Critical Viewing of Film Texts

Students' Learning Experience

• Students receive explicit instruction in the different features and multimodal strategies found in film texts

• Students engage in group and class discussion about a range of film texts

• Students annotate film texts using an online annotation tool to demonstrate what they have learnt

• Students review each others' annotations to further enrich their interpretation and understanding of film texts

Design Tips for Teachers

• Familiarise students with the Systemic Approach using real-world examples to illustrate each element of the framework

• Use guiding questions to direct students' attention when viewing film texts, i.e. where to look and what to look for

• Encourage students to critically analyse film texts and share their interpretations via online annotation tools

• Provide scaffolds to help students reflect and build upon each others' interpretations to generate new meanings

I realised that so much more can be achieved when the Systemic Approach and a suitable ICT platform are used in class. They can facilitate the application of the students' learning by making their thinking visible to their teachers and peers. This allows students to build on one another's ideas, explore other viewpoints, and evaluate their peers' arguments. The feedback from teachers and peers enabled students to clarify the concepts that they have learnt and deepen their understanding of the learned material.

- Amy Luisita, Xinmin Secondary