PROJECT: TASK DESIGN

ALEXSANDRA MERRITT

THE CURRICULUM DESIGN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

For this unit we are exploring how authors and illustrators captivate their audience through language,
colour and various techniques within their texts. We will explore these ideas in our Year 4 class, while
sharing these ideas to each other through our own experiences, and how each text shows how they
respond to bullying.

Our group has worked collaboratively by each choosing a different type of text, each with different
modalities. With our mentor text beginning as a picture book, and our inter texts varying between
poetry and song, and visual modality that compliments the themes of the texts. Each member of the
group discussed prior to choosing our inter texts on what kinds of modality could be explored, I
decided to choose a song, which was originally a song from Pink. However, after reading the lyrics and
watching the content of the video, I decided it was not age appropriate and decided that Fighter, by
Christina Aguilera was best suited in relation to the mentor text and appropriate to a Year 4 class. We
all collaborated effectively together in deciding our mentor text, while deciding our own inter texts
and what activities that best associate with each text. Though we decided our own tasks, we helped
each other make improvements.

From our feedback we will include an inquiry question to help us and our students maintain a focus
on our aim of this unit. This inquiry question is: “How can stories, poems and songs teach us how to
respond to bullying through the use of characters, plot, point of view, and visual and written language?”

CURRICULUM OVERVIEW AND RATIONALE

We will first begin with the mentor text, Mad Magpie by Greg Dreise, to introduce this unit. Students
will be exploring the themes of this text by predicting what will happen in the text, discussing the
theme of the text, and discussing how the written language compliments the visual language.

The first inter text is centred around the poem, Bullying Hurts by Sarah McArdle, it entails discussing
the language features that are presented in the text, and how they emphasise meaning and the
message of the poem. The students will then attempt to write a poem of their own, it does not need
to be in the same format as the inter text, it may be in a form of a haiku, for example.

The second inter text is Christina Aguilera’s song, Fighter. Students are to firstly discuss how the author
uses visual techniques and colour to emphasise the message of her song. Students are then to
experiment the different uses of colour and how they can change the context of a scenario. I am
responsible for the development of this task.

The final task is based around the inter text, Mixed Me by Taye Diggs. Students are to discuss and
analyse the written and visual language used by the author, and how the visual language compliments
with the written language. Students are then to find positivity within themselves and each other, like
how the text finds positivity within the main character.
We decided to structure our tasks this way as they each flowed into the next task, while still connecting
to the mentor text. It also allows students to understand the different responses to bullying, with the
final task leaving a positive impact to the students. This structure slowly builds students’
understanding of how these multimodal texts educate how to respond to bullying from visual
language, plot, perspective and written language.

THE TEXTS

Mad Magpie, by Greg Dreise, is a book about overcoming bullying by not fighting back, but drowning
out the taunting with something that you enjoy. This text uses imagery to emphasise the meaning of
the story with bright colours to captivate the audience, while covering the topic of bullying. Students
will be able to understand, through this text, coping strategies, and the negative impact that bullying
can have on an individual.

The first inter text Bullying Hurts, by Sarah McArdle is a poem that gives insight from a perspective of
someone who is a victim of bullying. This text uses a range of written language techniques to focus on
the themes of bullying. As this text is written from the perspective of a primary school student, it
becomes a relatable text to our Year 4 class.

The second inter text, Fighter, by Christina Aguilera is a song about not allowing other people to get
you down, and using a negative experience such as bullying to make you “stronger” and “smarter”,
and Aguilera thanks her bullies for making her a “fighter”, and sings how she does not let resentment
hold her back or consume her. The video clip begins with dark colours and lighting, and uses black
clothing to represent the hurting and negativity of the victim. This is further emphasised with Aguilera
being trapped within a glass cabinet, which gives a sense of confinement of the victim. This
complimented with the lyrics “After all the stealing and cheating you probably think that I hold
resentment for you” as it shows the audience the potential of holding resentment can leave a sense
of being trapped in a cage. This changes as the chorus begins where Aguilera breaks the glass and
frees herself, the visual and written language perform a symbiosis for a heavier impact. As the lyrics
change after the second chorus, Aguilera’s outfit changes from black to white, this symbolises being
born again and being free from confinement and the negativity from the darker colour scheme

The final inter text, Mixed Me, explores the positive view on being different and accepting a person’s
own individuality and uniqueness. The main character embraces his own identity with a positive
attitude without letting others get him down, rather than letting a negative experience impact on him.
His own narration brings a sense of relation to the text’s audience as they read his words in their own
voice.

THE TASK

The task begins with the teacher showing the video clip of Fighter to the class without the sound. After
the clip is finished students are to discuss in their groups what they think the video is about. The
teacher will write prompting questions for the students to start the discussion. These questions
include:

 What do you think the video is about?

 What happened in the video that makes you think that way?
  What kinds of colours and tones are used?

Once the discussion is over, the video clip will be played again, however the sound will be turned on
for the students to hear the lyrics. Further prompting questions will be presented to the class:

 What was the video about?

 How do you know this?
 What were the key words/lyrics that makes you think this way?
 How did the colours and tones emphasise the meaning of this song?

Students will discuss in their groups and collaborate for their answers to discuss with the rest of the
class.

This will then follow on with an activity using colour schemes and identity. Students are to draw or
paint a scene that is based on a life event, it does not need to be entirely true. Students are to
draw/paint the same scene twice, however, each scene is painted with a completely different colour
scheme. With the students understanding of colour and how it impacts the context, students are then
to write about each scene.

An example of this could be a painting of a birthday party with bright colours, with the caption saying
“Jan is having a birthday party, happy birthday Jan!” The other scene could have darker colours, or be
painted in grayscale, with the caption saying “Jan has a birthday party today, but no one came. Poor
Jan.”

Students then discuss to their peers about their scenes and whether they are happy, angry, sad, etc.
They will also discuss what makes these scenes give the mood that they intended it to make, and what
colours emphasise this.

This text is used in consistency with the learning aims as the first activity explores how colour, visual
and written language techniques captivate their audiences and help the audience understand the
meaning of the text. The first activity also explores the theme of bullying and understanding how the
author of the song responded in their own way. The second activity in this task is more centred on
how visual techniques can change the context and emphasise the message behind a text.

This text and task focuses on the literacy and literature strands of the Year 4 English curriculum,
specifically ACELY1687, ACELY1690 and ACELY1692 (see appendices) where the first activity
emphasises on analysing the text and understand meaning after watching the video in different ways.
Whereas the second activity focuses on ACELY1694 and ACELT1605 as it uses that understood
meaning of visual techniques, and applying them into their own imaginative text.

I will support each learning stage by giving students some prompting questions to start the discussion,
and record these questions on the board or on an A3 sheet of paper. Students responses will be
written at the front as part of a concept map for them to reference as they watch the video a second
time, and keeping those responses in mind as they discuss with their peers in the second round. For
the second part of the task I will show examples of what I would like achieved by the end of the lesson,
and explain to the class how exactly colour can change mood of a story, or a single scene.
I will use a projector or smartboard to show the students the video, an alternative to this is the use of
school laptops or iPads, therefore the students may watch the video in their own time. Students will
need to record their responses in either their workbooks, or on a large A3 sheet. For the art activity,
students will need access to a wet area, art smocks, acrylic paints, soft pastels or other art mediums
to complete their task.

For the sake of diverse learning needs, I will have group tables in the classroom layout. This will cater
for students with needs such as dyslexia and English as an additional language (EALD), for example; a
student with moderate dyslexia will be able to watch the video clip and observe and understand the
use of colour and visual language, and contribute to class discussion without the need to write their
responses. If students were to work in their table groups with an A3 paper sheet, then students with
dyslexia and EALD will be able to verbally contribute to the discussion, while another student in their
group will scribe the responses. Cohen (1994 pp. 13) questions whether group seating is beneficial to
students, presenting that although it may produce discourse within the classroom, it also promotes a
more necessary elaborated discussion in tasks. Another method to consider is using multiliteracies
through the use of laptops and iPads in the classroom, if a student with EALD or dyslexia would be
more comfortable to type their own responses, with the aid of spellcheck, than to write their answers,
then that is a method to consider in the classroom. Whithear (2009 pp. 39) states that the use of
muliliteracies help engage students to improve literacy skills within the secondary school curriculum,
and that academic literacy can lead to disengagement during classroom tasks.

I will know that the learning needs of my students have been met if they contribute to the classroom
discussions in the tasks, specifically once the students discuss about the visual techniques and how
they understand that the colour and tone of the video compliments with the lyrics of the song, also
discussing the context of the video and understanding what the message of the song is about. If
students are able to successfully create two scenes with contrasting contexts using colour and tones
and able to explain it to their peers or a teacher, then I will know that my students understand how
to portray a message using colour.

REFERENCES

Aguilera, C 2002, Fighter, published online, 17th November 2009 ,

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PstrAfoMKlc>.

Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2017. Student Diversity: Students with Disability v8.3. [online] Available
at: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/students-with-disability/
[Accessed 26 October. 2017].

Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2017. English: General Capabilities, Personal and Social Capability v8.3
[online] Available at: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-
capabilities/personal-and-social-capability/ [Accessed 26 October. 2017]

Cohen, E., 2016, Restructuring the Classroom: Conditions for Productive Small Groups, Volume 64,
Issue 1, published online at:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543064001001#articleCitationDownloadContai
ner first published on June 30th, 2016, Review of Educational Research, pp. 1 – 35

Dreise, G 2016, Mad Magpie, Magabala Books, Broome, Western Australia, Australia
Whithear, J. (2009). Slipping through the cracks: Why too many adolescents still struggle to read.
Literacy Learning: the Middle Years, 17(2), 30-45.

APPENDICES

FIGHTER – CHRISTINA AGUILERA (LYRICS)

Well I thought I knew you, thinkin' that you were true

Guess I, I couldn't trust called your bluff time is up
'Cause I've had enough
You were there by my side, always down for the ride
But your joy ride just came down in flames cause your greed sold me out in shame

After all of the stealing and cheating you probably think that
I hold resentment for you
But uh uh, oh no, you're wrong
'Cause if it wasn't for all that you tried to do, I wouldn't know
Just how capable I am to pull through
So I want to say thank you
Cause it

'Cause it makes me that much stronger

Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Never saw it coming, all of your backstabbing

Just so you could cash in on a good thing before I'd realize your game
I heard you're goin' round playin', the victim now
But don't even begin feeling I'm the one to blame
'Cause you dug your own grave
After all of the fights and the lies cause you're wanting to haunt me
But that won't work anymore, no more,
It's over
'Cause if it wasn't for all of your torture
I wouldn't know how to be this way now and never back down
So I want to say thank you
Cause it

'Cause it makes me that much stronger

Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter
How could this man I thought I knew
Turn out to be unjust so cruel
Could only see the good in you
Pretended not to know the truth
You tried to hide your lies, disguise yourself
Through living in denial
But in the end you'll see
You won't stop me

I am a fighter and I
I ain't goin' stop
There is no turning back
I've had enough

'Cause it makes me that much stronger

Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

You thought I would forget,

But I remember
'Cause I remember
I remember
You thought I would forget,
But I remember
'Cause I remember
I remember

'Cause it makes me that much stronger

Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter
FIGHTER – IMAGES
ACARA LINKS

Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks
and use information to share and extend ideas and information (ACELY1687)

Identify characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the
purpose of the text (ACELY1690)

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge,
integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and
supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text
structures and language features (ACELY1694)
Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers’
interest by using various techniques, for example character development and plot tension
(ACELT1605)