Visual grammar

I have made copious notes in my drafting process for my assignment, so here I am only going to tell myself to remember:

Interactive meanings

- Visual demands & offers

- Social distance: close-up, medium & long shots

- Attitude: perspective & involvement or detachment

- Power: high angle, low angle and eye-level views

- Realism: colour, context; detail, depth & light

- Objective images: cut-aways, cross-section & explosions

- Coding orientations: what counts as real

Compositional meanings

- Given and New

- Ideal and Real

- Centre-margin layouts

- Framing

- Salience

Kress, G. R., & Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images:  the grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.

Writing creatively & teaching fiction

Assignment is now done (on visual grammar and The Invention of Hugo Cabret), and I am returning to the final pages in my workbook, to re-read over some points to remember: 'social purpose' of activity - looking beyond 'entertain and instruct' - notion that narratives are value laden ie. deal explicitly with human behviours and relationships in a value laden, or ideological way...they will be product of a particular cultural time or ethos #1 how to make students 'want' to write establish writing tasks - supported by variety of texts - students able to draw on experiences in oblique and symbolic ways short fast writing exercise each class - include an assessment task which will require students to develop one of their exercises Write yourself - with the students - answer any questions before you start, then set writing time; afterwards share your writing, discuss problems you might have experienced - Use literature as writing models - select several different novels as examples of some aspect of narrative.

These notes invariably sent me off seeking more examples of the teacher as writer. I found this blog by Joseph Eng which interested me. Although he is talking about college English, there are many points that he makes, that could quite easily be adapted to the secondary or even primary English classroom.