Unit+of+Work+Overview

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= Koala: A Native Australian Animal Unit =

** Unit of Work Overview and Summary **



= Lesson 1: Introduction =

- In this lesson, students will be introduced to the unit 'Koala: An Australian Native Animal'. - This lesson will begin with the teacher finding out about the students background knowledge of Koalas - The teacher explains that at the end of the unit, students will be required to create a multimodal text about a living thing : Koala - The teacher explains that the multimodal text they will create is a 6 slide PowerPoint presentation on Koalas - Students will be engaged in a video clip that introduces the basic function and structure of Koalas - A word bank will be created based on this video clip e.g. habitat, appearance, fur - Students will be engaged in a modelled reading task with an information report on Koalas - Students will engage in a reciprocal reading task using this information report - The teacher will introduce the 5 main headings that this information is grouped under : habitat, appearance, movement, diet and reproduction -Students will work in groups to create a poster on one of these headings.

= Lesson 2: Written Grammar =

- Continuing from the previous lesson, as students had already looked at factual texts and had read an information article about Koalas, in this lesson student will learn how to construct an information report. - First students will be given an information report that has been cut into paragraphs and they need to link the pieces of paragraphs to headings which include: Appearance, Habitat, Diet, Movement & Reproduction. - This activity will lead students into reading the full version of this Information Report which has been constructed by a Stage 2 student. Students will analyse this written text by completing the worksheet on '//Exploring Information Reports//'. This text model will help develop students' understanding of the purpose, structure and the audience needed for such a written text. - The teacher would then show how an information report really looks like by using the '//Writing Fun//' website. This website helps students explore what an information report looks like with reference to the embedded example of 'Humpbacks'. The teacher can point out to the structure and key features using this 'living thing' as an example. - The teacher would then use the //Information Report on Spiders// (written by the Stage 2 student) and would do a joint deconstruction of this text by annotating the key schematic structure and the key grammatical features. - Students would then be given an information article about 'Red Kangaroos' and they would work in groups to do a deconstruction of that information report using the '//Writing Frame for an Information Report//' worksheet. -This lesson would equip students to the next phase of learning i.e. joint construction and independent construction of an information report text type.

= Lesson 3:Developing Student's Research Skills + Research =

- The teacher will begin the lesson by showing students the range of resources that they can use to find information on Koalas (e.g. information books, internet, video clips, CD- ROM, etc). - In this lesson, the teacher develops students' research skills and demonstrates to students how to locate important information whilst researching for an information (i.e. looking at index page, content page, bold headings, etc) and teacher will also work on the skills of note-taking and summarising (if necessary). - Students will be required to form into small groups of 3-4 - Each group will begin their research by using the resources to find the relevant information on Koalas according to the following headings: Appearance, Habitat, Diet, Movement and Reproduction - Students will take notes and record their information in their workbooks under the headings.

= Lesson 4: Research Lesson =

- This lesson will continue on from the previous research lesson. - Students will be required to use the resources provided by the teacher to find the relevant information on Koalas according to the following headings including diet and reproduction, also any visuals that support their writing. - Students will need to finish their research from the previous lesson if they have not finished

= Lesson 5: Joint and Independent Construction =

- The teacher will jointly construct an information report on Red Kangaroos using the framework from the written grammar lesson to give them a guiding structure. This is using the same template from the 'Writing Fun' website (Eather, 2004). This will prepare students for their independent construction to follow. - The students will work in their research groups to independently construct an information report on Koalas. This is using all the information they have gathered in the two research lessons. - Teacher reminds students about the purpose, structure and audience for the text they are constructing, students should refer to the 'Summary Table' of how an Information Report looks like from the previous written grammar lesson. -Students are given an Information Report checklist whilst they are writing their information Report and they should refer to this whilst writing as a guiding reference. = = = Lesson 6: Visual Grammar Lesson =

- In this lesson students will explore the use of structured analytical images in an information report and the features of a structured analytical image. - Students begin by looking at various images and discussing what type of text they would be appropriate for. - Teacher and students then explore the features of structured analytical images, before completing a barrier game activity where students describe to their partner how to label the image. - Students and teacher then work together to label an image of a Koala for use in their final PowerPoint presentation.

= Lesson 7: Multimodal Lesson =

- In this lesson students will be exposed to a range of texts, recognising the stark difference between multimodal texts and single mode texts - Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of what a multimodal text is and how the features within it (audio, visuals and written text) work together to enhance meaning - Students will be specifically focussing on a PowerPoint presentation as an example of a rich multimodal text - Students will recognise the importance of selecting an image and sound effect that matches the written text on each slide in a PowerPoint presentation (modal coherence) - Students and the teacher will jointly construct a PowerPoint slide that reflects modal coherence - Students will work in groups of 4 to create a single slide on Powerpoint incorporating their knowledge of multimodal texts and modal coherence

= Lesson 8: Scaffolding Lesson =

- In this lesson, students will revisit the knowledge they gained about multimodal texts in the previous lessons. They will be told how they are to use this knowledge to create a PowerPoint presentation about Koalas. They will be given a draft sheet and an instruction sheet to support them in doing this and they will work in pairs. They will create a multimodal powerpoint presentation that incorporates audio, pictures and text. - The students will use the information report they have written previously, either part of it or all, in their PowerPoint presentation. - Students will gather resources from the internet and other places to use in their PowerPoint presentation.

= Lesson 9: Creating a Multimodal Text =

- In this lesson, students will be working towards creating their group PowerPoint presentation on Koalas. - Students are provided with a Rubric to guide their making of their PowerPoint Presentation. - Students must use the draft scaffold sheet from lesson 8 to guide them. - Students must incorporate at least two or more modes of text on each slide e.g. written text, visual, audio etc.

= Lesson 10: Final Product of a Rich Multimodal Text =

- In this lesson, students will be working towards completing their final product. - Each group of students will present their work to the class. The students who are listening are required to provide constructive feedback after each group has presented. - All group works are compiled together to create a class CD-ROM of their Koala unit.