Developing communities of Speakers, Listeners, Readers and Writers

Today is the 4th session of my English Major and I'm loving it! I picked English as I was the least confident teaching this subject despite the fact that I passed the English language and literature Alevel's with flying colours. Since, I have developed a slight anxiety about correct spellings and grammar that have caused my confidence to drop- but that's another story.

The session focus today was 'Developing Communities of speakers, listeners, readers and writers' through visual literacy and the effect on children engagement. We released that today, films, images and advertising have very much become apart of our culture, especially on social media. This highlights the need for change within our pedagogy of literacy. Mallett (2005: 343) believes 'becoming literate is no longer a matter of just learning to read and write-but is also to do with interpreting and evaluating both static and moving images in different contexts.’ This opens doors for many reasons as change can also been seen in the way children read and take inference from literature. The umbrella of literature now containing images and videos. As an English Specialist this change excites me... The English program of study outlines ‘what should be taught, but does not provide guidance or instruction about how things should be taught’ (Waugh, 2014:9) therefore you are free to be as creative as possible when working towards National Curriculum aims. I would use this in class to captures children's interests- if the children love Frozen and your topic is poetry- why not ask them to write a poem focused on the stormy weather?

Following the teaching sequence demonstrated by Metcalfe et al (2013:11) teachers can integrate this culture of new literacies into the classroom and further children learning.

During the session we were introduced to a number of interesting videos, the first example being a trailer advertising the movie called, Mr Popper's Penguin.

We we've asked to focus on these five titles which I transferred into a high five model-

-The Frame, Camera angles and movement

-Sound and Music, Sounds affects, mood music

-Colour and Light, Dark or Light? Colour Patterns?

-Mise en Scene, Characters, Props and body language

-Sequence, Does the pace get faster or slower?

As a teacher of literacy I would use this in class to examine the different scenes and understand why the features persuade the audience to watch the film. For example, why did the camera focus on the character when he was praying? What affect did this have on the audience? What clues did this tell us as the audience about the movie?

You could also complete a character profile on Mr Popper.

We also looked at a different clip, please follow the link and watch but be **WARNED** this clip does contains creepy dolls! Therefore, you will need to trust your judgement if you were to show this to your class. Personally I would use this in upper KS2.

This stimuli presents many opportunities to discuss the features of the clip and how this creates a specific atmosphere.

Discussion points could be -

1. Why are there no words included in the clip?

2. How is tension created?

3. Can you comment on the use of colour ? Did you notice the characters clothing?

From this clip you can explore:

Character profiles, Newspaper reports on missing children, Write the ending to the story etc... Be as creative as you can!

Other examples of clips from the Literacy Shed website-

KS1- La Luna & Monster box

KS2- Lover of the light & Alma

References:

MALLET,M. 2010. Genre Fiction, ‘Popular Culture’ Texts and formats and media in Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11. Abingdon. Routledge.

WAUGH D., et al. 2014. Primary English for Trainee Teachers. London. Sage.

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