Rationale
The media shapes our understanding of the world, reflecting and communicating aspects of our public and private lives and contributing to the creation of personal, social, cultural, and national identities, enabling our students to become effective digital citizens.
Media studies challenges and empowers students to analyse and interpret media content and to become more informed and think critically about the media and its role in everyday life.
The media is often controlled by powerful corporate interests. Media makers interpret events and shape how we view the world. Students learn to recognise the things that influence the media.
The media is constantly changing. The progress of technology, mobility, connectivity, and digitisation is generating new channels and media formats. Students are increasingly participating in this dynamic new environment. Through active engagement with the media, they will deepen their awareness of the nature and purpose of these changes. We will provide ample opportunity to embed a strong set of values and beliefs, leaving students with the cultural capital to be responsible citizens. We are providing education for living in a connected world.
Overview
Homework
Year 10 Media homework in Year 10 is set weekly and will always be linked to the topics being taught at the time. Homework could be in the form of online quizzes to help students consolidate their content knowledge, exam style questions to prepare students for assessments or accessing media products (for example, listening to The Archers for our radio topic or watching TV crime dramas). Students may be required to complete some creative media tasks for homework, such as sourcing music clips, video recording or photography. Prior to each block assessment, specifically designed revision sheets are used to guide students towards targeted revision tasks and clearly outline key terminology, content knowledge and skills needed.
In Year 11, media students will be set homework weekly and this will take the form of a quiz based on one of the set products from the exam board, assessing content knowledge as well as a second task, The second task will always be linked to the topic being studied in class at the time and could take the form of a creative task, an exam style question, research or accessing media products at home. Prior to each block assessment, specifically designed revision sheets are used to guide students towards targeted revision tasks and clearly outline key terminology, content knowledge and skills needed. When preparing for component 3 (the creative component where students are required to create their own piece of media according to a brief set out by the exam board) homework will be different for each student depending on the product they have chosen to create. This is likely to require students to take thoughtfully planned photography and sometimes film in order to meet the requirements of the unit.
Year 12 and 13 vocational students are assessed by some exams but the majority of guided learning hours are on practical coursework units. Homework set includes material to learn for exams in booklets and past papers to ensure this learning can be applied. Coursework tasks are set on Google Classroom. After the students have been given guidance on these tasks they are expected to use study time to meet the deadlines set and to act on the feedback given after tasks have been submitted. It is the student’s responsibility to organise their time as required.
Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash