www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english |
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development |
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Voiceover: Another way of stimulating student’s existing knowledge is by showing them a picture, a model or a demonstration and asking them to interpret it. This can also stimulate what they know. They can say what the picture shows, imagine they were in the situation and say the questions that it might answer. In the next set of scenarios, Al (teacher) has students describing in sentences the pictorial information that accompanies the text they will read. Lillian has her students talking about the pictures for the Black Death. Effie, Yota and Michael ask their students to suggest the key questions they could ask about a key picture in the text. The set of questions can also act as hooks for picking up new ideas, as the students read.
Teacher: What’s a couple of things you can notice about that picture to begin with?
Student: There’s lots of tents, like they’re camping out near the gold.
Teacher: Excellent. Okay, so they’re camping out near the gold.
Student: People are trying to earn a living.
Teacher: Excellent. Well done.
Student: The men in the front of the picture are cradling and panning.
Student: They are mostly men, actually they are all men
Teacher: Excellent observation.
Teacher: Look at that image before we go any further. What can you see there? What’s it suggesting to you?
Student: The Grim Reaper.
Teacher: The Grim Reaper. What do we associate the Grim Reaper with?
Student: Death and sorrow
Teacher: Death and sorrow. He’s come to collect his souls. What else can we see though? Yes?
Student: We can see fire at the bottom.
Teacher: We’ve got flames; we have a very evil looking, sinister, black background. We have the Grim Reaper coming over the flames.
Teacher: Where do you think we are?
Student: Hell
Teacher: We’re in hell.
Teacher: Now, who can give me some questions, some ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ questions that we can ask about this picture?
Student: Who made it?
Teacher: Good, who can think of a ‘what’ question?
Student: What is it?
Teacher: What is it? Who can think of a ‘how’ question?
Student: How much was it?
Teacher: How much was it? Good one.
Teacher: Looking at this picture, first of all we need to work out what we can see, right? Okay, what can we see?
Student: It’s crowded and there’s a lot of pictures with knives and swords?
Teacher: Who usually carries knives and swords?
Student: The army or the gladiators.
Teacher: Okay. So if I had to write a question, if I was a teacher. If you were a teacher?
Student: What did they wear?
Teacher: Okay. Another question?
Student: What were some weapons they used?
Teacher: Yes. What are some of the weapons?
Student: Who are they fighting for?
Teacher: Okay.
Teacher: I’ve brought in today an article from The Age newspaper; ‘Our new solar system.’ When you look at the picture here of all the planets in our solar system, what would be a ‘what’ question..?
Student: What is the difference between the old solar system and the new solar system?
Teacher: What would be a ‘why’ question?
Student: Why is Pluto no longer one of the planets?
Teacher: Why is Pluto no longer one of the planets?
Student: That’s excellent.
Last updated: 01.08.08 |
(c) State of Victoria (DEECD), 2008 |