Clarification details
Updated September 2015. This document has been updated in its entirety to address new issues that have arisen from moderation.
Focus of the standard
The standard requires students to critically respond to significant aspects of unfamiliar visual and/or oral text through close viewing/listening. Students need to show understandings and make interpretations from the text itself. Background information, e.g. about the text/director/actors, and/or summaries of the text, does not provide close viewing/listening. This standard focuses on the same close reading skill that is assessed in the external standard 91474; however, the text type being closely read is visual and/or oral, rather than written.
Close viewing/listening techniques
Students make evaluative interpretations and judgements about how aspects, such as the development of a particular idea, character or tone, are created by the effects of visual and/or oral language features. Visual and oral language features frequently used in close viewing/listening may include:
Ambient sound/silence |
Dialogue |
Narration/voiceover |
Body language |
Editing |
Props |
Camera work/cinematography |
Rhetorical devices |
Symbolism/motif |
Composition |
Imagery |
Sound effects |
Special effects |
Lighting |
Structure |
Costume |
Music |
Production design |
Selection of texts
Although a visual or oral text can be viewed in class, the teaching of aspects and visual and verbal techniques needs to be done using different text/s or extract from those used for assessment. Students are to critically respond to unfamiliar text/s that have been studied independently.