Visuals in Digital Texts

Lesson Overview

Year Level: VPC Year 10
Subject: Other (English/Media Literacy focus on digital texts)
Duration: 60 minutes
Class Size: 15 students

This lesson is part 12 of 30 in the unit Navigating Digital Texts.

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Learning Intentions

WALT (We Are Learning To):

• Analyze the use of visuals in digital texts and explain how they support the text’s message.

Success Criteria:

• Identify different types of visuals used in digital texts (images, videos, infographics, memes, emojis).
• Explain how visuals contribute to meaning and audience engagement.
• Create an original visual that supports a given digital text message.

Extension:

• Design a complex multimodal visual (e.g., infographic or digital poster) that enhances a digital text message for a specific audience.

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Victorian Curriculum Links

• VCELY410: Plan, create and edit spoken, written and multimodal texts for specific purposes and audiences, selecting appropriate text structures, language features, images and sound.
• VCELY411: Analyse and evaluate the ways that text structures, language features and visual choices shape meaning and influence audience response in a range of types of texts.
• VCELY412: Use interaction skills, varying conventions of spoken interactions such as voice volume, tone, pitch and pace, as appropriate to the audience, purpose and context.

(Focus on multimodal texts and visual literacy—interpreting and creating visuals to support messages.)

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Resources Required

• Examples of digital texts with strong visual components (web pages, social media posts, advertisements, infographics) displayed digitally or printed.
• Whiteboard/Smartboard and markers.
• Laptops/tablets or paper and coloured pencils for visual creation task.
• Graphic organisers for analysis notes.

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Lesson Breakdown

1. Introduction (10 minutes)

• Hook: Display a well-known digital text (advertisement or social media post) rich in visuals but with minimal text.
• Ask students: What does this visual make you think? What is it trying to say without words?
• Briefly define "digital texts" and "visuals" (images, videos, graphs, emojis, layout design etc.).
• Introduce WALT and success criteria.
• Outline how visuals support the meaning and emotional impact in digital texts.

2. Guided Analysis (15 minutes)

• Provide 2-3 digital text examples (e.g., a social media campaign post, infographic, digital news article).
• Model how to analyse visuals: look at colour, symbols, layout, size, positioning, use of icons/emojis, and emotional tone.
• Students work in pairs with different digital text examples and complete a graphic organiser analysing:
  • What visuals are used?
  • How do these visuals support the message?
  • What emotional or persuasive effects do the visuals have?
• Share findings briefly as a class to highlight different visual strategies.

3. Independent Creation Activity (20 minutes)

• Task: Students select or are given a short piece of digital text (headline, caption, product message) with no visual.
• Instruction: Create an original visual that complements and enhances the message of the text.
• Encourage use of colour, symbols, and clear focus on audience engagement.
• Provide materials or digital tools depending on resources available.

4. Sharing and Reflection (10 minutes)

• Students present their visuals in small groups or pairs, explaining how their visuals support the text’s message and meet the success criteria.
• Peer feedback focusing on clarity, relevance, and emotional or persuasive impact.
• Teacher-led discussion reinforcing key learning points.

5. Extension Activity (Optional/Advanced Learners)

• Create a detailed infographic or multimodal digital poster using software tools (e.g., Canva, PowerPoint) for a more complex digital text message, considering layout, typography, and use of multiple visual elements.

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Differentiation Strategies

• For diverse learners:

  • Provide graphic organisers with sentence starters.
  • Use visual scaffolds (e.g., word banks for describing visuals).
  • Pair students strategically for peer support.
  • Allow oral presentations or video explanations instead of written.
  • Use digital text examples that reflect diverse cultures and interests.

• For advanced learners:

  • Encourage use of metalanguage to describe visual effects (contrast, framing, composition, symbolism).
  • Challenge with the extension task incorporating multiple modes (sound, animation).
  • Analyse and compare visual techniques across different digital platforms.

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Assessment

• Formative:
  • Observation of paired analysis and whole class discussion participation.
  • Review of students’ graphic organisers and visual creations.
• Summative (optional):
  • Visual product assessed against a rubric including creativity, effectiveness in supporting the message, and clear explanation of visual choices.

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Reflection and Next Steps

• Recap why visuals are essential to navigating digital texts.
• Set up a preview of next lesson topic in the unit (e.g., "Language and Tone in Digital Texts").
• Encourage students to notice visuals critically in everyday media and social media consumption.

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This lesson plan is aligned closely to Victorian Curriculum English Year 10 standards to develop critical and creative multimodal literacy in a digital age, focusing specifically on visual literacy within digital texts as part of the unit "Navigating Digital Texts"【7:AC9E10LY06】.