APST - 1.2, 1.4, 2.1, 3.3, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
Media narratives contain many components and are often the result of a complex, interweaving of diverse elements. In order to analyse a text and communicate our understanding, it is helpful to refer to a model to inform our acts of inquiry of a text. Models also ensure that students are not overwhelmed while trying to identify components of narrative and guide them during the analysis stage. A good working knowledge of a model like that of CAMELS (Camera, Acting, Editing, Lighting & Sound) can also act as a good reference point when students are communicating what they identified and act as a spring-board to creating rich writing pieces.
The ability to express your understanding of a text and analysis of each interwoven component while relating it to the world outside of the narrative is also a valuable skill to have in later years of Media Studies. My inquiry question has resulted in a keen interest to be able to help students break down the process of text analysis.
The analysis of texts occurs across a range of secondary school subjects including English, Humanities and the Arts. It is with this is interest and aim that I hope to assist students to break down texts in a confident and pragmatic way. With a clear structure, students can then express their ideas from what they discovered in a text and produce it within their own writing.
Approaching a complex media narrative requires a level of guided instruction that takes a whole narrative, breaks it into workable pieces and directs student attention to the most important parts. Worked examples provide students the opportunity to improve their metacognitive abilities and see explicitly how media narratives can be perceived and analyzed piece by piece. The media narrative unit includes numerous opportunities to scaffold student understanding of the technical codes within prominent Hollywood films. Giving students the opportunity to explore and analyze snippets of major films, providing a systematic approach and focus to the technical codes that will be studied more in depth later in the sequence.
Observation #1
Date: 1/8/2022
Educator: Mr Paul Stephens
Subject: English - Literacy
Learning Intention: To identify the issue of a text.
Students were shown newspaper headlines and photographs and asked to analyze each before deciding upon the central issue. Pool provided a verbal breakdown of the texts, choosing one that was featured on the whiteboard and discussing it to provide context. Paul used a range of metacognitive strategies to explain his thinking, breaking down the article and analyzing the headline in the text.
Students were prompted to write in complete sentences starting with the sentence sentence stand. Stephen used open questioning and cold calling to to gain an understanding of student knowledge. He use clarifying questions to build students up to a point where they were expressing clearer responses. Throughout the session, Paul appealed to students reasoning, motion and the ethics concerned with each of the newspaper articles.
Given the class were in a literacy support subject, Paul provided various opportunities for students to fill in the blanks and identify the reasons, emotions and ethics involved. Paul incorporated the I do, we do you do process of worked examples verbally and with written text on the board. He consistently modeled his thinking and the desired behavior with with reference to content on the board. He gain students attention several times to the board, bounce questions off students to model theoretical ideas about the content. Paul was explicit with explaining how he he read the text. “I can see this so I can write it down,” Paul told the students.
There were several examples of Paul incorporating AITSL identities into the curriculum. One activity involves reading about the passing of indigenous musician Archie Roach. Students were asked to write and highlight the appositives and completely fill in the blank activity.
Following the lesson Paul advised that he finds benefit of using the I do, we do, you do approach to also checking student understanding within the group. He said that the great benefit of using the approach with worked examples was that it got students invested to move forward in their learning. He said that he uses a lot of visual aids as prompts on the board including advertisements and articles to scaffold his metacognitive strategies including work examples.
This was a highly valuable lesson to observe because it showed an experienced teacher who not only relied upon breaking down content on the board but also demonstrated a teacher who could apply the model while roaming the room, frequently checking for understanding and building up on student knowledge. Paul’s approach to analyzing texts provided me an insight into the benefit of discussing my thinking while I break down texts on the board. It reinforced the approach that I have begun to take with the media class which involves getting them interested in the text, talking through a model to scaffold their understanding and taking it step by step, avoiding cognitive overload. Watching Paul teach reassured me that it was okay to break down texts explicitly without assuming students would become disengaged or unmotivated to analyze a complex text text like articles, film sequences or reviews. Observing Paul teach demonstrated the importance of talking through a model, identifying what each part relates to in the text and providing access points for students to begin their own analysis.
Observation #2
Date: 1/8/2022
Educator: Mr Michael Weadon
Subject: Year 7 Science
Learning Intention: To classify the characteristics of living organisms.
Michael starts the lesson with a focus on gratitude, empathy and mindfulness. Starting the lesson with a prayer provides students with an opportunity to tune into the classroom and assisted Michael to get the students into a receptive state.
The lesson began with a quick recap about the topic of inquiry -classification. Students are invited to think/pair/share with their neighbour about interesting ideas and concepts that they engaged with during the previous class. Students participated in an engaging game where they were prompted to ask questions one after the other about what they learnt previously. It seemed to be a great way to get students hooked into the lesson and paying attention.
Michael modeled the classification example which reflected some of the metacognitive strategies that he uses in his classroom to break down examples for students and be able to make connections with the content. Early in the lesson he provided a key question, "the characteristics of life" which was the focus for the lesson. He provided very clear explanations, descriptions and examples to unpack what the characteristics of life related to and where he was heading with the content.
In an effort to scaffold student understanding of classification, Michael provided an acronym to guide students to characteristics of living things. On the board he drew and explained a tree diagram to classify living things starting with a local example and then prompting students to provide their own examples. This reflected much of the constructivist way of teaching where instruction begins 'close to home' before expanding outwards into more broader definitions and understandings.
Michael paid particular attention to breaking down examples related to the animal kingdom and deconstructing the scientific language with clear examples to explain the origin of the words and meaning. Michael continued around the room, checking-in with each student and providing personalized support.
The key part of the lesson was focused on the Fisher Frey model 'I do, We do, You do' where he classified species while stepping students through the tree diagram. This allowed him to explain his thinking, sort clarification every step of the way for students.
While observing Michael's teaching, it occurred to me the importance of applying metacognitive strategies to unpack and break down not only the content but the language used within the lesson. Another prominent factor of Michael's teaching was his ability to explicitly and clearly explain the content and subject specific language while incorporating stimulating questioning that assisted him to gauge student understanding. It is my hope to be able to reach such a level of clarity of instruction. Michael seemed to have such a grasp of content knowledge and teaching strategies that all students were provided with a range of access points to the content. His ability to challenge student understanding with a range of questions also meant that students were engaged and progressing throughout the lesson.
Observing Michael teach was an enriching experience for my inquiry project because it reinforced the importance of modeling difficult concepts while stepping up complexity for students. It would be detrimental to assume that students gaining exposure to Western culture, media and story through film would identify technical and symbolic elements within a text without a clear process to analyze media. Observing Michael describe and explain the classification process while providing examples that resonate with the students' own knowledge and experience of the world highlighted the importance of constructivist teaching and providing students scaffolding to support their learning.
Observation #3
Date: 1/8/2022
Educator: Mrs Amanda Rossato
Subject: Year 8 Humanities
Learning Intention: To compare and contrast environmental landscapes.
Amanda started the lesson orienting her students to getting organized for a new unit of inquiry. Setting up students and and showing them how to organize themselves seemed to cue students into the lesson and also highlighted key study skills that are important to assist students in preparing for the learning experience ahead.
Amanda provided a clear learning intention and overall breakdown of the unit with clear examples about why the specific learning sequence of 'coastal landscapes' was important to a broader understanding of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Early during the lesson, Amanda provided students plenty of opportunities to provide their own examples of landforms and landscapes. This highlighted the constructivist approach to teaching, starting close to where students feel comfortable and explored their own understanding of the world. Key terms were unpacked and explained regarding coastal landscapes in the environment. Amanda provided very clear instruction with plenty of examples breaking down with the use of metacognitive techniques to unpack key concepts while building up student understanding to a point where they were engaged with the content.
Amanda provided clear descriptions of why certain characteristics belong to certain categories and went further to break down concepts into categories stepping students through the process of interpreting the content. Students were oriented about where they were headed with the unit and importantly what the main goals were for their learning ahead. With the use of a tree diagram, Amanda applied many metacognitive strategies to describe characteristics of landscapes, breaking down concepts with clear flow diagrams. During instruction Amanda underlined key terms across the board clearly breaking them down, highlighting the why of what they were learning, the what and also the how the content related to students.
Amanda conducts the classroom instruction in a very organized and sophisticated manner. It was very interesting to observe and learn how the learning content can be manipulated across the board and within discussion during the class. I learnt a number of techniques and strategies in order to encourage students to manipulate the content on the board during this lesson. It was interesting to note how Amanda highlighted key terms, unpacked them and related them back to the student understanding of what was important for them to learn. One of the big lessons from this observation was the way that Amanda went about explaining the what, why and how of the concepts involved in the topic. It is is my hope that I can reach such a clear level of instruction and understanding of the curriculum that I can provide students with such engaging, informative scaffolding practices.
This lesson provided an important insight for my inquiry project in terms of Amanda's ability to break down concepts and use the space of the classroom to engage all students in their learning. Amanda applied significant metacognitive strategies to go from the general to the specific, breaking down categories while engaging students' own understanding of the world with effective questioning strategies. It was very interesting to see how Amanda highlighted what was important for students to understand not only on the board through breaking down with flow diagrams but also verbally across the classroom incorporating specific examples that related to students' understanding. With these tools, instructing students about the nuances of film and the intention of filmmakers during my inquiry might support my efforts to scaffold their understanding of the technical and symbolic codes built-in to media texts.
Rosenshine’s principles of instruction focus on the combination of cognitive science, classroom practice and cognitive support for students. The principles focus on helping students to learn and acquire new information, providing guidelines for teachers to implement effective teaching and help students to understand complex material. Providing models is one of the key principles. Rosenshine explains how it’s important that students make connections and links between their learning to support memory recall and help them to understand new information quickly. This text was particularly beneficial for my inquiry because it explores how worked examples and thinking aloud, applying metacognitive strategies to model information could help student learning during the unit. Media narratives are often complex involving numerous elements that are interwoven. Rosenshine expresses importance of scaffolding and building in incremental stages within the learning process so students can gradually acquire the conceptual understanding and skills to communicate their understanding.
The ability to analyze texts is a core skill across the Media Arts curriculum from middle school through to VCE. Connect Education’s supplementary booklet offered by a high-performing previous VCE student highlights with specific examples how students can effectively analyze media texts and communicate their understanding. This text was beneficial during my inquiry because it reinforced the level of sophistication needed and reflects the varying levels of analysis needed from year nine to year 12 evident in the Victorian curriculum. It’s vital during this early exposure to the Arts curriculum and Media Studies that students create healthy writing habits and experience responding and interpreting to media texts before both the texts and the sophistication of analysis becomes more complex in later years.
Engaging students in a lesson sequence primarily focused on responding and interpreting provides a significant’s challenge for the graduate teacher. Hooking students in, relating the texts to their interests and motivating them to participate in the class is all about learner engagement. Rita Van Haren provides a number of strategies within ‘The Artful English teacher’ this book was highly beneficial during my inquiry providing me with a number of front-loading strategies which I honed to apply to my early lessons. By giving students a number of activities including naming the least to most important elements of an engaging movie and incorporating the use of digital technologies to express their current level of understanding, I was able to focus students to the direction of the learning sequence.
As well as providing the best teaching practices for students, providing a safe environment for students to learn and thrive should be at the forefront of all teachers' minds. All students have the right to learn in a safe environment where their health and overall wellbeing is cared for.
Below is a report that details my understanding of the legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes that relate to child safety and wellbeing.
As a registered teacher, I understand and acknowledge that is my responsibility adhere to the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, Victoria and to stay update to date with all relevant Child Safety Policies, Mandatory Reporting and First Aid courses.
I accept that is my legal responsibility to notify the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) if I have formed reasonable belief that a child has suffered from or may be subject to physical or sexual abuse. I understand that as a staff member of this College, it is my duty to conduct myself in a profession manner to ensure that all obligations are met through following the Critical Action Plan for Child Abuse and/or Student Sexual Offending. The steps include contacting the appropriate personnel within the school e.g. leadership team, YLC, school counsellor, documenting conversations and concerns in a confidential manner, reporting the case to the relevant people and following up with what is required in order to provide that ongoing support to the student. I am also aware if the child is in immediate danger or that a child under the age of 16 has been sexually abused that it must be reported to the police immediately and if this is not done it is a criminal offence.
As a teacher of this school community, I understand the importance of completing all child safety courses and refreshers e.g. Mandatory Reporting, First Aid, Asthma and Anaphylaxis Training. I am aware of the students within my classes and the wider community who have medical conditions such asthma or an allergy and I understand that it is my duty of care to provide care and support to any student in an emergency.
Date: 7/6/2022
Who: Mr Kevin Robillard – Director of Wellbeing (Child Safety teammember)
What was discussed: Child Protection/Mandatory Reporting - PROTECT
Kevin, fellow colleagues and I had a thoughtful conversation about the processes that need to be followed in the case that you develop a reasonable belief that a child is/has been subject to physical or sexual abuse. We discussed the PROTECT - Critical Action Plan for Child Abuse and for Student Sexual Offending the specific steps we need to follow when making these reports. It was discussed how once you make the report, it is your responsibility to follow it through to the end. Although, you will be passing the knowledge on and reporting to the appropriate personnel, as the main reporter you are accountable for seeing and through and completing all relevant documentation. It was discussed how you would be supported through this process by people within the leadership team and how the school counsellor team would always be willing to provide guidance and assistance to teachers who have to complete the report. This conversation reiterated the importance of being up to date with all current policies and procedure regarding child safety and wellbeing.
The following document needs to be filled in following either a mandatory report made to DHHS, or a referral made to Child First (Orange Door).
Resources:
I am a professional educator who brings a range of skills and life experiences to enrich and contextualise student learning.
My personal values of integrity, accountability and determination shine through my interpretation of the Victorian curriculum, assessment and classroom management.
Building a rapport with students, encouraging them to strive to perform at their best and identifying the next steps for improvement are just some of the skills that I’ve demonstrated so far in the classroom.