Viewing Curriculum

I bought Texts on TV (a SA Govt publication) and Teaching viewing and visual texts by Quin, McMahon and Quin from the Curriculum Corporation, both excellent Teacher Resources.

  Tape programs to suit the topic and purpose - anything from Power Rangers to advertisements, Malcolm in the middle to the 6 o'clock news.

  DVDs have the added benefit of often including documentary of how the movie
  was made, of how special effects are done, etc.

  As one year level has an integrated unit focussing on marine life, Nemo was a suitable resource and extensive notes can be downloaded from the WWW. Spirited Away serves a similar purpose in another year level with teaching guide downloaded from (I think) ATOM.  The Dreaming (the short legends
seen on ABC) are now on DVD with comprehensive notes.

  One old resource which some may have in their collections is a British program called Genre -the series was called Middle English. The story of
Red Riding Hood is told by Roger McGough in four parts.  In each part the TV genre changes - from soap to comedy to reality TV to horror story.
  Excellent for showing the different conventions of each genre - camera angles, background music, canned laughter, and so on.  It is available from the Education Qld  Video Library.


  I've also been collecting pictures old and new.  Interesting photos of groups of people and - old and new.  I had an old set of pictures that went  with an ABC program "Changes" with old sepia pictures.  The Rigby Stimulus pictures from English and Maths found in a storeroom and not used for
yonks were another source of useful pictures.

  Check cartoon sites on the WWW for suitable cartoons and comic strips to print out.