Decode the Message

Overview

Students investigate how a visual or digital text communicates a message through images, colour, layout and language. They work in three supported groups to identify purpose, audience and meaning, then use evidence to explain how design choices influence a viewer.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify the purpose and intended audience of a visual text.
• WALT explain how visual, language and structural features communicate meaning.
• WALT use evidence from a text to support an inference.
• WALT plan ideas for a visual text aimed at a specific audience.

Success criteria

• I can state whether a text is mainly designed to inform, entertain or persuade.
• I can identify at least two design features and describe their effect.
• I can use “I notice…”, “This suggests…” and “This makes the audience…” to explain an idea.
• I can plan a clear message for a chosen audience.

Curriculum links

• Crafting Texts — Visual and digital texts: visual texts communicate ideas, emotions and messages through design elements for specific purposes.
• Crafting Texts — Visual and digital texts: planning and developing ideas.
• Crafting Texts — Visual and digital texts: creating a visual text using language, structural and stylistic features for a selected audience and purpose.
• English learning area structure: learning is shaped by teachers in response to learners, with appropriate adjustment of context, order and emphasis.

Lesson structure (40 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook and access. Teacher displays a fictional youth campaign poster showing a phone partly covering a person’s face, with the slogan “Look up. Look around.” Open with the visual hook slide and read the slogan aloud, briefly explaining any unfamiliar words. Students silently notice one image detail and one word, then share with a partner: “What might this poster want people to do?”

2. 5–12 min · Explicit teaching. Teacher introduces the four questions: What do I notice? What does it suggest? Who is it for? What does it want me to think or do? Model one example using the poster, thinking aloud: “The phone is large and blocks the face. This suggests it is a problem, so the audience may be encouraged to pay attention to people nearby.” Refer to the four-question teaching slides. Students repeat the model orally with a partner and record one supported inference on the visual text inference worksheet.

3. 12–23 min · Three-level group investigation. Teacher places students in three groups of approximately 6–7, gives each group a suitable version of the same poster and circulates with targeted prompts. Students complete the first section of the visual text inference worksheet.

• Group 1 — Supported: Students match teacher-provided feature words to visible examples, such as image, colour, slogan and layout. They complete sentence frames: “I notice ___.” “This suggests ___.”
• Group 2 — Core: Students identify three features and explain how each could affect the intended audience, using “because” to connect evidence and meaning.
• Group 3 — Stretch: Students decide whether the poster is effective for its audience, select the strongest evidence and explain one alternative design choice.

4. 23–29 min · Collaborative comparison. Teacher pauses the groups and displays the compare-and-discuss slides. Model how to disagree respectfully: “I read this differently because the image suggests…” Students compare answers with a member from another group or with a nearby pair, then add one new idea to their worksheet. Each student must point to a specific word, image, colour or layout feature.

5. 29–37 min · Plan a visual text. Teacher explains that students will plan, not fully produce, a visual text encouraging Year 9 students to make one positive change at school, such as reducing food waste, including others or using devices thoughtfully. Display the planning task and success criteria. Students complete the planning section of the visual text planning page: purpose, audience, message, image idea, colour choice, slogan and intended audience effect. Students may sketch or dictate ideas to a peer or adult.

6. 37–40 min · Plenary and assessment. Teacher invites two students to share one design choice and its intended effect, then displays the exit reflection slide. Students complete a verbal or written exit response: “One feature that can communicate a message is ___; it works by ___.” Collect worksheets for next-lesson grouping.

Resources

• the visual text analysis and planning slide deck
• the visual text inference and planning worksheet
• Three printed copies of the fictional youth campaign poster, with enlarged versions for Group 1
• Whiteboard and markers
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Optional speech-to-text or teacher scribing support

Assessment

• Listen for students distinguishing what they literally notice from what they infer during modelling and group work.
• Check worksheets for a relevant feature, an evidence-based inference and a clear audience or purpose.
• Use the exit response to identify students who need further support with evidence, effect or vocabulary.

Differentiation

• Group 1 — Supported: Use enlarged text and image, read all instructions aloud, pre-teach “audience”, “purpose”, “feature” and “effect”, and provide a word bank and sentence frames. Accept oral responses, drawing, matching or scribing.
• Group 2 — Core: Provide a completed example for the first question, then require students to explain their own evidence using “because” and “so”.
• Group 3 — Stretch: Ask students to evaluate effectiveness, consider a different audience and justify which design feature most strongly shapes the viewer’s response.
• For students with dyslexia, visual stress or attention needs, use uncluttered pages, short instructions, extra processing time, read-aloud support and permission to use speech-to-text. Pair EAL learners with supportive peers and use gesture or icons alongside key terms.