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

This PowerPoint is designed to last for a few lessons and contains 54 slides with tips for photo composition. It teaches students about the effects of lines (straight and curved) and activities to check whether students can identify horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines within images. It also has activities and information for shapes and silhouettes, patterns and colours. Additionally, there is information about shot sizes and angles (no activities just discussion) and other general composition tips.

Two PowerPoints: Explaining the assessment task (Create an informative multimodal presentation that discusses how bias may be present in documentaries and written articles) and the criteria. Learning about the features of a multimodal to prepare you for this task and looking at an example introduction written by a past student. Some example quotes from Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine to use as an example (and practice analysing). Advice on where to find further quotes. A PowerPoint for the following lesson teaching students how to analyse bias in media articles. Going through the 2 types of bias in texts (over exaggeration and under exaggeration). A quick practice of analysing bias in particular examples from Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. Afterward the PPT looks at three articles about Chernobyl and students are encouraged to determine whether we believe their portrayal was: Balanced (correct), Bias through minor under-emphasis, Bias through extreme under-emphasis, Bias through over emphasis or Bias through extreme over emphasis. Prior to this, there is a brief explanation of what happened and some images and videos. It includes some questions for students to consider as they read the article. Finally, it includes copies of a PPT made by a past student for their multimodal for students to look at and draw inspiration from. One Word Document (A task scaffold) which contains planning steps for the assignment and a suggested structure. Other resources which can be given to students during in class drafting lessons or for homework.

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.

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).

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.

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 resource was designed as an introduction to a film studies unit focusing on the moral issues and moral dilemmas that the characters faced in the film Remember the Titans. It has enough content to take a few lessons. This resource would still be useful for other films as it teaches students about various textual structures, language and visual features which directors use to influence how the audience responds to the film. It includes a summary of the film, a definition of dialogue and some examples for students to discuss (what it reveals about the characters), nonverbal communication, visual features to focus on e.g. costuming. It also goes through various cinematic techniques with a definition and an example from a famous film e.g. The Shining, Forrest Gump, Harry Potter and The Help (with post-viewing questions). The film techniques covered are panning, tracking, tilting, zooming, montage, transition, simultaneous time, slow motion, music, sound effects, shot sizes. It ends with a cloze strategy to check whether students have understood these terms. It then goes on to provide some historical context about the Civil Rights movement in the US.

A PowerPoint exploring the origins and evolution of film (1895-present). Information about The Seven Ages of Film and the advent of sound. Video clips from 'Singing in the Rain' which depict how film studios began to make talking pictures. Looking at the advent of colour in films with clips from The Wizard of Oz showing the use of technicolour. Information about the introduction of The American movie rating system in 1968. The phenomena of Midnight movies - with clips from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

A copy of the PowerPoint I used to go through the task requirements with the students (10 English, Australia). Students had to write a feature article which focused on the moral/ethical dilemmas in the text. A feature article checklist which was attached to the task sheet so provide feedback to students on missing elements (in response to their drafts) Two exemplar feature articles which can be used in handout lessons or when teaching the feature article genre. A planning document to assist students to draft their own feature article.

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.

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 is dedicated to unpacking the assessment task and includes snippets from the task sheet. This is followed by information about how to structure their speech (a breakdown of the 4 body paragraphs). The C standard criteria is then displayed with a second column which explains this criteria in kid friendly terms. This is followed by information about the plan of attack for how to begin the task (starting with selecting a topic from a list of options decided by the teacher). There is information about the planning booklet which students will complete over a week before beginning to write their draft. There is also an example speech (B standard) which can be read to give students an idea of what their final product will look like. There is also information about PowerPoint do’s and don’ts and the PETAL paragraph structure that we will be using instead of TEEL for this assessment as it is specifically tailored to analysing tasks. The resources in this lesson can be broken down and used over a few lessons e.g. you could take body 1 and use this as a model in the lesson where they write body 1.

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. The lesson begins with explicitly explaining the cognitive verb analyse and the process of analysing. There is an outline of some things that students will need to address when analysing in their upcoming assessment. This is followed by an exploration of some visual features which students can look out for in print and online news stories e.g. illustrations, colour, font choices, layout of text and graphics, positioning (within the newspaper/magazine), body language and facial expressions within photographs and shot sizes. After this there is a front cover of a magazine for students to view and identify the features in. the next slides include the remainder of the magazine story for students to analyse.

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.

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 is about the features of television news. It begins with information about common sections in televised news including finance, the weather and sports. The importance of currency and getting the most interesting/important stories is emphasised. The structure of a news program is explained (info about the length of a news break and the likely the order of stories, before zooming in on the structure of a particular story (e.g. a 25-word lead + events in chronological order). There is a YouTube clip about Prince Harry to exemplify this. Students must pick out the 5W’s and 1H + determine who is shown positively / negatively. Important visuals are explained e.g. footage of dramatic events, use of computer-generated graphics, generic footage e.g. of scientists working in the lab, pictures/maps/icons etc. This is followed by some terms for students to write down: intertitles, interviews, voice overs, tight writing, camera angles, establishing shots, music, sound effects, logos and editing. Students need to know about these as any number of them could be in the news segment that they end up choosing to analyse for their assessment.

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. Assessment scaffolding resources A list of key terms, language features and text structures that students can use to assist them with their planning A writing booklet which includes a suggested structure for the speech along with sentence starters to prompt student responses A PowerPoint template which has been pre-filled with appropriate headings for the assessment A handout outlining how to reference the following text types in APA formatting: websites, newspaper articles, magazine articles, televised news segments

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. 3 resources: The task sheet and criteria for a year 10 multimodal task requiring students to analyse and evaluate 2 news media texts. A second task sheet with criteria for a student who is being assessed at a grade 6 level (due to being on an Individualised Education Program). A cover sheet to be placed on the front of the work of the student being assessed at below grade level with possible modifications listed on it. This makes it easy to highlight the appropriate ones and then include this as evidence of differentiation for parents / the school. Students will learn to create a multimodal presentation to articulate complex ideas (i.e. an evaluation of news media). They will learn to use persuasive vocabulary and language features, as well as evidence, to justify their opinions. They will also learn to use visual features to persuade in their presentation (i.e. effective PowerPoint images, titles, etc.). Lastly, they will learn how to effectively use non-verbal persuasive techniques to present their speech/presentation.

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.

Resource 1: A worksheet for a documentary viewing lesson. I utilise the broadcast strategy approach (Barry & King, 1998) previewing the questions prior to playing the documentary so that students know what to listen out for. The documentary In the Turmoil of the Russian Revolution (2017) is available on ClickView. There are 24 questions for students to record information about as they watch. Additionally, there are 5 extended response post-viewing questions for students to complete for homework. Resource 2: A scanned copy of my handwritten answers which I completed during the lesson and then used to check students’ understanding.