colours and what they mean – blue, red, white, black, green, yellow, maroon and brown. The learning resources (PPTs, worksheets etc.) for the unit are also available in My Store.

Item 1: Key points from each chapter plus quotes related to moral dilemmas. This is a useful resource for teachers to save you from re reading the novel each year. Item 2: A booklet to give students as they work through the novel. It includes key questions, some artistic activities (e.g. drawing a map from what they have read, creating a comic strip summary of a key chapter etc). Activities can be assigned for homework or completed in class. Item 3: A word document containing quotes showcasing moral dilemmas from the novel. Can be used as a poster in the classroom.

Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts.” During this unit students learned about Hero and Villain films and how filmmakers use cinematic techniques to portray them and create an intended message. Their assessment at the end of this unit was to write a 4-6 minute multimodal (speech) to be delivered live or pre-recorded reviewing one of the three films shown within the unit. About the PPT: the PPT begins with an explanation of the unit and the upcoming assessment. There are some terms for students to add to their glossary and a brainstorming activity to see what films students have seen in recent years which feature heroes / villains. Some sample answers grouped under Marvel, DC and Warner Brothers are provided. Students are introduced to definitions of terms including hero, superhero, anti-hero, antagonist and villain. Students are introduced to the Gallery of Modern Arts which is part of the context for their assessment. They see images of the building and photographs I took in 2017 when I went to a Marvel specific exhibition. This is followed by information about the origins of super heroes (comic books). Specific references are made to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. There are some clips of early TV and film versions of these characters.

About the PPT: The lesson begins with an activity which asks the students to brainstorm some attitudes they associate with heroes. The slide includes a reminder of what an attitude is and some answers which pop up when you click. There is a viewing activity from YouTube about heroic archetypes which goes for 11 minutes which you can watch to gather further heroic traits from. This is followed by an explanation of what a nemesis is and some of their qualities. Next some common conventions of hero texts are explained. Joseph Conrad’s hero’s journey monomyth is explained. Some information about criticism of this monomyth is provided as well as information about the emergence of films which have female leads. Subsequently student are introduced to a music video report card which they will fill in as we watch the 3 films this term. Screen shots are included on the slides so I could explain the various parts. We quickly recap language features (especially cinematic devices) discussed in earlier lessons. More information is provided about music and sound effects (diegetic and non diegetic sound). Information about factors which influence the listener are explained and list of words for describing music care provided. Next the impacts of light and shadows are explained. The following are explained: high-key lighting, low-key lighting, backlighting and shadow. Next the following transitions are explained in more detail – fade, dissolve, wipe and cut. Themes are explained with a visual showing common themes. Lastly, students are introduced to the film they will watch in future lessons – Batman Forever. They watch the trailer, get some contextual information to add to their report card, are shown images of each of the characters and read a brief synopsis of the plot. About the Word Doc: A movie review retrieval chart for students to fill in during subsequent lessons. Context: A lesson designed for use in a 12 Essential English classroom in Queensland, Australia as part of Unit 4: “Representations and popular culture texts.” During this unit students learned about Hero and Villain films and how filmmakers use cinematic techniques to portray them and create an intended message. Their assessment at the end of this unit was to write a 4-6 minute multimodal (speech) to be delivered live or pre-recorded reviewing one of the three films shown within the unit.

Two PowerPoints for a 9 English Unit. The first PowerPoint includes a synopsis of the film and the film trailer is embedded. This is followed by a range of clips and viewing questions. It also includes information about how Indigenous Australians are portrayed in the film. Additionally, there is a section on exploring key quotes. Students have to pick out the slang and the beliefs of the protagonist which are indicated in the quote. The second PowerPoint is a paragraph writing lesson. It takes students through the various stereotypes in the film and includes some pre-writing (planning) steps. It reviews the PEEEL paragraph structure. It includes some scaffolding (suggested sentence starters) along with an example paragraph (which is colour coded to indicate which section it addresses). After this activity, there is information about modality and some examples of high and low modality words. There is also some information about linking words.

A PPT. Defining feature articles and the genre conventions (Language features, generic structure, layout, grammar, vocabulary, expected paragraph length, cohesive ties). The difference between a traditional news story and a feature article. An example satirical feature article with comprehension questions (and annotations). Plus some tips for how to create a killer headline. Handout of satirical feature article A PPT going through a different feature article about parenting called ‘Backfire of the Vanities’ along with a handout of the article and a lesson plan. Handouts about the features of feature articles (and langauge expectation) Scanned feature articles

In addition to analysing cinematic techniques (aka visual features), students need to analyse the effect of language features in their chosen documentary. This lesson introduces students to a range of language features to watch out for with examples from Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 and Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me. These language features include high modality, rhetorical questions, emotive language, repetition and groups of three. It also includes a list of generic questions for students to ask themselves when watching documentaries.

Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store – Aussie_Resources. A PowerPoint designed for use in a 70 minute lesson. The lesson begins with a brainstorming activity where students reflect on the news they have seen recently and make a list of people, issues and events. This is a good prompt for a discussion about topical stories. This is followed by a survey of what category of news e.g. sports, entertainment news, political news etc. It also talks about the frequency of accessing the news and the ways that they engage with the news. Once students are settled introduce the major focus of the lesson: How do journalists / media companies shape our beliefs about / attitudes towards different people? The lesson introduces a key term ‘target audience’ and how this determines what specific news organisations report. Pose the question: Is the news a trustworthy source of information? Introduce terms for students to add to glossary: bias, empowerment, disempowerment Learn some ways that bias is omission, exaggeration, selective statistics, evaluative language and biased language choices Look at some famous people who have been shown positively and negatively in the media (images juxtaposed side by side). Great for discussion Look at an article (about Britney Spears) and how it creates a certain representation of a her through language choices, who is quoted, the balance between facts and opinions, whose views are silenced (omitted) After discussing what they have learned, the lesson ends with a definition of ‘hard news’ and ‘soft news’ and a list of news stories for them to classify into these two categories.

Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store – Aussie_Resources. A PowerPoint designed for use in a 70 minute lesson. This unit teaches students to be media literate and prepares them to do a speech where they analyse 1 x print news item and 1 x audio visual news item. This lesson focuses on the visual features and text structures of print-based news media texts. It begins with the requirements of news stories and some activities e.g. make a headline from a prompt, read a headline and make it more emotive. This is followed by information about how print based news media is structured (an intro to the inverted pyramid structure). A discussion of layout and reading paths follows. There are images of news stories with the features annotated (e.g. headline, byline, lead, images, captions, pull quotes, columns). Important terms like pull quote, foregrounding, bolded text, text enhancement etc. are explained and examples are provided. There is also an explanation of things to discuss when analysing pictures including colour and the mood evoked by it. There are also some checking for understanding activities which can be done as a class discussion / a written activity depending on the preference of the teacher.

This powerpoint introduces students to key terms which are necessary for a study of documentaries e.g. intertitle, masked interview etc. After these terms the lesson introduces students to audio and visual devices which are used to position audiences in documentaries e.g. narration / voice over, music, sound effects, slow motion and other visual editing effects. After copying these notes students view a small clip about climate change from a biased documentary and have to practice identifying these features.

This unit was designed for a year 10 English class in Australia. Within this unit students learn to analyse and evaluate how human experience is represented in new media texts and documentaries, including the use of images. Students will also develop a critical understanding of the contemporary media and analyse the differences between news media texts. This PowerPoint introduces students to what a documentary is and how they can have powerful social and political influence. The lesson goes on to outline the key features of a documentary and the two main types of documentaries (objective and subjective). It explains the difference and then includes a series of short clips for students to view and decide whether it is an objective/subjective documentary. It also includes a research activity (homework sheet) for students to investigate the works of Michael Moore.

This 32 page booklet has been designed as part of an Australian film studies unit focusing on the 2002 film The Rabbit Proof Fence. It includes activities exploring characterisation, the beliefs of the time and analysing the aesthetic features (film and language techniques) which students are to complete during and after viewing the film. While used for year 9 in this case, it could be applicable for any junior secondary grade. It could also be used during NAIDOC week. This booklet contains resources which would be useful for preparing students to write a range of genres including film reviews, feature articles, persuasive texts and analytical essays. There are questions about the events/themes/character’s perspectives and the effects of the aesthetic features. It introduces students to concepts such as textual structures, language features, visual features, film techniques and themes. It includes information about the socio cultural context of the film, articles about the women on which the film is based, key quotes from the film, scaffolded analysis activities for key scenes, an introduction to evaluative language and how it is used to describe films. The final pages include an explanation of how to structure an essay (along with planning and editing steps).

Part of a set of resources created for a year 10 English class in Australia (ACARA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store – Aussie_Resources. A PowerPoint designed for use in a 70 minute lesson. This lesson begins by defining what a representation is and why they are so powerful. The variance in portrayals of Meghan Markle and Princess Kate are used to prompt discussion. This is followed by a series of slides about the language features that students can look for when analysing news stories. The slides include definitions and examples. Language features include: similes, metaphors, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, connotations, emotive language, hyperbole, repetition, inclusive language, omission, groups of three, rhetorical questions, alliteration, idioms and hashtags. The lesson concludes with reading an example article about Novak Djokovic and considering whether it paints him in a positive / negative light. There are a series of questions to help students to analyse this text.

This is a media lesson designed for a year 9 class (however a lot of the content could also be used for an English lesson). Narrative music videos and their key components: plot, theme and structure Defining narrative. Visual display of the narrative structure. Defining the key terms plot, structure, and theme and watching a film clip to identify these (teacher answers provided on slides). Links to other narrative music videos Also included: a music video report card for analysing music videos

This lesson uses Tenacious D's video 'Tribute' to teach students about various editing / special effects, types of lighting and other elements including shot sizes and angles. After defining these terms, students watch the video and fill in a music video report card (also included) which is a scaffolded way of learning to review a music video.

A student workbook for watching the film including; a synopsis, a list of characters, viewing questions, themes in the film, key quotes & what others have said about the film. The second is annotated notes taken from Cateforis, T. (2009). Rebel girls and singing boys: Performing music and gender in the teen movie. Current Musicology, (87), 161-190,247. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224870683?accountid=16285

Types of appeal for analysing advertisements e.g. Humour, appeal to fear, celebrity endorsement, testimonial etc.

A worksheet for use in 10 History after a unit on The Holocaust. It has during viewing and post viewing questions.

A worksheet designed for watching episodes 5 and 6 of Madiba (2017). This lesson was used when the year 11’s were on camp as a form of revision for the year 12’s. Episodes available on ClickView. Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).

This is a quiz I devised to use with pupils on the last lesson of term. The answers for each round are included after the round. There are 10 questions per round. The music clips for the music round are provided via hyperlink. For the music round, two points should be awarded for each clip; 1 point for a correct artist, 1 point for a correct song title. I used the template from a free resource on here which had the same rounds but for 2012.