Tim Evans

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Planning for Literacy Learning Reading Comprehension Part A

Lesson 1: Non-Fiction Screen-Based Text Energy, Lets Save It! AusVELS standard: Reading and viewing: Literacy - Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692). Lesson Focus: Students will analyse the impact the five semiotic systems have on making meaning from a multimodal text. Assessment: Observing participation during class discussion of the semiotic systems and in teacher focused group. Completion of semiotic system analysis graphic organiser.

Whole class activity: (20 25 mins) Before viewing the clip, Energy, Lets Save It! (2008), have students make predictions of what they think the text will be about. Why is it important to save energy? Who will the main character(s) be? Play video clip through once so that students are familiar with the text before they begin analysis. Discuss and refresh class knowledge of the five semiotic systems and what they refer to; linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. Using the interactive whiteboard, make a table of the semiotic systems (refer to appendix) and provide examples of what these are, and what they are used for, e.g. for visual, what is the authors intention when they use the red circle around some objects in the clip? For audio; what are the sound effects being used for?

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Small group activity: (25 mins 30 mins). Working in groups of four, students are to analyse the clip. Students draw up a table to organise their analysis (refer to appendix). Each student analyses one of the semiotic systems (except linguistic) while viewing the clip, providing at least 3 examples of where it occurs in the clip, and their interpretation of what meaning the author intended when incorporating this system into their production. Students are then to discuss whether they agree on these interpreted meanings. Students compile their analyses into one table. Extension: Student groups who complete their tables early are to discuss which of these semiotic systems are most important in the meaning making of this video clip? Are there any systems used which could have been disregarded and not affect the meaning? Justify your answers.

Teacher focus group activity: (25 mins 30 mins Working with students who have exhibited a keen understanding of semiotic analyses in previous lessons, teacher discusses why this particular clip may have chosen not to use any linguistic codes apart from the title screen? How does this affect the meaning of the text? Positive or negative? Provide examples of what the author chose to include instead of speech to make meaning.
Word count: 410

Appendix for Lesson 1: Table of semiotic systems (Anstey & Bull, 2012, p. 5 6). The Visual Semiotic System Codes and Conventions Colour Texture Line Shape Form or Juxtaposition Point of View Framing Focus Lighting Editing Aspects Placement, saturation, tone, media, opacity, transpency Tactile memory Quality, type, actual or implied, vectors Visual outline Boundaries and relationships Reader or viewer position Cropping, close-up, medium or long shots Hard (or sharp) and soft Soft, bright, subdued, dull, spotlighting and direction Parallel cutting, speed, inserts, pacing, transitions

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The Gestural Semiotic System: Codes and Conventions Bodily Contact Proximity Orientation or body position Appearance Head nods Facial expression Kinesics Posture Gaze and eye movement Aspects Type and position of contact, touch Space between objects and people How the body is presented to others Hair style, colouring or costume, clothing, jewellery, make-up and props Angle and tilt Eyebrow position, shape of eye, position and shape of mouth, size of nostrils Movement of head, arms, hands and legs, feet or the surface features of bodily communication The way in which a person stands, sits or lays The way in which a persons gaze is realised and where and how it is directed

The Spatial Semiotic System: Codes and Conventions Position Distance Framing Aspects Left-right, top-bottom, centre-margin, foregroundbackground Angles and distance Real or implied

The Audio Semiotic System: Codes and Conventions Volume and audibility Aspects of volume and audibility related to voice Pace Aspects Pitch Modulation, projection, articulation, timbre, intonation and stress Phrasing, pause, silence

Table to be completed by students in group activity: Meaning being conveyed by semiotic system and code E.g. Red ring around Visual: Shape visual Highlights items that are certain items. outline. preventing sustainability that need to be changed. E.g. Main characters Gestural: Appearance Shows that these dressed as superheroes. costume. characters are protectors and role models for how to protect the world from global warming. (Adapted from Table Six presented by Anstey & Bull, 2012, p. 8).
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Particular Element in Video Clip

Semiotic System and Code being used

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Lesson 2: Fiction Text The Tomorrow Book AusVELS standard: Reading and viewing: Literature - Make connections between the ways different authors may represent similar storylines, ideas and relationships (ACELT1602). Lesson Focus: Students will make text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world connections to expand their content knowledge on the topic of sustainability. Assessment: Observing participation during class discussion of predictions and inferential meanings. Completion of KWL chart, showcasing prior knowledge based on text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world connections.

Whole class activity (15 - 20 mins) Show the whole class the front cover of the picture book The Tomorrow Book (French, 2010). Ask the class for predictions and inferential meanings gained before and during reading (refer to appendix). Small group activity (25 30 mins) As a class, list on the board the many global issues raised in the book; water shortage, transportation, removal of waste, deforestation (lack of animal habitats); students are to work in groups of 3 to construct a KWL chart; one group per topic. Students must include in their KWL chart what they believe the known causes for their chosen issue is, approximately how long this issue has been affecting the world and what can be done to reduce this impact. Many of these questions will be answered by text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections prior to further research. Students who complete the Know and Want to know sections of their chart s begin researching their answers for the Learnt section.

Teacher focus group activity (25 - 30 mins) Teacher will work with students that have shown a greater understanding of sustainability issues during prior lessons. Teacher will lead discussion and encourage students to choose their own global issue based on their world knowledge; thus showcasing a text-to-world link. Once their topic has been established, students will also create a KWL chart.
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Appendix for Lesson 2 Predictions and Inferential meanings; leading questions: Before reading: W hat will the story be about? Who is/are the main character(s)? What has inspired these predictions? Example: The position of the character in the fore-ground is a common motif used by illustrators for lead characters. Students may also notice windmills on the rooves of the houses and make the link to sustainability (topic addressed in previous lesson.) On the third page, when it states But somehow the world outside the palace never looked like the places he imagined, ask students how they think the prince imagined the world to look? How is it different? On the seventh page, discussing water shortage, ask students for examples of when and how this has affected them? What suggestions might the prince make to help this problem? On fourteenth page, solar and wind energy are mentioned. Have any students heard how and where these are used? How does it work? On the nineteenth page, the butler states I think I know why youre here when various animals visit the prince. Ask students: What country do you think this story is based in? (All animals are native Australian animals text-to-world connection.) Also ask Why do you think the animals are visiting? (All animals have lost native habitat due to deforestation text-to-world connection.)
Word count: 510

Rationale The texts I chose both have a strong focus on sustainability, which ties in with many other domains in the level 4 AusVELS curriculum. In civics, students explain why protection and care for the natural and built environment is important . In humanities: Students develop awareness and understanding of the effects of people's interactions with their environment and the ways in which these affect their lives. And in science they discuss how natural and human processes cause changes to the Earths surface and describe relationships that assist the survival of living things.
Word count: 91

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The specific skills I chose to address in my two lessons were practicing semiotic analyses of a YouTube clip and making intertextual links. Being able to critically analyse multimodal texts is important because during any given day, students are exposed to one or more of the five semiotic systems, sometimes simultaneously (Harris, 2011, p. 20). Explicit teaching of how to analyse these systems is therefore important because, as Harris (2011), states: While most students and teachers would be able to read meaning in the tone of voice, body language or facial expression of another member of the class with relative ease due to years of practice, these skills do not automatically translate to accurately reading the meaning in multimodal texts such as the meaning behind the use of colour in an image. This knowledge/skill translation gap becomes even more extreme and relevant when multimodal texts are used as the primary learning object and assessment tool (p. 20). As these lessons are intended to be towards the beginning of a unit of work on sustainability, I chose to have the analysis of the YouTube clip in the first lesson, as Freebody, McRae and Freebody (2006) found that Learning Objects (any digi tal resource that can be reused to support learning (Wiley, 2000, as cited in Kitson, 2011)) are used in a variety of ways: as a hook for learning, for lesson consolidation and unit related work (Kitson, 2011, p. 78). I decided it was important for there to be a link between the two chosen texts because the more prior knowledge and experience readers have with a particular topic, the easier it is for them to make connections between what they are learning and what they know (Anderson, 2004; Anderson & Pearson, 1984, as cited in McLaughlin, 2012, p. 433). This would therefore provide students with two texts addressing the same topic in very different ways. This is important as a competent reader is constantly making connections between the information in the text and their own experiences and knowledge. Furthermore, the reader makes connections between the text being read and other similar texts (written or visual) that have been read. These text to text connections also assist the reader to comprehend more effectively (Menner, 2007, p. 37). As using a repertoire of reading comprehension strategies enhances readers reasoning (Duke, Pressley & Hilden, 2004; Paris & Paris, 2007; Pressley, 2006, as cited in McLaughlin, 2012, p. 434), both lessons use strategies proven to be effective when taught in Guided Comprehension: Previewing Activating prior knowledge, predicting and setting purposes for reading; Making connections Relating reading to self, text and others; Evaluating Making judgements about text content and the authors craft (McLaughlin, 2012, p. 434 435). The activities chosen for the first lesson were selected due to the fact that the tables provide the metalanguage students and teachers will need to use when analysing and describing how meaning is being made through the use of various semiotic
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systems in a factual multimodal text and what each semiotic system is contributing to the overall meaning (Anstey & Bull, 2012, p. 5). According to Anstey and Bull (2012), constructing these sorts of tables are an excellent way of helping students to understand how they make meaning of (consume) factual text (p. 7). I also chose students to work in small groups on these activities because readers refine their understanding by negotiating meaning with others. This typically occurs through discussion. Engaging students in such discussion promotes active engagement in constructing meaning from a text (McKeown, Beck & Blake, 2009, as cited in McLaughlin, 2012, p. 433). The activities in the second lesson were selected based on teachers need for students to acknowledge the relational nature of all texts and that texts not only convey meaning but also generate new meaning. [ Texts] cannot be analysed in isolation; they must be studied with reference to the cultural structures within which they are operating (Wagner, 2010, p. 43 44). Based on the recommendations of McLaughlin, (2012) all forms of assessment; teacher observation of student discussion and K-W-Ls were formative. Formative assessments capture students performance as they engage in the process of learning. It can allow teachers insights into students understandings at any given point in the learning experience. Furthermore, formative assessment presents a natural, viable, and continuous means for teachers to learn about what students understand (p. 438).
Word count: 728

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References Anstey, M. & Bull, G., (2012). Using multimodal factual texts during the inquiry process. PETAA Paper 184. Marrickville: PETAA. Pp. 1 12. Australian Curriculum in Victoria [AusVELS], (2012). AusVELS: English. Retrieved from http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10 Harris, A., (2011). How effective are print-based comprehension models for reading and assessing multimodal texts? Literacy learning: The middle years, 19(3), 19 28. Kitson, L., (2011). Reconceptualising understandings of texts, readers and contexts: One English teachers response to using multimodal texts and interactive whiteboards. English in Australia, 46(3), 76 86. McLaughlin, M. (2012). Reading comprehension: What every teacher needs to know. The reading teacher, 65(7), 432 440. Menner, M., (2007). Are we teaching or testing reading comprehension? Practically primary, 12(1), 35 38. Wagner, M., (2012). Facilitating creative response: Using notions of intertextuality and the dialogic to inspire student responses. Idiom, 48(1), 43 45.

Bibliography

Eutube (2008). Energy, lets save it! Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g73ty9v04

French, J., (2010). The tomorrow book. Sydney, Australia: HarperCollins.