I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
I'm currently the head of English and raising standards leader at a secondary school in Birmingham. I'm passionate about my subject and passionate about ensuring that the young people we serve leave education with a high competency in English.
Prior to teaching I worked in the radio industry as a presenter for 7 years and so when I became a teacher I enjoyed the opportunity to teach Media studies.
You'll find hundreds of English and Media studies resources.
Resources to support the teaching of TV Crime drama. Lessons are numbered for ease of use and provide opportunities to:
- explore the genre
- explore characters types
- explore representation of the police force
- analyse opening sequences
- create opening sequences
- explore scheduling strategies
- explore technological developments
- explore film noir
- explore Todorov's theory
- explore Propp's theory
- explore institutions
- explore mise en scene
- create pitches for own crime drama ideas - job roles included as per the industry to relate t the world of work
- explore codes
- explore narratives including multi strand
- explore crime drama audiences - geo-demographics, demographics - psychographics
- explore camera angles
- explore connotation and denotation
Resources to support the teaching of Audio production originally planned for the BTEC course unit 4.
Lessons provide opportunities for students to explore and analyse:
- types of audio - music, speech, silence, noise etc.
- why audio is used - create mood, ambience, rhythm, reinforce images, introduce era etc. YouTube link examples to help students understand different purposes.
- the difference between pleonastic and contrapuntal audio
- Acoustics in different locations including theatres, empty & full rooms, open spaces etc.
- digital audio file formats - mps. dvd, AIFF etc.
- mono and stereo
- direct sound and reverberation
- interior and exterior recording
- record own audio using editing software
- a range of microphone types including: lavalier, boundary, direct connected, parabolic, noise cancelling etc.
- polar response in microphones
Resources to support the teaching of Audio production originally planned for the BTEC course unit 4.
Lessons provide opportunities for students to explore and analyse:
- types of audio - music, speech, silence, noise etc.
- why audio is used - create mood, ambience, rhythm, reinforce images, introduce era etc. YouTube link examples to help students understand different purposes.
- the difference between pleonastic and contrapuntal audio
- Acoustics in different locations including theatres, empty & full rooms, open spaces etc.
- digital audio file formats - mps. dvd, AIFF etc.
- mono and stereo
- direct sound and reverberation
- interior and exterior recording
- record own audio using editing software
- a range of microphone types including: lavalier, boundary, direct connected, parabolic, noise cancelling etc.
- polar response in microphones
Resources to support the creating of an audio product. (Week 4)
Opportunities to:
- explore the importance of audio editing - audacity software
- create an audio product- example given is a radio broadcast - the task requires students to bring together everything they've learned in weeks 1-3 including microphones, acoustics, purposes etc.
- conduct risk assessments before recoding on location as per industry
- evaluate own production work
Resources to support the teaching of transactional / non-fiction writing.
Included:
- templates
- speech writing lessons
- letter writing
- spoken language
- presidential speeches
- place mat
- writing to argue
- persuasive writing
Resources to support the teaching of Media audiences and products.
Resources provide opportunities to:
- investigate the audiences of a variety of media - magazine, newspaper, news etc
- explore mass and niche
- explore demographics, geo-demographics and psychographics
- explore advertising and impact on audience
- use the NRS website to explore print media audiences
- conduct primary and secondary research
- gather quantitative and qualitative data
- explore the 4Cs (Media theory)
- explore codes and conventions
- explore and create audience profiles
A work book is also included for students to complete while studying.
Resources to support the exploration of audio production - week 3 - microphones.
Opportunities to:
- identify types of microphones - lavalier, direct connected, boundary, parabolic, noise cancelling etc.
- explore dynamic microphones and how they work
- the proximity effect
- investigate polar pattern of microphones
- investigate polar response
- use microphones to test out the proximity effect and directionality
Week's resources culminates with an assessment of understanding..
Resources to support the exploration of audio production. (Week 2)
Resources provide opportunities to explore:
- audio file formats - AIFF, mp3 etc.
- audio platforms - media player, iTunes etc
- mono and stereo
- acoustics in different locations such as full and empty rooms, theatres and open spaces
- recording audio in different environments
- direct sound and reverberation
- interior and exterior recording
Resources to support the exploration of audio. (week1)
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore audio types - silence, noise, speech, music etc.
- explore why audio is used - to create mood, to introduce an era, to reinforce an image etc.
- explore contrapuntal and pleonastic audio
Links to YouTube audio examples for each of the audio purposes are included.
The week's work of resources culminates in an assessment of understanding task.
Resources to support the teaching of audio production. Lesson were planned to teach BTEC first unit 6 audio production but are equally suitable to help students understand audio for any Media studies course.
Students work towards a brief and will create audio (a radio programme) by following industry practice.
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore a variety of audio - music, noise, silence, speech, special effects
- explore audio files - mp3, mp4, wav, AIFF, CD, DAB, FM
- explore mono and stereo
- monitor own audio consumption
- explore broadcast audio and non broadcast audio
- explore uses and gratifications - Blumler and Katz
- explore microphones
- edit audio using editing software
- follow a Media brief to create a radio programme (broadcast audio)
- explore and create radio sweepers, promos, idents, music beds etc.
- conduct research - primary and secondary
Differentiation using a points system. Students complete tasks to earn points, Difficult tasks have the most points attached to them.
A work book is included for students to use while studying.
Over 12 resources to support the teaching of advertising production. The resources were created for students studying BTEC First in Advertising production (Unit 18) but can easily be used to help students with their studies of advertising as [art of GCSE.
Resources allow students to work to a brief and end up creating an advertising campaign by following industry practices.
Resources provide opportunities to:
- explore how adverts play on our fears and dreams
- explore persuasive language in advertising
- explore presentational features
- analyse adverts across 3 mediums (TV, radio and web)
- explore synergy
- study advertising across a range of mediums
- plan own advertising campaign
- conduct risk assessments and planning document as would be the case in the industry
- give a pitch for the campaign created
- explore legal and ethical
- investigate the ASA (advertising standards agency)
- consider budgets
- conduct primary and secondary research
- gather qualitative and quantitative data
A work book is also included for students to complete as they study the course.
33 cards of serial dramas for students to use in a variety of ways such as:
- sorting by sub genre
- sorting by format
- sorting by scheduling slot
etc.
Simply print - cut and use.
A large bundle of differentiated writing lessons and resources
- imaginative writing using a variety of stimuli
- descriptive writing
- persuasive writing
- letter writing
- writing to argue
- AQA GCSE section B writing resources for paper 1 and 2
- speech writing
Differentiation:
Purple - low
Blue - middle
Yellow - night
Resources to support the exploration of research techniques.
Over 70 power point slides and activities to support students through the process of conducting research. Resources will support students in doing the following:
- explore the effectiveness of and create questionnaires
- understand the difference between primary and secondary research
- use the NRS website (secondary research) to investigate print media audiences
- gather qualitative and quantitative data
- explore mass and niche audiences
- conduct audience research, market research and production research
- research attitudes and preferences in TV
- Use the BARB website (Secondary research) to investigate viewing figures
- Gather research to gain data ahead of creating a new media product
- present the results of research
Differentiation by points. Tasks have a varying number of points attached. The higher the number of points: the more complex the task.
Resources to support the teaching of presentation techniques in Media studies. Resources were created to support the teaching of the BTEC national Media studies unit on presentation techniques. 4 assignments that encourage students to look back at the history of presenting styles and create their own style for a specified purpose.
Resources provide opportunities for students to:
- study skills needed to be a presenter
- explore the image of presenters
- explore a variety of radio presenting styles - personality presenter, format presenter, specialist presenter
- compare the skills needed of radio and TV presenters
- analyse the visual techniques of news presenters
- explore the history of presenting styles on the BBC
- explore the verbal techniques used by news presenters
- explore British Pathe
- receive an industry standard brief to create a 12 minute programme foe children on presentation techniques
- conduct primary and secondary research
- create a proposal for a new pilot as per industry standard
- study example proposals
- present in a specified role for a specified purpose
- reflect on own presentation work
A sample preliminary material to give students ahead of their next mock examination on the theme of serial drama.
The mock exam itself is also included and has been created to replicate the real exam - 4 questions each worth 15 marks with one task being a creative design task.
