Viewing and Representing Support Document
Viewing and Representing Support Document
Representing
Purpose
The purpose of this material is to provide additional information related to the viewing and representing
strands of the renewed English language arts curricula.
Viewing
Print text does not stand alone but interacts with images, sound, graphics, animations, and design features
to create “textual” meaning. Text is now used to refer broadly to a range of cultural artifacts — lists, songs,
buildings, posters, rituals, paintings, even the routine and practices of the classroom itself — that can be “read”
(interpreted) (Seixas, 2001). Even print texts have changed, no longer relying solely on the printed words.
“Dedication to print decoding practice will not develop the skills and strategies needed to “read” images,
graphics, and hyperlinks” (Doherty, 2002).
“Reading”/viewing requires students to construct meaning by interpreting the parts (images, symbols,
conventions, context) that are related to the visual message and to understand not only “what” the text is
saying but “how” the text works. Effective viewers must ask themselves:
• What is the visual text representing?
• How was this visual text constructed?
• What assumptions, interests, beliefs, biases, and values are portrayed by the visual text?
• What assumptions, interests, beliefs, biases, values can be inferred about the author from this visual
text?
• What is the purpose of the text?
• To whom is the text directed? Who does the text exclude?
• What is my reaction to this visual text? What causes this reaction?
• What personal connections and associations can I make with this text?
• What use is made of language, image, and/or symbol? Is it effective? Why?
Viewing helps students develop the knowledge and skills to analyze and evaluate visual texts and multimedia
texts that use visuals. Viewing helps students acquire information and appreciate ideas and experiences
visually conveyed by others. Students need to view widely and critically a range of visual forms including video,
film, television, three-dimensional models, dance, graphics, drama, photographs, gestures, and movements. As
demonstrated by these examples, some visual forms may also include oral, print, and/or other media texts.
Guidelines
The following guidelines are intended to support students in understanding a range of visual texts.
1. Understanding the viewing process is as important as understanding the listening and reading process.
Students should understand that effective, strategic viewers engage in the following procedure:
a. Pre-viewing: Students prepare to view by activating prior knowledge, anticipating a message, asking
questions, setting a purpose for viewing, and other pre-viewing activities.
b. During Viewing: Students view the visual text to understand the message by attending, seeking and
checking understanding by making connections, making and confirming predictions and inferences,
interpreting and summarizing, pausing and reviewing, and analyzing and evaluating. Students should
monitor their understanding by connecting to prior knowledge and experiences, questioning, and
reflecting.
c. After Viewing or Responding: Students should be given opportunities to respond personally, critically,
and creatively to visual texts. Students respond by reflecting, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating,
creating, and other responding activities.
A visual text can invite different responses. Some questions to promote personal, critical, and creative
responses are provided below.
Personal Response
• What is my initial reaction to this text?
• Why did I respond this way?
• What feelings, connections, and associations did this text evoke?
• What stands out after viewing this text?
• Do I agree or disagree with what I have seen? Why?
• What have I learned from this text?
Critical Response
• Who is communicating what message for what purpose?
• For whom is this message intended?
• Who owns or supports this mode of transmission and what impact does such ownership have on its
content?
• What is the surface text (subject and what is being shown about that subject) and subtext (underlying
assumptions, messages, and values)?
• From whose perspective is the message presented?
• What communities or viewpoints are presented in the text and what communities or viewpoints are
absent?
• What elements are used to get and hold the viewer’s attention?
• What were the outstanding parts of this visual text? What were the weak parts?
• How was this visual text constructed?
• What are the noteworthy technical aspects of this visual text (e.g., camera shorts or angles, layout, setting,
lighting, special effects, size, shape, spacing, etc.)?
• What use is made of colour, shadow, and images such as symbols, photographs, and three-dimensional
objects? Is it effective?
Creative Response
• How could I build on and extend this text?
• How could I create a similar text?
Viewing and Representing • 4
b. Model and give students strategies for viewing to use their imaginations or to take an aesthetic stance.
• Proficient viewers usually assume an aesthetic stance when they view for pleasure. They:
• enter in – building a mental picture and figuring out what the presentation is about
• move through – considering the visual text and their own experiences as they construct meaning
• examine what is known – using developing ideas to rethink what they have learned from the
visual text
• take a critical stance – moving away from personal involvement to consider deeper meanings and
connections between the visual text, and social and cultural issues (Langer, 1998, pp. 16-23).
As students view a visual text or a multimedia text that includes visuals, students should ask questions
such as the following:
• How does what I am seeing make me feel?
• Where and when does this take place? How do things look?
• How might things sound, taste, feel, and smell? How is this similar to what I know or have
experienced?
• Do I identify with any of the characters or the situation or the point of view? What would I do if I
were in there and experiencing these events or this experience?
• Does what I am seeing involve a conflict? If so, what is it? How might it be resolved?
• Does what I am seeing involve humour? If so, what makes it humorous?
• What are the main images, ideas, symbols, or themes found in this visual presentation?
• If the presentation is multimedia, what can be learned from this visual presentation?
• What types of listening and/or reading strategies will enhance my understanding of this
multimedia text?
c. Extend students’ viewing responses by using dialogue and split-page journals, conferences, discussion,
and other activities.
4. Use strategies such as View, Pause, Predict, and Think-aloud (VPPT) to model and verbalize thoughts and
strategies for viewing and considering the text and subtext. Use the pause function in a video, for example,
in order to model making predictions and reflecting upon, talking about, comparing, and critically
evaluating key points in the visual texts. Periodically stop an information video, for example, to question a
statement, an opinion, or a perspective. Encourage students to make notes during pauses and to consider
not only the information being presented but also the technique being used.
Use a Directed Viewing-Thinking Activity (DVTA) when guiding students through a visual work or
presentation. The focus in a DVTA is on making observations and predictions, formulating questions, and
confirming or rejecting ideas before, during, and after viewing. Steps for the DVTA are listed below.
Step 1: Activate the background knowledge by looking at the title and any visual cues available in a survey
of the work.
Step 2: Make predictions about the content of the work and support predictions with reasons. Set a
purpose for viewing.
Step 3: Have students view the work, keeping their predictions and purpose in mind.
Step 4: Have students confirm or reject predictions by finding proof or supporting information in the work.
Step 5: Have students continue to view the work with different purposes or foci for viewing, and finding
evidence in the visual text for their ideas and conclusions.
Viewing and Representing • 6
5. Discuss the techniques, elements, and conventions that are used to construct texts that include visuals.
Some conventions of visual texts are listed below.
Print Texts with Visuals
Newspapers, magazines, newsletters, leaflets, brochures, pamphlets, etc.
Techniques and Elements
Captions, layout, graphics, charts, tables, diagrams, pictures, flowcharts, logos, headline fonts (style, size,
and placement), white space, spacing, proportion, pictures (foreground/background), colour, shape,
borders/ wraps, etc.
Two and three-dimensional Texts with Visuals
Photographs, pictures, posters, billboards, comics, cartoons, drawings, brochures, maps, collages, dioramas,
sculptures, tableaux, movement or dance sequences, leaflets, print advertising, etc.
Techniques and Elements
Subject, medium, composition, arrangement, foreground/background, colours, shape, line, light, shadow,
camera angle, focus/focal point, movement, frame/panel, balance, text/copy, etc.
Multimedia Texts with Visuals
Films and television (dramas, children’s shows, movies, science fiction, westerns, documentaries, nature
shows, news, advertising, special interest shows), videos, stage plays, music videos, dance performances,
computers (desktop publishing, Internet web sites, home pages, e-mail, browsers, search engines, CD-
ROMs, simulations), emerging technologies, etc.
Techniques and Elements
Scenes, story elements (setting, plot/sequence, character, dialogue), production elements (camera shots,
movement, sound/music and sound effects, colour and lighting, transitions, special effects, makeup,
costumes, sets, props, blocking), graphics, pictures, video, animation, hypertexts, hyperlinks, anchors,
typefaces, spacing, proportion, continuity, models, clips, slides, graphics, displays, etc.
6. Use viewing guides. Students should view a variety of different texts for a variety of purposes (e.g., to
explore, to understand, to evaluate, to empathize, for pleasure). Viewing guides can be created to help
students “watch for” specific issues and techniques including the implicit and explicit purpose, point of
view, message, and values as well as the techniques, elements, and structural features of the visual text.
Viewing guides, such as the following, could be prepared for different purposes and mediums including
television, film, comics, cartoons, posters, advertisements, and graphics.
The following Collaborative Viewing Guide (Wood, 1994) on page 8 could be used by students as they
view a presentation in which their purpose is to connect prior learning with new learning and to develop
ideas for future learning. It is a variation of the KWL technique (Ogle, 1986). A sample viewing guide for a
photograph is found on page 9 and a viewing guide for a video presentation is found on page 9-10.
7. Students should have the opportunity to compare different visual texts. Comparisons can include the
presentation of similar content by two or more media (e.g., compare news reports of the same event by
different media), the form and techniques (e.g., two forms of advertisement of the same product), and
the representations of gender, race, and culture (e.g., in a sitcom or a gallery display of photographs). Ask
students to make generalizations about the ways in which content has been adapted to different purposes
and audiences in the visual texts and to evaluate the various adaptations. Which form is most effective in
fulfilling its purpose?
8. Help students consider the ethics of what they see. “Visual messages are a powerful form of communication
because they stimulate both intellectual and emotional responses — they make us think as well as feel.
Viewing and Representing • 7
Consequently, images can be used to persuade and to perpetuate ideas that words alone cannot. When
controlled by economic interests and corporate considerations, [visual texts] can be powerful tools to
persuade people to buy a particular product or think a specific way. Any viewer or producer of visual
messages must be aware of the ways that [images] are used to convince others of a certain view. A creator
of images has an ethical and moral responsibility to ensure, for example, that a picture is a fair, accurate,
and complete representation of someone from another culture.” (Lester, 1995, p. 73). Students could
consider the visual persuasion and ethics in advertising (e.g., a clothing advertising campaign or a current
television commercial).
9. The Internet is a valuable medium for communication. Using it wisely and safely, however, requires critical
thinking skills. On the Saskatchewan curriculum website, teachers will find a number of resources useful for
developing students’ critical thinking and viewing abilities.
10. Incorporate visuals throughout each unit of study and encourage students to share visuals associated with
the unit theme or issue students find effective in communicating an explicit or implicit message.
Viewing and Representing • 8
Topic: ______________________________
Presenter: ___________________________
1. We know that:
3. My notes:
5. We learned that:
Class: _______________________
Second Impressions: What has the photographer chosen to show you? What has the photographer focused
on? What has the photographer included in the frame or the picture and what has been left out?
What is the setting (the place, the time of year, the time of day, and the period of history)? If there are human
subjects, who are the people involved and what are they doing? How are they interacting? What is happening
in the photograph? What likely happened before the photograph was taken?
How would you describe the photograph technically? Is it black and white or colour? Is it a portrait or a
landscape? Does it focus on a detail or on a concept? From what angle was it taken? Are there strong
contrasts between light and dark? Colours? Shapes? Foreground and background? What is the mood of the
photograph? What feeling does it evoke in you? Why?
What seems to be the purpose of the photograph? Is the photographer documenting a fact? Expressing an
idea? What is the message? What does this photograph say to an audience? What is its ultimate value as a
work of communication?
Viewing and Representing • 10
Class: ____________________
Second Thoughts:
• Is there any significance to the title?
• Was the setting important and if so, how?
• Who are the people in the video? Are they realistic? Are they stereotypes?
• What qualities did the major characters possess? Did they behave in predictable ways? How effective
was the acting?
• Did the plot maintain your interest and why or why not? What were the major conflicts?
• What does the story suggest is important?
• Were there any interesting production techniques and how would you describe them?
• Who created this video?
• Does the video contain any bias or stereotyping of different people or issues?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the video? Would you recommend it to a particular
audience and why or why not?
• How did this video affect your understanding of life or an issue? On what topic would you create a
video (and why)?
Viewing and Representing • 11
Assessment and Evaluation: (What do students already know and do as viewers? What do they not know or do
as viewers? What criteria and guidelines will help students know what is expected in this lesson? What mini-
lesson(s) might be needed for students to succeed?)
Task: (What is the task? What demands will the visual text make on students? What viewing skills and
strategies do students need to comprehend the text?)
Preparing to View: (What pre-viewing activities will help the students prepare to view? How will they access
their background knowledge on the topic and think about what they already know? Is there key information or
vocabulary regarding visual elements or the topic that students need to know? Are there things that students
should know about the medium in which the ideas, images, and sounds are presented? How will students be
supported in setting a purpose for viewing?)
During Viewing: (What strategies can students use to understand what they are viewing? What supports can
I provide? How will students make personal connections, identify parts that confuse, monitor understanding,
and note and recall important ideas? How will students make and confirm predictions, make inferences,
evaluate, and reflect further upon the visual?)
After Viewing: (What activities or guidelines will help students follow up on the viewing, review what they
have seen, clarify their ideas, and reflect upon the visual text? What activities will help students analyze and
synthesize what they have seen? What activities will help students evaluate the content and design of the
visual text and draw conclusions? Will students have an opportunity to re-view the text?)
Viewing and Representing • 15
2. Do I use mini-lessons to instruct students in making sense of visual images to enhance students’ listening
and reading comprehension?
___ analyze what individuals and groups of students need to know, and build on what they already know
___ provide direct instruction and practice of critical viewing strategies
Comments:
3. Do I provide opportunities for students to respond to, interpret, and critically evaluate a variety of visual
texts including dance, drama, or multimedia presentations?
___ support students’ unique responses to visual texts
___ teach and model a variety of comprehension strategies that viewers use before, during, and after
interacting with visual texts
___ employ and model a variety of strategies to help students respond to visual texts
___ help students extend their initial understanding and interpretations of visual texts
___ help students examine the form, techniques, and symbols employed in visual texts
___ help students understand that each visual text reflects a particular viewpoint and set of values that are
shaped by its social, cultural, and historical context
Comments:
Viewing and Representing • 16
4. Do I provide students with, and help them to use, a variety of tools to assist with viewing?
___ provide activities and experiences that develop students’ knowledge of visual elements and their effects
___ provide viewing guides and other strategies/supports for viewing
___ include peer learning activities
Comments:
Representing
Every time a story is told, an event described, or an image created in words or pictures, it is “re-presented”.
Representing encourages students to expand and extend their repertoire of skills and strategies for
communication, not at the expense of verbal language but as an important complement to it (Messaris, 1997,
page 3). Representing enables students to communicate their ideas using a variety of media and formats,
including diagrams, sounds, charts, movement or gestures, illustrations, photographs, images or symbols,
posters, three-dimensional objects or models, video presentations, music, and dramatizations. In many cases,
representing allows students to make sense of their learning and to demonstrate their understanding.
The following pages provide ideas for:
• teaching learning strategies related to representing
• supporting students in representing their understanding
• assessing and evaluating student representational processes and products.
Viewing and Representing • 18
Teaching-Learning Strategies
Teacher-guided Student-directed Specific Techniques
Before Before
• Discussing and modelling the pre- • What understanding/message do I • Giving specific prompts
designing and planning phase want to communicate? Who are my • Modelling the process
• Considering the variables of audiences? What is my purpose? • Using think-alouds
purpose, audience, and form • What medium/media would best • Planning mini-lessons on a range of
• Considering the medium/ media help me present this? ways to represent including drama,
and techniques associated with it/ • How am I going to organize and mapping, music, visual images,
them present my understanding/ graphic aids, sounds, effective
• Planning, flowcharting, scripting, message? presentations, three-dimensional
layout, imagining, thinking, etc. • What materials, technology, and objects, and computer-enhanced
equipment will I need? presentations
• How can I ensure clarity and • Engaging students in a variety of
During
effectiveness? activities and processes:
• Drafting and designing
• How can I rehearse and try out my • Surveying, charting, and labeling
• Using various representing representation? • Storyboarding and scripting
strategies
• What arrangements do I have to • Considering layout and design
• Problem solving and critically make to display or present my • Reviewing and examining models
reflecting representation?
• Conferencing
• Incorporating technical
After During techniques
• Reviewing and reshaping strategies • How will I introduce my • Illustrating
• Seeking responses to clarify and representation? • Dramatizations, role plays, and
rework • How will I create a clear, smooth, tableaux
• Reworking and refining ideas well-coordinated presentation? • Creating effective images and
• Discussing • How will I conclude my symbols
• Field testing representation? • Using sounds, music, movement,
• Reflecting and gestures
• Displaying • Creating three-dimensional
After
• Marketing objects, models, sculptures, and
• How will I invite feedback? props
• How can I improve my • Developing multimedia sessions
representation?
• Displaying and presenting
Viewing and Representing • 19
Guidelines
The following guidelines are intended to support students in developing a range of representations to develop
and express their understandings.
1. Provide clear prompts that help students identify their purpose, audiences, and ideas as well as their
medium (or media) when they are developing their representations. Students should consider the
following in the representing process:
• What is my purpose? Who are my audiences?
• What is my idea or message?
• What medium will help me to express my understanding (or message) (e.g., oral, print, other)?
• How could this representation be enhanced or made clearer (e.g., with images, sounds, movement,
objects, music, other)?
Effective prompts that identify the variables are important. Teachers could use, for example, the RAFTS (Santa,
1988) process to prompt a representing assignment:
•
R - the role the students will assume
•
A - the intended audience is whom students are addressing
•
F - the form the representation will take
•
T - the topic or subject of the representation
•
S - the strong verbs (or key words) that give the students their purpose and tone for their
representation.
A sample prompt might read:
You are a senior citizen in your community. Prepare a sound piece with dramatic movements and props or
a PowerPoint presentation that involves graphics, video, and sound. Develop your representation to sell the
advantages of living in rural Saskatchewan to seniors who live in urban Saskatchewan.
2. Model and discuss the representing process. Process is as important to representing as it is for the other
language arts strands. Typically, the steps include:
a. Planning and Focusing. Students must identify their purpose, audiences, and ideas as well as their
medium.
In an oral representation, students might consider:
• Are there ideas or information that cannot be communicated in words, but can be communicated
through movement, sounds, or images?
• Are there ideas or information that need to be represented both orally and visually for emphasis?
• Which kind of visual would be most effective or have the most appeal for the audience (e.g., graphics
on overheads, gestures, slides, tableaux, charts, mime, costumes, symbols, or props)?
• Does this representation clearly reflect my understanding?
• Is this representation interesting or thought-provoking?
In a print representation, students might consider:
• Is the message as clear, concise, and complete as possible? Is it organized in a logical manner?
• How can the reader best be drawn in and the reader’s attention held? What aural, visual, or oral
elements can add to the interest level and effectiveness of the representation?
• What information needs to be presented both in written and other forms for emphasis? What part of
the representation could be supported by an image, a photograph, a picture, a graph, a chart, a table,
a diagram, an illustration, a map or other form? Where are these forms best placed?
Viewing and Representing • 20
Storyboards are particularly useful for planning a slide-tape, drama, dance, video, or film representation. The
traditional storyboard is drawn in panels that include a frame for a rough sketch of the shot accompanied by
notes on the type of shot (e.g., L.S. [long shot], M.S.[medium shot], C.U.[close-up]) and the angle. Suggestions
are also made for the sound track to accompany the shot and the length of the shot.
A variation of the traditional storyboard is planning each shot on a large index card using the following format
(Thomas, 1988, p. 5):
• Video, drama, or dance: Sketch the shot.
• Audio: Write any narration or dialogue and identify the background music or sound effects.
• Special Instructions: Note any directions for the video (e.g., dissolve) or for the audio (e.g., fade).
The use of index cards allows students to experiment with the sequence of their shots and to easily add, delete,
or revise their plans for a particular shot.
4. Plan mini-lessons that introduce students to a range of visual and graphic aids that can be used in their
representations. Students should consider using a visual or graphic aid when it is too difficult to describe
something in words. Research suggests that many people are significantly better at processing visual
information than verbal information and that they take in 75-80 percent of information presented to them
through sight. These people learn better and more quickly if the information includes visual cues beyond
traditional typography (Markel, 1998, p. 48). According to some research, visual and graphic aids can
improve retention by up to 38 percent (Goldsborough, 1998). A visual aid might be a symbol, a graph, a
chart, a table, a painting, a photograph, a cartoon, a three-dimensional model, or other representation.
Informational graphics (infographics) convey important information in a clear, precise, and efficient manner.
They visually convey key data. Diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs, and maps are intended to communicate
vital information. Some common visual and graphic aids are shown in the following chart.
Students should consider the elements that will represent students’ understanding most effectively, capture the
attention of their audiences, increase the understanding and acceptance of the messages, and ensure that the
messages are remembered. Effective visual and graphic aids:
• focus and hold the audience’s attention
• emphasize key points or summarize main thoughts
• clarify something complicated or help the audience grasp facts quickly.
Viewing and Representing • 22
Students might begin exploring the basic principles behind effective representations that use visual and
graphic aids. Students should consider the following questions:
• What sequence or layout will help the audience understand the representation?
• What points need special emphasis?
• What gestures, photographs, and other visual cues will guide the audience?
• What graphic aids would best complement these visuals?
Communication through visual and graphic aids is enhanced when students understand the elements
and principles of visual design. Students should consider employing the principles of design including
attending to focal point, colour, size, perspective, balance, and movement to make the message easy to
grasp. Posters, book jackets, and print advertisements could be used to explore further the principles of
design and layout.
5. Help students understand the advantages and disadvantages of using technology to represent
their understanding and communicate their messages. Students might make a computer-enhanced
representation using software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Corel Draw, or Astound [www.spco.co].
Students can also communicate on-line. On-line communication requires well organized thoughts, key
or concise messages, clear and compelling images, and convenient ways to retrieve and link information.
Students must work with words, symbols, sounds, colours, and sequence or placement to communicate
clearly and concisely on-line.
In addition to their purpose and audiences, students need to consider:
• forming their ideas using oral, print, and other media text
• providing easy access for the reader/viewer (organizing information so that it is easy to “find and
click”)
• developing the design using colours, typefaces, images, spacing, proportion, and continuity
• inserting pictures, graphics, symbols, and other images
• adding links and anchors
• including video and sound
• avoiding technical glitches.
Students also might experiment with animation to highlight key points or to illustrate change, or with
a video or audio clip to show how a product or process works. Students should be cautioned, however,
about overusing computer or multimedia effects. Too much sound, animation, or video can distract from
the main message.
6. Students could begin exploring representing their ideas by using two media (e.g., an essay accompanied
by a collage, a poem accompanied by a sound piece, or a tableau accompanied by audio clips of interviews)
to explore or share ideas. In addition to attending to the content and language of the representation,
students should consider their layout (including titles, bullets, borders, and backgrounds), typefaces
Viewing and Representing • 23
(including type size, position, and the “personalities” of typefaces), sound (including environmental, voice,
found objects, and music), and visual (including illustrations, three-dimensional objects, dance, and drama).
Students should strive to make their representations clear and appealing to ensure maximum impact.
7. A multimedia representation coordinates various media (e.g., print text, oral text, visual text, and aural
text such as sound and music), to convey the message or idea.
Using a combination of media allows students to appeal to more than one of the audience’s senses.
Students should be encouraged to choose the media carefully and to consider which media will clearly
represent the ideas in a lively and appealing way for intended audiences. Students should consider the
appeal that different media make to the senses and how each medium will serve the purpose. Some
examples related to the five senses follow.
Sight: graphics, paintings, tableaux, mime, movement or dance, overhead projections, maps, charts,
graphs, models, computer animation, film clips, symbols, slides, and other visual images
Sound: music, sound effects, taped speeches, book readings, and other audio
Touch: scale models, displays, sculptures, interactive computer programs, and other tactile forms
Smell: chemicals, perfumes, food, flowers, and other olfactory products or experiences
Taste: spices, food, drinks, and other gustatory experiences.
Multimedia representations allow students to incorporate movement, graphics, video, animation, objects,
sound effects, music, and other forms into their representations.
8. Adapting one medium to another allows students to understand the conventions and techniques used
in different media. Students might try their hand at adapting narratives to dance, music, film, drama, or
video. Students could consider what decisions the director must make about casting a character, handling
characters’ thoughts, developing set, and creating dramatic effect.
Conclusion
The strand of representing not only gives teachers an opportunity to develop their students’ literacies but
also provides teachers an opportunity to honour the learning styles of all students and to support students in
broadening their learning styles. Open-ended assignments that engage students in inquiry provide them with
different learning styles opportunities to synthesize what they have learned and present their understandings
in a variety of ways. For example, students in an English Language Arts B10 course could consider the following
projects for the culmination of The World Around and Within Us: The Natural and Constructed Worlds unit. See
the following page.
Viewing and Representing • 24
Before Observations
What does the student do before representing?
• Finds a topic or idea of personal interest or one appropriate for purpose and
audiences
• Generates ideas for representation by using strategies such as brainstorming,
questioning, graphic organizers, storyboarding, conferencing, clustering,
webbing, discussing, drawing, journalizing, and other reflective activities
• Accesses and gathers additional ideas and information from external sources
• Selects and focuses topic or idea
• Develops a plan or approach
• Chooses various media and form(s)
• Organizes thoughts
• Considers how multiple mediums could enhance representation
• Other:
During
What does the student do during the process of developing the representation
to demonstrate understanding and communicate meaning?
• Explores ways to start
• Drafts, shapes, and connects
• Experiments, problem solves, and creates
• Modifies, changes, and reworks
• Reflects, clarifies, and refines
• Other:
After
What does the student do after developing the representation?
• Reviews and reworks content
• Reviews and refines form and organization
• Checks language, images, sounds, objects, and movement for clarity,
precision, and appropriateness
• Attends to conventions and cues
• Confers, discusses, and reflects
• Shows concern for overall appearance
• Shares
• Other:
Viewing and Representing • 26
Level 6: Confidently and insightfully communicates ideas and provides engaging, rich, vivid, and powerful
support for ideas.
Level 5: Clearly and thoughtfully communicates ideas and provides relevant and appropriate support for ideas.
Level 4: Logically communicates ideas and provides appropriate support for ideas.
Level 3: Correctly communicates some ideas and provides adequate support.
Level 2: Communicates information in a limited, overgeneralized manner and support is vague, inappropriate,
or incorrect.
Level 1: Communicates information in an unfocused, unclear manner with little to no meaningful or correct
support of ideas.
N/S: Not scorable.
Viewing and Representing • 27
Criterion 1: The visual or The visual or The visual or The visual or The visual or The visual or
Message multimedia multimedia multimedia multimedia multimedia multimedia
representation representation representation representation representation representation
Content and is original and is clear and is logical is satisfactory is limited is unfocused
Ideas insightful. thoughtful. and straight- but unrefined. and over- and unclear.
forward. generalized.
It has a It has a It has a
well-defined clear focus, It has a limited focus It has an It lacks focus
central focus in shows a clear recognizable and some unclear and shows
keeping with awareness of focus and an awareness of focus and no awareness
audience and audience, and awareness of audience. It shows little of audience.
purpose. It demonstrates audience. It demonstrates awareness of Ideas may be
demonstrates a logical demonstrates a basic or audience. Ideas elementary or
a deep understanding a clear uneven are poorly unclear. Few
understanding of subject understanding understanding developed; supporting
of the subject matter. of the subject of the subject they are often details are
matter and Supporting matter. Most matter. Some rambling and included.
supporting details are ideas are of the ideas superficial. Details
details are relevant and correct and are correct and Supporting provided may
engaging, appropriate for supporting supporting details are be incorrect.
relevant, and the intended details are details are vague,
appropriate for message. appropriate for adequate for inappropriate,
the intended the intended the intended or incorrect
message. message. message. in relation to
the intended
message.
Assessment and Evaluation: (What do students already know and do as representers? What do they not know
or do? What criteria and guidelines will help students know what is expected in the representation? What
mini-lesson(s) might be needed for students to succeed?)
Prompt: (What is the task? What is the purpose? What is the prompt? Is it clearly stated? From the prompt, will
students know their role, their audience, the format, the topic, and the strong verb?)
Focusing and Planning: (What activities will help students generate ideas for their representations? What
activities will help students focus on the task and formulate a plan? What key ideas, words, images, movements,
objects, or sounds will be used? What consideration should students give to their purpose, audiences, and
form? What media will work best?)
Creating: (What strategies can students use to develop their representations? What specific activities or
guidelines will help students in their creative problem solving? How can students reshape their work to
achieve their purpose? What special effects or techniques such as colour, light, camera techniques, music, or
sound effects will be used?)
Response and Self-assessment: (What specific activities or guidelines will help students to consider their
impact on the audiences? How will students consider feedback and assess themselves? What and how can
students improve?)
Viewing and Representing • 30
2. Do I use mini-lessons to instruct students in using appropriate aural, graphic, visual, and non-verbal aids and
images to enhance their written and spoken communication?
___ analyze what individuals and groups of students need to know, and build on what they already know?
___ provide direct instruction and model a range of representing strategies?
___ provide instruction and scaffolds to help students use new forms of representation?
___ provide models of various ways of representing?
Comments:
3. Do I provide opportunities for students to use representing in a variety of situations and for a variety of
purposes?
___ encourage students to use oral text (e.g., voice sounds or sound effects, speeches, songs)?
___ encourage students to include graphics (e.g., charts, graphs, tables)?
___ encourage students to include visuals (e.g., diagrams, photos, paintings)?
___ encourage students to use drama (e.g., tableaux, improvisations, role playing)?
___ encourage students to use sound and movement (e.g., music, gestures, dance)?
___ encourage students to use technology (e.g., CD-ROMs, videos, computer-generated graphics)?
___ encourage students to create three-dimensional models (e.g., sculptures, dioramas, mobiles)?
___ encourage and accept a variety of representations?
Comments:
Viewing and Representing • 31
4. Do I provide students with, and help them to use, a variety of materials and tools to assist with creating
representations?
___ encourage students to experiment with new media (e.g., oral, print, aural, visual) and forms (e.g., collage,
diorama, diary, dance piece, sound effects, drama, video and audio tapes)?
___ design activities for students to use new and varied media and forms?
___ provide a variety of materials and tools for students to access?
Comments:
References
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