-+Unit+Overview

Unit Overview __Unit Aim__: The aim of this unit is to teach students about different features of the Solar System and to then demonstrate this knowledge by constructing a multimodal text in the form of a video. Students will be encouraged to work through various activities that will build on their knowledge about the Solar System, before having the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the JayCut video application. Students will also have opportunities to engage with creating various types of factual and multimodal texts, with the aim of providing appropriate scaffolding for the independent construction of their video. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the final product and the learning they achieved during this Unit.


 * > **Lesson Number:** ||> **Lesson Overview: ** ||
 * > **Lesson 1 ** ||> This first lesson is to introduce students to the concept of Earth & Its Surroundings, by looking at the Solar System. Firstly, students will engage in a discussion to determine what they already know about the Earth and its place in the Solar system, leading the discussion into what students primarily know about the Solar System to gain prior knowledge. To highlight their thoughts and ideas, it will lead them into a paired activity, where students log onto the Learning Federation Website and click onto the ‘Space Traveller – The Wonders of Our Universe’ interactive learning object where students explore the universe through an interactive spaceship. Whilst they are exploring the solar system, they are to write down what they see as they will need it for a following lesson. ||
 * **Lesson 2 ** || This lesson aims to determine students understanding of grammatical features constituting a factual description. Students explore the social purpose, structure and the key grammatical features of a factual description using the book ‘The Solar System’ by Robin Kerrod. The introductory activity allows studentsto use their prior knowledge of fictional and factual texts to determine which text type they think their sentence or phrase may be from. Students then use similar thinking strategies to the introductory activity and analyse the text presented by considering its purpose and genre based on the characteristics. Students will then use the Interactive Whiteboard to select various features of the text type that are characteristic to the genre. They will discuss the purpose of using this particular grammatical feature within this text, for example the use of detailed noun groups to describe features, the use of different types of adjectives to form complex noun groups, and the use of relating verbs to define, describe and classify features of the solar system. In the concluding activity, students jointly construct a factual description with the class on the solar system using the proforma from the writingfun website. ||
 * **Lesson 3 ** || This lesson further explores the solar system by introducing a video explaining what the Solar System is. Students will draw on their knowledge from the previous lesson and discuss their ideas from their experience with the online learning object from the Learning Federation Website. Teacher introduces the text type of factual descriptions once again (as they only have touched on this text type previously) In pairs, students are asked create a draft factual description about a particular planet which the teacher will assign to them. Teacher will provide extra scaffolding by providing information worksheets highlighting the features and characteristics of each planet to further expand students factual descriptions. To conclude, each pair will present their factual description to their classmates, according to their planets position from the Sun. In return, teacher will allow students to provide feedback, so as to improve their factual descriptions prior to their professional copy. ||
 * **Lesson 4 ** ||> This Lesson seeks to introduce students to the visual grammar behind images. Students gauge in annotating a poster of the solar system, paying particular attention to representational, compositional, and interactive meanings. Following on from this, students are required to draw comparisons to the visual grammar present in the image as a whole, with the visual grammar in part of the image. Students are presented with questions such as ‘Has our reading path now changed?’ and, ‘What part of the image now grabs our attention the most?’ Students engage in substantive conversations in order to recognise the need for conceptual images to complement their factual descriptions created in the lesson prior. This sets the foundation for helping students understand the language behind images, which supports them in developing the necessary skills to select appropriate images for their multimodal text. ||
 * > **Lesson 5 ** || This lesson aims on bringing together the knowledge of written and visual grammar to help students understand that when these two Literacies are brought together a comprehensive understanding as to how multimodal text work can be further enhanced. This lesson revises the students’ prior knowledge by using the same resources that are explored in lessons 3 and 4 on the Solar System. Students are also expected to have a clear understanding as to how to create a short non-digital multimodal text using the features that they deconstructed in the lesson. From this students are to have the confidence to explain aspects that they explored in creating a short non-digital multimodal text on the Solar system; and how these features worked together to create a successful multimodal text. ||
 * > **Lesson 6 ** || This lesson aims to introduce students to the JayCut application, which they will be using to create their own multimodal texts. Students will jointly construct a video with the teacher, with the focus being on locating appropriate visual representations that could be used in the video. Students will draw on knowledge gained from previous lessons and work in groups to choose images that could be used in the video before discussing within their groups the rationale for using each image. Students will come back together as a whole group and dicuss their images and ideas with the teacher and together, come to a conclusion about which images to use. Using these images, the teacher will then apply them to JayCut, showing students the procedure to do so. The teacher will call on students during this time to participate in this construction to ensure that students will be able to use the application independently once they are to construct their own multimodal texts. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 125%;">Lesson 7 ** || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This lesson will build on students' knowledge about constructing their own multimodal texts, with a focus on the written component. Using the jointly constructed video from the previous lesson, the teacher will assign images to groups of students and students are to write a short factual description about their assigned image. Once this has been completed, groups will be given an opportunity to share their factual descriptions with the rest of the class and during this time, the teacher will encourage other students to provide feedback about each group's factual description. The teacher will then demonstrate to students how this written component can be applied to the video either through voice or text. During this time, the teacher is to choose students to apply their written compnonent to the video and scaffold them through this procedure. Students will view the completed short video and provide feedback which could be applied when creating their own multimodal texts. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 125%;">Lesson 8 ** || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This lesson’s aim is to allow students to further scaffold and perfect their plans for creating their multimodal text. Using the feedback from the previous lesson, students are to first improve their existing scaffold for their multimodal text. Students will further build their knowledge and start to think about how they are to create it. Research into where they will find the appropriate resources in creating their multimodal text is to be completed at this stage and saved for further use and implementation in the following lesson where the execution of these resources is completed. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 125%;">Lesson 9 ** || <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Students in this lesson will draw on knowledge and understanding learnt from previous lessons to make their multimodal texts using the JayCut application. Students have been shown the procedure of uploading images in lesson 6 and in lesson 7 they have been shown the procedure of applying the written component on their video. Therefore, in this lesson students will be able to use the JayCut application independently to construct their own multimodal texts. For greater ease, the steps to uploading images and the written component will be written on the whiteboard for students to refer to when in need. The teacher will provide assistance to those that need help with the JayCut application and will give each student constructive feedback on their video. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 125%;">Lesson 10 ** || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This Lesson brings together the key knowledge learnt in the entire unit, focusing on reflection of learning. Late finishers are given an opportunity to complete their videos, followed by a sharing of the multimodal texts created. During the sharing of videos, students are given time to respond and comment on each other’s works. Students are encouraged to think about the key concepts learnt in the entire unit, such as the verbal grammar and visual grammar evident in the videos they view. Concluding the lesson, students self assess their own videos, by writing feedback concerning strengths, and also identifying any areas in need of improvement. ||