Technical tips and guidelines

Equipment

You will need:

• a television and/or digital projector and screen;
• a VHS player and/or a DVD player.

If your classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard this gives opportunities of greater versatility in using software programmes such as Notebook (SMART), Flipchart (Promethean) or PowerPoint (Microsoft) through which to screen clips.

Preparation

• Many of the TV programmes recommended for study in this guide are available on DVD, but you may need to record up-to-date news programmes yourself.
• Watch the moving image text before showing it to your class, so that you know it is appropriate, and in order to familiarise yourself with it.
• Check Basic Teaching Techniques chapter in the downloadable Moving Images in the Classroom resource to review possible approaches to using the extract(s).
• If you are using an interactive whiteboard prepare the lesson using relevant software.
• Prepare a list of questions to ask about the text. Vary the questions to cater for all the ability levels in your class.
• Decide what you want students to focus on each time you show the clip.
• Ensure that your room and equipment is ready: ideally the room should be darkened so that students can see the screen clearly and your media player should be ready to screen, ie switched on and set to the start of the moving image sequence you are screening.

Classroom organisation

• Ideally a moving image text should be screened in one sitting but in school this is not always possible. Longer texts may need to be watched in sections, or you could put on a special after-school screening.
• Ensure that your students can see clearly and watch comfortably.
• Establish the rules: to sit quietly and to watch and listen closely.
• Tell them that they will be watching the television programme or sequence more than once so they can observe it in some detail.
• For the first screening it's usually a good idea just to let students watch it without directing their viewing. Then ask them briefly what the extract or sequence was about.
• For each of the further viewings, ask students to focus on a particular aspect or feature of the extract, as this will help them watch it closely. Focus questions could be written on a flip chart or whiteboard close to the screen.
• If you want students to make notes, you should organise note-taking quite formally: ask students to watch, then pause the extract while they make notes; this will ensure that they do not miss anything.