Stage 4 Outcomes and content

Teaching and learning strategies

Outcome 1: A student responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis and pleasure.

Students learn to:
1.4 manipulate, combine and challenge different text types in order to compose new texts that address specific purposes, audiences and contexts

Students learn about:
1.11 The ideas, information, perspectives and points of view presented in imaginative, factual and critical texts.

Additional activity: 1.19: types of humour and how humour is expressed in texts:

Students write and perform a television skit. A possible task is a short piece which mimics the style of humour employed by Saskia in her monologues to the camera.

Additional activity: 1.7 respond to and compose texts beyond the literal level:

Create a 2D or 3D avatar. Students could use  Internet resources or art media such as clay, wire, montage, origami, etc

Additional activity: 1.2 respond to and compose texts intended to inform, persuade and entertain, including humorous texts:

Using the ABC web site of the series, students create a comic strip.

Introduce the rap and outline expectations. Read selected sections such as Rap lingo. Students discuss the purpose of rap lingo and practise using it.

Students are shown the rap web site

In discussing the purpose and conventions of a rap, teachers could also refer to Book rap FAQs and examples of email messages in the Archives of email discussion from previous raps.

Discuss the process of registering to a listserv.

Students will identify the ways purpose, audience and context affect their writing for their rap messages.

Students will gain an understanding of how technology is used to tell the story. The episodes combine live action with animation and visual effects to create a contemporary comedy drama.

Students and teacher begin adding words and phrases to the Literacy display. Students use these words to aid semantic and phonetic understanding. They can refer to the display to check spelling of words in their compositions.

Create a class wall map using a Rap map template or other resource

Outcome 3: A student responds to and composes texts in different technologies

Students learn to: 3.1 use the features of information and communication technologies to compose a range of imaginative, critical and factual texts for television, the internet, radio, email and text messaging.

3.4 respond to interactive and simulation texts in print form and on computer to plan, design and investigate a situation.

Students learn about: 3.6 the ways different modes work together to shape meaning in multimedia texts such as film, CD-ROM, websites and television.

3.9 the forms, features and structures of interactive and simulation texts, multimedia texts and websites, including layout and design, and the nature and capacity for interaction.

3.11 etiquette and ethical behaviour associated with email and Internet use.

Explain the conventions of email. Discuss purpose and conventions for introductory rap messages. Examples of introductory messages from previous raps in Archives of email discussion from previous raps could be referred to.

Facilitate a brainstorm, a deconstruction, and joint construction of a group or class introductory message for the rap. Discuss how you will manage email messages (see Book rap FAQs).

Students receive and read emails for the rap points and discuss and compare information in them.

Following discussion of each task, the group jointly composes a response to the rap point. Groups nominate a recorder, using a different student for each rap point. The rap representative word processes the response, edits, saves to disk, and sends it to the rap, once the teacher has approved the final message.

The Constructing a joint response guide could assist email composition.

Consider using networked word processors in lieu of the blackboard or overhead projector to record the growing response. You may wish to use Inspiration software.

Web activity

This Web activity is similar to a WebQuest in that it involves a student team seeking information to answer an open ended question. The team looks at given sites and produces a technology enhanced product. For Rap point 3, the product is a graphically depicted space and a written point of view on what makes a space special.

For the Web activity, an extensive list of sites is provided. Students should be encouraged to browse widely before they narrow their research to a few of those sites. Students may appreciate having a number to aim for; 4/5 sites would give them enough information to complete the task. Sites vary in complexity and some groups may appreciate direction to the simpler or more indepth resources. Some sites have similar information, e.g. the paint colour sites, and the list provides students with alternatives if one site is inoperative.

Rap point 3: Web activity task.

To email students’ image from the Noah and Saskia web site:

• create the room
• press Alt and Print screen on the keyboard to select the image (nothing will seem to happen when you do this)
• open a new Word document
• paste [Ctrl V] the image in to the Word doc
• save the image as ‘ Webactivityimage with your group name’ (e.g. Webactivityimagesmith1)
• email to Carol Thomas so that it may be posted to the Gallery of images.

Student designs may also be projected within the classroom using PowerPoint, or colour photocopied for classroom display.

Outcome 4: A student uses and describes language forms and features, and structures of texts appropriate to different purposes, audiences and contexts.

Students learn to:
4.1 identify and describe the purpose, audience and context of texts.

4.2 create and ensure coherence of medium, form and content through specific language conventions and vocabulary appropriate to particular subject matter or contexts.

Teacher reviews student understanding of filmic techniques and filmic elements.

Viewing the series trailer on the Noah & Saskia DVD may be useful for students to practise identifying filmic techniques and elements.

Students learn and practise using some of the language of film grammar and visual techniques. This will help them to critically talk about, analyse and appreciate the episodes of Noah & Saskia.

 Additions to and ongoing reference to the classroom literacy display will help students develop media literacy and confidence and accuracy in using the language of film.

Web sites of filmic terms are listed in Resources.

You could also visit An introduction to the grammar of visual design which will assist the explicit teaching of the elements of visual design.

Rap point 1

In completing Rap point 1, students could be asked to think about writing:

• this technique interests us because…….
• this filmic element allows us to visualise/understand/imagine………
• the film makers have used this filmic technique to…..
• we have also seen this filmic element used in …….

Encourage students to be thoughtful and creative with their observations and questions in this task.

Encourage them to make their questions as long as they like, and to ask about things they really would like to know.

Students’ questions could ask about the idea behind the technique or element, or perhaps they would like to understand the technical process used to create it.

The document Filmic techniques and elements: teacher’s version may help you to assist students complete this task.

Lee Burton is a film and media expert, this is an excellent chance for students to learn something interesting about how films are constructed.

NB discussions of filmic techniques and filmic elements will depend on existing class knowledge and how far the teacher is willing to go. There is much jargon and specialised knowledge associated with this learning. These rap materials aim to help Stage 4 students gain a general understanding of film construction and interpretation. Techniques and elements worksheets have been written to reflect this particular resource and time available, e.g. low angle shots are traditionally used to show a person in a position of power – low shots in Noah & Saskia are not used for this so they have been left out to avoid confusing students.

Outcome 5: A student makes informed language choices to shape meaning with accuracy, clarity and coherence.

Students learn to:
5.1 express considered points of view in speech or writing, accurately and coherently and with confidence and fluency in rehearsed, unrehearsed and impromptu situations

5.5 pose and clarify problems and issues to be explored and solved through language.

Students learn about:
5.7 the reasons specific language forms and features, and structures of texts are commonly used for particular purposes, audiences and contexts.

5.13 the cleverness and joy of invention.

Additional activity:
5.4 compose personal texts in literary forms such as narrative, poetry, speeches and scripts:

‘I don’t lie; I imagine.’ ( Saskia, episode 1)

Students write a narrative, poem, speech, or script, celebrating the wonder and power of the human imagination.

Emails tend to use informal language and an informal structure. Semi formality is the preferred standard for email messages in this unit. Students are not emailing friends, they are emailing work in an education context. A friendly tone and style, within a broader requirement of email etiquette and coherency, should be the aim for student messages.

An effective proof reading strategy is for a student to read the group email aloud to the group, before the teacher views it.

Before each rap point is emailed, teachers may wish to revise email conventions. The purpose of the emails is to for students to clarify what they have learnt and what they wish to know.

Outcome 6: A student draws on experience, information and ideas to imaginatively and interpretively respond to and compose texts.

Students learn to:
6.3 explore real and imagined (including virtual) worlds through close and wide engagement with texts.

6.4 use the features and structures of imaginative texts to compose their own texts and engage their audience.

Students learn about:
6.8 the ways ‘the real world’ is represented in the imaginary worlds of texts including literature, film, media and multimedia texts.

6.11 verbal, aural and visual techniques used to create imaginative texts, such as imagery, figures of speech, selective choice of vocabulary, rhythm, sound effects, colour and design.

Additional activity:  6.1 Students learn to compose coherent, imaginative texts that use and explore students’ own experiences, thoughts and feelings and their imaginings:

‘What’s important is the stuff that’s inside you. What’s on the outside is what you show the world to throw them off the scent.’ (Noah, episode 1)

Students create a visual representation of themselves, or one of the characters, which graphically supports Noah’s statement.

and/or

Group work: students form a tableau which represents the relationship between Noah and Saskia. This could be at any part of the narrative. Students can freely exaggerate situations and emotions in interpreting an idea.  

Noah and Saskia were created to echo the angst and insecurities of 13/14 year olds. Both characters fantasise about life and their lives.

‘Who do you want to be?’ and ‘We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are’ and ‘Sometimes, by being someone else, you find out who you really are’ and ‘Show me that you know me, that you see me, that you see who I want to be’, are quotations from the series and its marketing that could stimulate discussion.

Students could discuss their Internet use and practices, including their understanding of terms on the classroom literacy display, and such things as chatrooms, interactive web sites, and cyber space.

For the Web activity in Rap point 3, students should be encouraged to be as imaginative as they like, bearing in mind that wildly imaginative texts fail if they are incomprehensible to an audience.

Outcome 7: A student thinks critically and interpretively about information, ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts.

Students learn to:
7.1 locate, assess, select, synthesise and use information, ideas and arguments from texts

7.7 summarise, define, gather evidence, deduce, argue and debate

7.10 adopt and present a point of view supported with evidence

Additional activity: 7.15 ways of organising information, ideas and arguments textually or visually such as clustering, listing, compare and contrast, problem–solution, semantic chains, graphic and diagram outlines, structured overviews, consequence maps, thinking wheels and mindmaps:

Students create a mindmap to reflect on what they have learnt during the unit. If students have an understanding of mind maps, they can create them at any stage of the unit e.g. to summarise what they have learnt; to show connections between the text and their understanding.

To guide students’ interpretive and critical skills, teachers could ask:

• Is an online discussion a real discussion?
• Is it an honest discussion?
• Could this be a real story?

When posing questions to Lee Burton, our guest from the ACTF, students should aim for the considered point of view expressed in accurate and coherent language.

Reinforce that this is a real-world task. Students may have previously composed letters for artificial audiences, e.g. imagine you are Alison Ashley writing to your mother. This is a different type of task, it is a real letter to a real person about real questions, and they should make the most of that learning opportunity.

Ask students to imagine what it would be like to receive their question: is it clear, is it thoughtful, is it worthy of response?

Outcome 9: A student demonstrates understanding that texts express views of their broadening world and their relationships within it.

Students learn to:
9.1 recognise, reflect on and explain the connections between their own experiences and the world of texts.

9.3 explain and justify personal empathy, sympathy and antipathy towards characters, situations and concerns depicted in texts.

Students learn about:
9.11 film and media techniques used in representing people, places and events.

This is possibly the most difficult set of outcomes for the rap. Students need to be confident and articulate to express an understanding of this nature, whatever the task. Small group discussion and open ended teacher questions may help.

Examples:

• Noah & Saskia presents different opinions of online relationships – what’s your point of view?
• Are these characters likeable, and how have you judged them?
• How are the film’s techniques used to represent people in the film?

Students could also discuss the role of the parents and the role of the two best friends in the series, in terms of their own experiences.

Rap point 2

Students should choose what the group feels are the most important things to say about these two characters. One way to construct the group’s email response is for them to choose their strongest points and use them to form the topic sentences of paragraphs. They then explain that point with reference to the episodes.

Students’ impressions and point of view will be influenced by the way the film makers have used the filmic techniques and filmic elements that they studied in Rap point 1. Referring to the techniques and elements is how they can prove their point of view.

For example: Noah lives in a world of dreams. We can see this when he imagines talking to Saskia within his comic strip, not in the real world. Saskia prefers to live in the real world. When she talks to Noah she imagines him walking down her street or sitting in her bedroom.

Outcome 11: A student uses, reflects on, assesses individual and collaborative skills for learning.

Students learn to:
11.8 generate, document, clarify, organise and present ideas and information.

11.9 perform an allocated role responsibly in a group and assess the success of collaborative processes.

Students learn about:
11.15 roles and responsibilities of individuals in groups

11.19 management strategies including drawing up a schedule, monitoring progress, meeting deadlines and following marking criteria grids.

Facilitate student access to rap email messages, in print or electronic form, so they can read, discuss and record the responses of other rappers and Lee Burton, to add and compare messages.

Reflections and discussion could include similarities and differences in responses, points the class had not previously considered, and differing interpretations.

Discuss what students have learned in relation to Outcomes. Students complete the Rap reflection sheet to support this activity.

Students construct a class response to the Rap wrap up. The Constructing a joint response guide could assist with this activity.

The class response is word processed and posted to the listerv when the teacher has approved the final text.