Unit+Overview

__Safe Living & Multimodal Texts: __ __Unit Overview and Summary __ This Stage 2 unit integrates content from the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) syllabus strand ‘Safe Living’ and a range of English syllabus outcomes, and facilitates students’ development of key skills that contribute to the creation of the following rich multimodal text:

Students are to work in small groups of five to create a rich multimodal text centred on content from the PDHPE Safe Living strand. Groups will be allocated an area of focus from the following: home safety; school and play safety; road safety; and water safety. With the respective areas of focus as a basis, students are to use a range of resources to create a diorama that depicts a scenario related to safe living. Students may convey a positive or negative scenario. A written procedure that outlines key steps to safe living in the context of the area of focus must accompany the diorama. Using both the diorama and aspects from the written procedure, students are to create a 30-60 second film for the purpose of educating the wider community about safe living in specific contexts.

With a range of English syllabus outcomes across the Talking and Listening, Reading and Writing strands addressed throughout the unit, a focus PDHPE outcome will direct teaching and learning: SLS2.13 Discusses how safe practices promote personal wellbeing. At a Stage 2 level, the Safe Living strand sees students interacting with the concepts of health promotion, safe personal practice, recognition of unsafe environments and ensuring the safety of others in variety of contexts (BOS, 2006, p. 43).

Below is an overview of the integrated unit, comprising of ten carefully sequenced lessons that work to ensure student success in creating the rich multimodal text.

(30 minutes) Students begin to explore the PDHPE content strand Safe Living. An open-ended, student-centred lesson, students are given the opportunity to acknowledge their prior learning, make connections between the content and their own lives, and begin to develop a specific vocabulary and work towards defining key terms. Core activities in this session include brainstorming, discussion and role-play.
 * Lesson One: PDHPE Content Focus **

(45 minutes) Continuing a focused examination of the PDHPE content strand Safe Living, this lesson works to specify what safe living looks like in a range of contexts. Specific content surrounding home safety, school and play safety, road safety and water safety should be explored with students. To facilitate learning in later lessons in the unit, this session should introduce collaborative group work to students and establish relevant guidelines. Key learning tasks in this session include small group research using a range of basic resources and ‘expert’ groupings where students inform other groups of their learning.
 * Lesson Two: PDHPE Content Focus **

(60 minutes) With a foundation of content built in earlier sessions, this lesson sees teaching and learning move towards a more integrated approach to learning, with key English outcomes (particularly Talking and Listening outcomes) included. Additionally, students form their groups for the rich multimodal text and are delegated an area of focus. Please see lesson plan for further detail.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Three: Addressing the Nature of the Outcome **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(60 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Addressing the written procedure aspect of the rich multimodal text, this lesson has a strong and explicit emphasis on written grammar. Focusing on the social purpose, structure, and grammar specific to the procedure genre, students refine their knowledge and skills and are given opportunities to conceptualise this text type in the context of their groups’ area of focus. Please see lesson plan for further detail.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Four: Written Grammar **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(60 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Shifting the focus from written to visual grammar, in this lesson students examine key visual literacy concepts including salience, vectors, colour, symbolism and others. Additionally, the roles of purpose, audience and context are addressed and students are able to examine these factors by viewing specific video examples. In their groups, students apply this knowledge to the diorama aspect of their rich multimodal texts. Please see lesson plan for further detail.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Five: Visual Grammar **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(60 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In this lesson, students are given tasks that introduce and strengthen the concept of multimodality and how the various written and visual factors work together to create a multimodal text. Whole class modelling and demonstration is paramount in this session, with students then applying their learning to their own group. Groups begin to conceptualise the film aspect of the text, with key roles within groups being delegated and annotated. Please see lesson plan for further detail.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Six: Multimodal Texts **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(60 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">With knowledge gained regarding all aspects of the multimodal text (written procedure, visual diorama, visual film), and basic group planning achieved, this lesson aims to explicitly scaffold one aspect – the diorama. As stated, groups have begun to conceptualise their knowledge of visual grammar in the context of their dioramas. This lesson builds on that work and sees students develop a storyboard outlining how aspects of the diorama will move and interact for the film to highlight safe living in their area of focus. This will require reference to their written procedure. Please see lesson plan for further detail.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Seven: Scaffolding a Specific Aspect of the Multimodal Text **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(60 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This lesson will serve to review key aspects of the rich multimodal text and allow time for student groups’ to finalise written procedures and storyboards, and create dioramas using a range of provided resources. Constant reference to work created in earlier lessons is key to the success of this lesson.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Eight: Consolidation of Procedure, Storyboard and Diorama **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(60 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In this session, a review of filming and editing skill using simple programs such as Jay-Cut will take place. Again, student groups’ will work fairly autonomously to refine the interaction between procedure, storyboarded diorama movement, and filming and editing. At the conclusion of this lesson, students should have a completed film and publish copy of their procedure.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson Nine: Filming and Editing Rich Multimodal Texts **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(30 minutes) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In the final lesson of this unit, students are to present their rich multimodal texts to the class and other guests. Each presentation will consist of a brief explanation of the groups’ area of focus, the showing of their diorama, the presentation of their procedure, and the showing of their film. Constructive feedback and questioning is essential to this lesson to explore the depth of student understanding of both PDHPE content and English content.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lesson 10: Presenting Rich Multimodal Texts **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Board of Studies, NSW. (2006). Personal development, health and physical education k-6 syllabus. Sydney: Author.