Syllabus bites: Visual literacy

Stage 4
Stage 5

A student:

responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure EN4-1A²
- Understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - use increasingly sophisticated verbal, aural, visual and/or written techniques, eg imagery, figures of speech, selective choice of vocabulary, rhythm, sound effects, colour and design, to compose imaginative texts for pleasure
  - identify and evaluate devices that create tone, for example humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody in poetry, humorous prose, drama or visual texts (ACELT1630)
effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to and composing texts in different media and technologies EN4-2A³
- Understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - use processes of representation, including the creative use of symbols, images, icons, clichés, stereotypes, connotations and particular aural, visual and/or digital techniques
makes effective language choices to creatively shape meaning with accuracy, clarity and coherence EN4-4B⁴
- Understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - combine visual and digital elements to create layers of meaning for serious, playful and humorous purposes
  - experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts (ACELT1768, ACELT1805)
  - analyse how point of view is generated in visual texts by means of choices, for example gaze, angle and social distance(ACELA1764)
thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information, ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts EN4-5C⁵
- Respond to and compose texts
  - compose a range of visual and multimodal texts using a variety of visual conventions, including composition, vectors, framing and reading pathway
identifies and explains connections between and among texts EN4-6C⁶
- Understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning (ACELA1548)

A student:

responds to and composes increasingly sophisticated and sustained texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure EN5-1A⁷
- respond to and compose texts
  - explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (ACELY1745)
effectively uses and critically assesses a wide range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to and composing a wide range of texts in different media and technologies EN5-2A⁸
- understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - review, edit and refine students’ own and others’ texts for control of content, organisation, sentence structure, vocabulary, and/or visual features to achieve particular purposes and effects (ACELY1747, ACELY1757)
- respond to and compose texts
  - use increasingly sophisticated processes of representation to respond to and compose complex spoken, written, visual, multimodal and/or digital texts for a wide range of purposes and audiences, considering and evaluating the effect of the technology
selects and uses language forms, features and structures of texts appropriate to a range of purposes, audiences and contexts, describing and explaining their effects on meaning EN5-3B⁹
- engage personally with texts
  - engage with a range of increasingly complex language forms, features and structures of texts in meaningful, contextualised and authentic ways
- understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - evaluate techniques (eg contrast, exaggeration, juxtaposition or changing chronological order) used in spoken, written and visual texts to, for example, construct plot and create emotional responses
- respond to and compose texts
  - create literary texts with a sustained ‘voice’, selecting and adapting appropriate text structures, literary devices, language, auditory and visual structures and features for a specific purpose and intended audience (ACELT1815)
thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information and increasingly complex ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts in a range of contexts EN5-5C¹⁰
- develop and apply contextual knowledge
  - compare ways in which spoken, written, visual, multimodal and digital texts are shaped according to personal, historical, cultural, social, technological and workplace contexts
- understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features
  - investigate the ways web and digital technologies use and manipulate visual images, hyperlinks, sound and the written word to create meaning
- respond to and compose texts
  - evaluate the ways inference, point of view, figurative language and alternative readings can be used creatively as strategies for responding to and composing spoken, written, visual, multimodal and digital texts beyond the literal level

Critical and creative thinking

Difference and diversity

Information and communication technology capability

Personal and social capability

Work and enterprise

The Board of Studies mandates the course content and text requirements¹¹ for each stage.

In each year within Stages 4 and 5 students must study examples of:

spoken texts
print texts
visual texts
media, multimedia and digital texts.

Across a stage of learning, the selection of texts must give students experience of:

texts which are widely regarded as quality literature
a widely defined Australian literature, including texts that give insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia
a wide range of literary texts from other countries and times, including poetry, drama scripts, prose fiction and picture books
texts written about intercultural experiences
texts that provide insights about the peoples and cultures of Asia
everyday and community texts
a wide range of factual texts that present information, issues and ideas
texts that include aspects of environmental and social sustainability
an appropriate range of digital texts, including film, media and multimedia.

In selecting specific texts for study in English, teachers should consider the needs, interests and abilities of their students and the ethos of the school and its local community.

This resource will develop an understanding of how visual texts are an integral part of the study of key English concepts and texts within new and changed content of the BOS NSW syllabus for the Australian curriculum in English K–10 in Stages 4 and 5. It has a K–10 perspective, with content and activities also relevant to Stages 2 and 3.

This resource will build an understanding of visual text terms, language and concepts in a range of contexts. Students engage, explore, process and evaluate conventions, language choices, techniques, and processes of visual texts in a range of responding to and composing activities. They have the opportunity to respond to and create visual texts in a range of learning experiences.

Visual texts range from a photograph or illustration in a print magazine to the visual components of multimodal texts. The visual language, choices and conventions in texts communicate and shape meaning in a range of contexts. In studying visual texts, students use the metalanguage of visual texts to describe, discuss and evaluate how they communicate meaning to the audience.

Syllabus links

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