Section outline

  • EXPLORE / TŪHURA

    EXPLORE / TŪHURA learning intentions:

    • We are EXPLORING language features and their effects; use these features in speaking; and adapt them to the topic, purpose and audience
    • We are EXPLORING how a great paragraph is organised.
    • We are EXPLORING how to write a great paragraph using SEXY and PEEL structure based on the relationship between the writing and the intention.

    Visual Language Skills


    Visual Literacy Clues: What Are They and How Do We Read Them?

    “Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from images. It’s not a skill. It uses skills as a toolbox. It’s a form of critical thinking that enhances your intellectual capacity.”

    Brian Kennedy

    Director, Toledo Museum of Art

    If visual literacy is about decoding meaning from images of various kinds, regardless of the nature of the image, this process follows three general steps:

    1. What Can You See?

    To answer this, you must become familiar with Visual Literacy Clues (VLCs). The VLCs are: subject matter, colors, angles, symbols vectors, lighting, gaze, gestures, and shapes. These categories provide an approach to examine the details of the various aspects of the image they are reading.

    2. How Does It Make You Feel?

    It is now time for them to consider their emotional response to what you have viewed.

    Express how the image makes them feel and how it has influenced them to feel this way. You may feel anger, anguish, excitement, happy etc. There is no limit to the emotions you may refer to, provided they can point to evidence from the image. Here are some suggested questions to help the students explore their responses:

    Subject Matter: What is the topic of the movie? Who and what are in the image? What is the image about?

    Colour: How is colour used in the image? What effect do the colours chosen have on the viewer?

    Angles: Are we looking from above or below? What is the camera angle? How does this affect what we see and how we feel about it?

    Symbols: What symbols are used in this image? What do you think they represent? Are the colours that were chosen symbolic?

    Vectors: Can you see the major lines in the image? Are they broken or unbroken? How do the lines create reading paths for our eyes?

    Lighting: Can you describe the lighting used in the movie. How does it affect the ‘mood’ of the movie?

    Gaze: What type of look is the character giving? Where is their gaze directed? What does this say?

    Gesture: What type of gestures is the character giving? What is communicated by these gestures?

    Shapes: What geometric shapes can you recognise in the image? Do they repeat? Is there a pattern? Is order or chaos conveyed?


    3. What Is The Image Trying To Tell Us?

    This third aspect peels back another level of meaning to get to the overall message underlying the image. Delve into the intentions of the image-maker themselves. The genre of the image will be of significance here too, as the student considers the nature of the image as art, entertainment, advertisement or a fusion of the various genres.


    The Scarecrow

    Watch the video



    Create an emotion graph similar to below  Stanley from Holes.



    We know we should all be making better food choices, but now we're feeling an overwhelming amount of sadness and guilt after watching this new short film. 

    This film is an advert for a new game for the Chipotle chain. The game aims to educate and engage the public about food issues. The above film, which coincides with the game's launch, features Fiona Apple singing "Pure Imagination," originally from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

    The eerie music, combined with the scenes of a sombre factory (100% beef-ish!) produces a heavy-handed but  effective The scarecrow grows increasingly sad as he sees chickens getting stuck with needles so they grow faster, and cows unable to move from their pens.

    But then, after leaving the factory, he finds a fresh red pepper, growing in a bleak spot of land where no other fresh food is found. He's inspired to start cooking. Suddenly everything is beautiful again! The ad ends with the slogan above his new fresh food stand, "Cultivate a better world."



    What is the message?


    Discuss effectiveness of the message using the SEXY structure we know.

    make a Statement

    Explain your statement

    provide eXamples

    whY is it important / whY is it relevant / whY has the author chosen to use this technique



    Making Predictions

    Look at the title - High Diving giraffes

    Make predictions about what the video might be about.


    Update your predictions



    Watch it twice – you will spot more the more you watch it! 

    Were your predictions correct? Explain. 

    What do you think? Write your initial reactions to the clip.