e)+Resource+4

=** RESOURCES 4 and 5: **= ​


 * Multimodal Texts: World Vision commercial and Meriton World Towers online property tour**



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 * Explanation**

These are two resources I have chosen to use. One is a YouTube video of a World Vision commercial seeking donations for children in developing nations. The other is an online promotional “property tour” of the Meriton World Tower project in Sydney.


 * Relevance**

Students are looking at change in the community and family life and the effects of these on the different individuals, groups and environments. Given their rich project is to design a proposal for the use of land in a community site taking the perspective of a specified group I thought investigating persuasive multimodal tasks would allow them to see how designers use multimodal elements to affect specified viewers in intended ways for intended purposes.


 * Aspect of Literacy suitable to be explored**

The focus of the literacy learning will be on analysing multimodal texts. This will be done using modes (namely linguistic, visual and audio) and their elements taken from Cope and Kalantzis (2000, pp.25-30). The initial focus will be in identifying the //genre// and //purpose// of the text as well as the designer and intended audience. This will be followed by an analysis of selected elements of the linguistic, visual and audio modes utilised by the designers. Finally the multimodal level of meaning making will be examined.

As both texts are designed to influence or //persuade// potential customers, it is possible to relate their //purpose// to the exposition //genre//. Identifying the designer and intended audience will help students in critically analysing how elements and modes position the viewer. For example the World Tower promo is obviously directed towards an elite and informed group of customers and hence uses technical adjectivals and elaborate evaluative language (i.e. //‘world tower is a unique architectural expression’//) in the linguistic mode indicating a strong message of status or prestige. Although students may not fully grasp the link between context (audience and social purpose) and content (modes and elements), they begin to develop what Cope and Kalantzis term ‘Critical Framing’ (2000. P.34)

More important at this stage though is the building up of a metalanguage for analysing multimodal texts. Cope and Kalantzis view the primary reason for such a language is to be able to ‘identify and explain the difference between texts and relate these to the context of culture and situations in which they seem to work’ (2000, p.24). They also see 'Overt Instruction' as a critical aspect of developing students’ awareness and control over what is being learned (2000. P.33). Using these resources the idea is that, through teacher scaffolding and direction, students begin to identify and describe the use of elements and modes in a multimodal text using a metalanguage. In the linguistic mode, elements including //vocabulary, information structures// and //delivery// are all identifiable at some level in each text. In the visual mode students can identify the use of //perspectives// //and angels, salience, lighting and colour//, and //offer and demand//. They also identify the use of //music// in the audio mode. All elements contribute in some way to the making of meaning and are therefore worthy of analysis.

Furthermore students will be guided through the exploration of multimodal analysis in the areas of //coherence, salience//, and //density//. Here they identify ways in which the different modes work together to create meaning in the texts. Both texts demonstrate how coherence to strengthen the message being communicated. For example in the World Vision commercial a shift in the linguistic mode from upbeat and positive to somber and negative is matched with a simultaneous shift in the music being played. Salience is also featured in both texts, in the Meriton text with the centraity of the World Towers in a number of shots, and the childrens expressive faces in the World Vision text.

Reference: Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2000). //Multiliteracies: Literacy learning an the Design of Social Futures//. Macmillan:London 9. (Chpater 1: A pedagogy of multiliteracies, pp.9-37)