Lesson Plan – Media Arts

Detailed Lesson Plan: Media Arts – Emotions in Photography By: Rebecca Andary

Year Level: 3/4 Duration: 55 minutes

STRANDS
Making Responding
By the end of the lesson students will be able to Identify the intended emotions of media
plan, create and produce a photo story to artworks, using media arts key concepts (ACARAb
represent a series of emotions (Australian 2015, ACAMAR061)
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
[ACARA]b 2015, ACAMA060)
Teacher Qualities (AITSL)
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of
abilities
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
3.5 Use effective classroom communication
4.1 Support student participation
4.4 Maintain student safety
4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically

GENERAL CAPABILITIES CROSS-CURRICULUM PRIORITIES

 Literacy  Ethical understanding  Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander histories and cultures
 Numeracy  Personal and social  Asia and Australia’s engagement
competence with Asia
 ICT Competence  Intercultural understanding  Sustainability
 Critical and creative
thinking
Content What will students be doing?
Description
(what are the In this lesson students will explore how emotions are conveyed in photographs.
big concepts Students will identify technical elements (framing, cropping, lighting, composing,
and why is the point of view) as well as symbolic elements (clothing, facial expression, body
learning language, lighting, colour) to interpret what they believe to be the intended emotion
important?) captured by the photographer.

Students will then compose and capture their own photographs to depict a series of
emotions.

Why is this important?

Identity is a significant focus for our school each year as studies show that students
with a strong sense of identity have a stronger sense of belonging and a greater
respect for different perspectives (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
2017). This lesson has been designed to focus in on emotion but is one lesson out of
a series of lessons the students will undertake this term as part of a unit of inquiry
around identity.

Media arts is an effective way of including and supporting a diverse range of

learners. It has been shown that students who struggle to communicate via
traditional methods find the multi-modal communication methods included in media
arts an empowering alternative (Dinham 2017 p. 214). Further, our class has a
student with autism and studies have shown that iPads are beneficial for students
with autism as they provide a visually rich method of communication (Dinham 2017
p. 214). Students who struggle with fine motor skills such as holding a pen or
paintbrush also find media arts more inclusive.

Prior Knowledge

Students are already comfortable and familiar with using iPads as they are frequently
used.

Students have previously explored images, sound and text to identify ideas,
characters and settings. They have also used media technologies to capture and edit
images for a particular purpose (ACARAb 2015).
Introduction (5 minutes)
 Brainstorm emotions – what is emotion? What are some emotions you are
feeling right now? What are some emotions you felt earlier today? What are
some other emotions?
 Record students suggestions on the white board
 Display the first photograph in the ‘Emotions in Photography’ PowerPoint on
Learning
the IWB and ask students what emotion they think is captured within the
Activities
photo. Why? Guide students to not simply focus on facial expression but
also on technical elements (framing, cropping, lighting, composing, point of
view) and symbolic elements (clothing, facial expression, body language,
lighting, colour).
 Emphasise that it’s ok for us to have different interpretations of a
photograph.
  Display the second photograph in the ‘Emotions in Photography’ PowerPoint
and again ask the students what emotion they think is captured within the
photo.
 Record the technical and symbolic elements as students identify them for
students to refer back to during the main activity.

Main Activity (35 minutes)

 Ask students to pick 3 emotions and working in pairs compose a photograph
to capture each emotion (total of 6 emotions per pair)
 Students should plan the photo composition first considering technical and
symbolic elements and then using one of the iPads compose and capture
each photograph.
 Students can work within the classroom and a couple of allocated outdoor
areas.
 Students can then select one photograph each to share with the whole class
at the end of the lesson.

Conclusion (15 minutes)

 Students print chosen photograph and share with the class – students
explain what media arts elements they used to depict their chosen emotion
 Photos are displayed on classroom wall.

Teaching Notes
 Encourage students to be experiment, collaborate, be creative and use their
imaginations (Selkrig & Keamy 2017)
 Remind students to be respectful when capturing photos of other people.
 Remind students to be respectful in their response to other peoples photos.
 If students are not comfortable with their photo being on display they should
feel comfortable voicing this during or after the lesson.
 There is no right or wrong – each student can interpret their emotion as they
see fit.

Formative Assessment:
 Each student engaged in the activity – composing and capturing at least 1
Assessment emotion each
 One photograph printed, shared with the class and put on display

IWB
White Board
iPads – class set (with access to print from the iPads)
Preparation /
Emotions in Photography PowerPoint (Appendix A)
Equipment
Printer
 Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2015, The Arts:
Sequence of content F-10, v8.1, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority, viewed 18 March 2018,
<http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/The_Arts_-
_Sequence_of_content.pdf>

Dinham, J 2017, Delivering authentic arts education, 3rd edn, Cengage Learning
Australia, South Melbourne, Australia.

Selkrig, M & Keamy, K 2017, ‘Creative pedagogy: a case for teachers’ creative
Resources
learning being at the centre’, Teaching Education, vol. 28, no. 3, pp 317-332.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority 2017, Identity – Children have a

strong sense of identity, Victoria State Government, viewed 19 May 2018,
<http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/earlyyears/vfldoutcomes/identity.aspx>