Quebec Competencies Chart - Television Newscasts

Author: Gord Forsythe
Level: Secondary Cycle Two
Subject Area: English Language Arts
Lesson Link: Television Newscasts

Description: In this lesson, "Television Newscasts" helps students develop a critical awareness of how television news is shaped and manipulated and how they, as audience members may be affected by this. Students will conduct a survey about media sources of news; keep a "news log" throughout the unit of study; identify and discuss how a TV newscast is constructed; identify and discuss the use of entertainment in TV news; identify, discuss and compare the values and ideologies presented in a variety of Canadian and U.S. TV newscasts, at the local and national levels; produce a complete school newscast, as a team; and identify and analyse the processes involved in their production and how these relate to the key concepts studied in this unit.

Cross-curricular Competencies

Broad Areas of Learning

  • To use information
  • To solve problems
  • To exercise critical judgment
  • To be creative
  • To adopt effective work methods
  • To work with others
  • To communicate appropriately
  • Media Literacy

This lesson satisfies the following English Language Arts Competencies from the Quebec Education Program:

COMPETENCY 1 uses language/talk to communicate and to learn

  • Compares the affordances of written, media and multimodal languages in achieving a specific purpose
  • Constructs criteria for choosing the mode of spoken language in a specific context, by considering audience needs and demands of the context

COMPETENCY 2 Reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts

Constructing a Reading of a Text

  • Focuses on a topic and/or issue that is of interest to her/him to construct an efferent reading, (e.g. makes sense of the text by coming to terms with the ways in which a topic has been developed by a writer/producer)
  • Focuses on the relationship between self as reader and the text to construct an interpretive reading
  • Activates relevant prior textual knowledge before, during and after reading text(s) to monitor the meaning(s) s/he is making, (e.g. uses what is known about a writer/producer and her/his style to make predictions, draws on knowledge of structures and features of a specific genre, applies knowledge of codes and conventions particular to specific texts)
  • Activates relevant prior personal knowledge and experience to make sense of a text which is frequently expressed in text-to-self connections, text-to-world connections, text-to-text connections
  • Asks questions of self, writers(s) and text(s) as s/he reads to clarify and focus reading
  • Determines the most important ideas/messages/themes in a text
  • Draws inferences from a text
  • Retells or synthesizes what s/he has read, e.g. attends to the most important information and the quality of the synthesis itself to better understand the text

Reader, Text, Context

Draws inferences about the view of the world presented in a text

  • Explores how power relationships are constructed in the text
  • Examines how language (word, sound and image) is shaped to present ideas and information
  • Makes connections between the depiction of different groups in texts and the context or setting of a text

Justifies her/his interpretation(s) of texts on the basis of own fluency as a reader

  • Evaluates the way specific codes and conventions of a spoken/written/media text are employed to have an impact upon the assumptions, actions, values and beliefs of readers:
    • codes and conventions of a specific genre that are employed to have an impact on readers in general or on a target audience in particular
    • mode(s) of representation (sound, word and image) that influence the message(s)/meaning(s) of a text and how these reveal the intention(s) of the writer/producer(s)
    • linguistic and textual features that situate or position the reader, e.g. connotations and denotations, stereotypes and bias, aspects of characterization and setting that evoke a specific emotion or response, appeals to mainstream values and beliefs
  • Interrelates characteristics of the writer/producer(s) of a text and self as a reader:
    • recognizes the use of rhetorical strategies, e.g. use of first person to convey attitudes and feelings about an issue/topic, appeals to common beliefs or values in a culture, appeals designed to evoke a certain age group
    • analyzes the representation of different groups, including interest groups, in the press in relation to controlling ideas, opinions, main ideas

COMPETENCY 3 Produces texts for personal and social purposes

Assuming Roles as a Writer/Producer

  • Adopts a stance to a topic and audience appropriate to the genre
  • Experiments with active and passive voice, e.g. uses active voice to project a sense of reality or immediacy in recounting experiences
  • Applies language conventions to establish relationships, e.g. using gestures to elicit sympathy; using statements, conditions and commands to imply control and power; tilting the camera up to show authority
  • Experiments with register:
    • adjusts register to the formality/informality of the context, e.g. uses academic language in an essay, jargon or slang in an advertisemento establishes the tone, e.g. uses dispassionate tone of anchor on news report, intimate tone when writing in a journal

Public and Private Space

Conducts a genre analysis:

  • evaluates the structures, features, codes and conventions used
  • examines how language (sound, word and image) is shaped:o to represent and/or exclude people, events, ideas and informationo to organize and develop ideaso for special effect

Applying Codes and Conventions

  • Applies conventions of the genre:
    • chooses textual structures and features
    • chooses linguistic codes and conventions
  • Combines and/or manipulates codes and conventions of specific genres for special effects (multi-genre texts)

Production Process

Media Practices

  • Manages production constraints, e.g. time line, deadline, group roles and responsibilities

Planning and Drafting

  • Brainstorms ideas, clarifies and extends thinking by talking with peers and teacher
  • Uses strategies to work out ideas, plan and draft, e.g. concept map, free writing, storyboard
  • Develops expertise in manipulating resources
  • Makes preparations prior to production

Going Public

  • Makes final adjustments before presentation
  • Presents text to intended audience

For specific topics, relate broad area of Media Literacy to:

Drama

Creates a Dramatic Work

Applies ideas for the creation of a dramatic work

  • Explores various ways of conveying creative ideas through dramatic action
  • Chooses dramatic actions for their interest
  • Plans a creative project

Uses elements of dramatic language

  • Experiments with elements of dramatic language
  • Makes use of his/her dramatic experiences
  • Chooses the most meaningful elements in relation to his/her creative intention and perfects methods for using these elements

Organizes his/her dramatic creation

  • Experiments with ways of linking dramatic scenes
  • Organizes the dramatic material based on the creative intention
  • Reviews his/her dramatic choices after considering the character of the work
  • Establishes conventions concerning unified performance
  • Refines certain elements of his/her creation, if necessary

Presents his/her dramatic creation

  • Remains attentive to classmates
  • Adjusts his/her actions to those of classmates
  • Takes advantage of unexpected occurrences
  • Respects conventions concerning unified performance
  • Validates the clarity of the creative intention
  • Reconsiders and confirms artistic choices
  • Plans necessary adjustments