About the PPT: The PPT begins with a checking for understanding question to see what students recall about narrative structures. This is followed by information about different types of plot structures – chronological, flashback and in media res. There is an explanation of Freytag’s pyramid which should be familiar from previous years. This is followed by an explanation of gap and silence. Students are then introduced to the second story for the unit – Henry Lawson’s ‘The Loaded Dog.’ After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. Students then consider what gaps or silences they could draw on in a short story. The cool down activity is a list of words for students to look up and define in their glossary. Other resources: A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart 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 - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class.

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 - Topic 2: Creating representations of Australian identities, places, events and concepts.” During this unit students learned about Australian social groups. They engaged with a range of short stories representing Australia. Their assessment was to write a short story which explored a gap/silence from one of the texts they studied in class. About the PPT: the first PPT in the final unit of 12 Essential English. It begins with some details about the IA4 assessment and a breakdown of what lessons are to be taught in the term. The Unit Learning Intentions and Success criteria are displayed. This is followed by a recap of what the term ‘representations’ means. Students need to brainstorm some ‘ways of being Australian’ this is used to introduce students to Australian social groups and some that they may not think of {marginalised/silenced perspectives}. I then introduced the first short story – Tim Winton’s Neighbours. There is a retrieval chart students will be completing for each story they will read. After reading the story, there are some discussion questions which I use with the students. Students then share their responses for the retrieval chart. We then discuss what the key themes of the story are. Following this, I introduce students to the ideas of gaps and silences. We view two trailers for films which are an example of this type of tale (Cruella and Rosaline). Afterwards we learn about 3 types of narrators and discuss which type was used in the original story, and what other viewpoints they could use. The cool down for the lesson were 3 terms to add to their glossary. Other resources: A copy of the Short Story and the retrieval chart

Resources designed with QCIA (special needs) students in mind. These students were encouraged to choose The Incredibles. The resource includes a QCIA task sheet, a word bank and a cloze passage (to assist the Teacher’s Aide to prompt student to develop their own response). The student this was designed for was at a grade 3-4 level. 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: A PPT designed to be used when handing out the assessment. It visually displays key information from the task sheet. There is some information about what I look for in a multimodal spoken presentation. I also have information about how to structure a PowerPoint (particularly if students plan on incorporating their spoken delivery into the slide). There are details from the school’s oral assessment policy – particularly around pre recording their submission. There is an example PPT which I created for Aquaman. There are also instructions for how to record themselves. About the Word Documents: A planning scaffolding document to be completed before students begin writing. A writing scaffold with lines for students to write on as students are required to handwrite their drafts to avoid AI usage. A B standard exemplar for The Incredibles A B standard exemplar for Justice League 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: A PPT designed to develop student assessment literacy. It begins with an explanation of the criteria broken down into “I can” statements which students will understand. It then offers students two potential structures for the review (depending on whether they have the ability to synthesise or not). In this lesson I used a film that students are not doing for their assessment to co-construct a response. The subsequent slides take students through my thinking process (selecting a hero and villain to discuss). Then I show a structure for body 1 broken down into dot points. I then showed them how I would write an extended TEEL paragraph about Aquaman. Students then had to repeat this process to write body 2 (about the villain). Afterwards, we went through an example I had written. We then looked at what needed to happen in body 3 and a potential structure, before reading an example I prepared. About the word documents: Sentence Starters and an example response (written about Aqua man) I Can statements which explain the criteria in student specific terms 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: A PPT designed to be used after students have viewed The Incredibles. It begins with an exploration of Mr Incredible and his two costumes. Students are to discuss what VABs they noticed in the film. I have provided some answer slides with possible options. This process continues with Elastigirl and Syndrome. Some information about supporting characters including Violet and Dash are also provided. About the word documents: A table I made containing quotes from key characters in the film which students can come back to when writing their review for evidence of character VABs. A teacher version of the report card. 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 by explaining what film reviews are and their common features. Following this students watch the trailer for season one of Wednesday (the TV series on Netflix). This is followed by some questions to prompt discussion. Students then read a review and use a highlighter to note the various language features used by the reviewer. Afterwards students are introduced to the second film they will be viewing. They watch the trailer for The Incredibles and some quick facts are shown. They add the director details and others to the retrieval chart. There is a brief synopsis of the plot and some inspiration about what inspired the characters. Following this students are given a quote sheet which they can look at and complete an activity talking about what the characters words say about them (i.e. their personality, beliefs, values). About the Word Documents: A copy of a review written about the Wednesday TV series. A handout which contains some key quotes from the characters from The Incredibles for an activity explained in the PPT slide. 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.

Several word documents which are useful for teaching about The Avengers Song lyrics for ‘Everybody Knows’ Notes I took while watching the film A table I made containing quotes from key characters in the film which students can come back to when writing their review for evidence of character VABs. 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: A PPT designed to be used after students have viewed the film Batman Forever. It begins with an explanation of Two Face and his back story. There are images of his costume which students can describe in the Language Features portion of the retrieval chart. There are slides going through colours and their meanings – maroon, yellow and black. Some information about his props is provided. Students can mention any others that they have noticed. A quote from the news reporter from the orientation of the film is included. Students are asked to volunteer what attitudes they noticed. Some key scenes from the film are summarised to generate opportunities for students to identify his Values, Beliefs and Cultural Assumptions. These scenes include – his escape from Arkham Asylum, Murdering the Flying Graysons, Forming an alliance with the Riddler & Gate crashing Nygma’s event. A similar structure is followed for Batman and The Riddler. About the Word Document: A table I made containing quotes from key characters in the film which students can come back to when writing their review for evidence of character VABs. 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 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.

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: A lesson designed to help prepare students to analyse and evaluate the films they view in class. The lesson begins with an explanation of visual features. There are mini activities where students have to describe things they see in still images or clips e.g. the costumes in the Incredibles film and Spider-Man (2002). Students then learn about non verbal communication including body language and facial expression – they are then shown 4 pictures to describe. They then view a clip from Spider-Man which they will discuss after viewing. This is followed by an introduction to soundtrack (music and sound effects). They watch the trailer for Aquaman and list the sound effects they heard and the types of musical instruments which were featured. They then view a scene from Spider-Man (2002) and do the same. Then students learn about 6 main shot sizes. They then have the opportunity to identify these using stills from Wonder Woman 1 and 2. The next technique is camera angles (eye level, high angle and low angle). This is followed by a checking for understanding activity. Students are then taught about camera movement (panning, tilting, tracking and zooming). They then view clips which exemplify some of these techniques. Next up are editing techniques (montage, transition, simultaneous time, slow motion). These are exemplified via short clips (hyperlinks included in case embedded video does not work). If time, there is also information about traditional language features including characterisation, figurative language and emotive language.

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.

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.

A copy of the task sheet and scaffolding booklet for the Celebrity Chef unit. It includes a list of celebrity chefs that the students are allowed to choose from (for ease of coordinating prac lessons – only a certain number of recipes can be trailed). The scaffolding booklet is designed to follow an Inquiry based approach. Students must research the celebrity to learn about their signature dish/dishes, select an appropriate dish (based on the duration of our lessons, cooking budget and other factors), find out about the ingredients, utensils and cooking skills needed (in order to provide a brief explanation in a brochure designed to be given to students in a cooking class). follow this, students must write a justification for why they chose this dish and a brief bio of the chef which includes what they are famous for. There are also instructions for creating their brochure and for reflecting on the prac lesson where they re-create and plate the signature dish. A template for the brochure with pre-populated headings. A checklist used to assess students in the practical component of the lesson (the lesson where they cook the signature dish). Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac).

This lesson is designed to teach students what a 'signature dish’ is. Students will be choosing a specific celebrity chef for their upcoming assessment to create a brochure about. Within the brochure, this is one element they must include. They will provide information about the cuisine, cooking methods and the recipe. They will also cook the recipe and photograph how they have presented it. The PPT includes a term for students add to their recipe. The term ‘cuisine’ is also explained. Some information from Encyclopedia Britannica about world cuisine is provided. information about how cuisine evolves is also included (including the term ‘fusion cuisine’). There is a video from Gardening Australia about Kylie Kwong which shows how she incorporates First Nations ingredients in her Cantonese cooking. Following this, students are instructed to use the retrieval chart (also included in this resource) to research the celebrities we are focussing on in the unit and their signature dishes. Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac).

A free worksheet used for watching Season 2, Episode 1 of Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam (available on Click View – if your school is a member). In Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, the popular chef explores the country of his heritage, cooking up an abundance of dishes from this much-loved cuisine. In this episode, Luke explores the food and culture of Hue, home to the ruling Emperors of the 17th century in central Vietnam. The recipes prepared In this episode are available on the SBS website. Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac).

This lesson is designed to teach students what a ‘cooking philosophy’ / ethos is. Students will be choosing a specific celebrity chef for their upcoming assessment to create a brochure about. Within the brochure, this is one element they must include. It begins with a written definition which students must add to their glossary. There are screen shots of quotes from Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver to use as examples. The remainder of the PPT is dedicated to engaging with some written and video content about various chefs and determine what attitudes, values and beliefs they hold and how this influences their cooking. The first chef is Mark Olive (a First Nations chef). There is a video clip and some screen shots from his Instagram which students use to extract information to summarise his ethos. This is followed by Australian chef Maggie Beer – there are 3 short videos as well as extracts from a Magazine article about her and information from the front of one of her cook books. Thirdly, British Chef Jamie Oliver (3 clips, 2 quotes and information from one of his cooking courses). Fourthly, Chinese-Australian Chef Kylie Kwong (1 video, 2 quotes). Finally, Australian chef Matt Moran (1 video and screen shots from his restaurant’s website). Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac). The assessment at the end of this unit was an event (pop up café) and a written portfolio of their preparation for this event.

A PowerPoint used to introduce students to the new unit. It includes discussion questions used to extract student prior knowledge (e.g. What is a celebrity chef) and a brainstorming activity (for students to list those that they are familiar with). There is a definition to add to their glossary (students copy underlined information). Then there is a brief bio of several chefs that will be encountered during the unit – Jamie Oliver, Kylie Kwong, Matt Moran, Maggie Beer, Neil Perry, Donna Hay, Poh Ling Yeow, Luke Nguyen and Mark Olive. There is information about how the chefs promote themselves and their merchandise. This is followed by some information about the upcoming assessment task – written component and practical component. There is a screen shot of a brochure created about Donna Hay. The lesson ends with an overview of the Unit Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). My school has 70-minute lessons. (2 x theory and 1 x prac). The assessment at the end of this unit was an event (pop up café) and a written portfolio of their preparation for this event.

A unit plan for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). This one is for 11 Hospitality – Unit 2 Casual Dining-Hospitality Trends, Topic 1: Signature dish of a Celebrity Chef. The table of contents allows for ease of navigation (you can hit control and click the part you want to visit and it will take you there). Included in the unit plan is some information from the syllabus, a description of the unit, the learning intention and success criteria, some key terms, an outline of the assessment for term 3 (as this informs the recipes made in prac), a breakdown of the criteria (C Standard), some suggested resources, prompts for a teacher reflection at the end of the unit and a list of some ways to monitor student learning. A separate document (glossary) which explains a lot of terms that students will need to know when engaging with celebrity chef recipes.

A PDF of plants which grow well in the North QLD region around Mount Isa. An article about when to prune which plants.