Graphic Stories: Exploring the Visual Adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary
English
Level 7Level 8Level 9
What is this sequence about?
This learning sequence provides opportunities for students to engage with texts that illuminate significant aspects of human experience, such as the Holocaust. The sequence aims to develop students’ visual literacy and to introduce students to the metalanguage used to talk about multimodal texts. Students will also investigate the ethical importance of freedom of speech as it relates to liberty and oppression.
Students will participate in visual analysis, engage in guided and independent construction of graphic texts, experiment with language features and visual choices for effect, and explore and reflect upon the purpose/s of narrative.
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Big understandings Texts provide important opportunities for learning about aspects of human experience and about aesthetic value. Understanding how to identify and use the structures and features of texts allows us to develop fluency and innovation in listening to, reading, viewing, and creating texts for different purposes and contexts. Through engagement with literature, students learn about themselves, each other and the world. |
This sequence has been written by teachers for teachers. It has been designed to provide students with rich, engaging learning experiences that address the Victorian Curriculum. The sequence consists of five flexible stages, including suggested learning intentions.
Before using this sequence, read the Department's Holocaust Education - Delivery Requirements policy on the Policy and Advisory Library. This policy has a Guidance tab that describes the characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program; it also links to support resources published on the FUSE platform.
Overview of stages
1. Building Understanding: The Sociocultural Functions of Narrative
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To build students' understanding of the purpose of storytelling and narrative writing
- To enable students to use a range of strategies to represent their ideas, and explain and justify their thinking processes to others
3. Exploring How Words and Images Create Meaning
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To build metalanguage to describe the structural elements of graphic texts
- To build a bank of visual metalanguage
- To understand how structural and visual features create meaning in a multimodal text
5. Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To experiment with language features, including combinations of written and visual text
- To make deliberate textual choices to raise issues or advance opinions in imaginative or persuasive texts
- To use a range of software to create, edit and publish texts
2. Building Understanding: Historical Context
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To use reasoning skills to explore issues of ethical significance
- To explore the concept of ‘freedom of speech’
4. Co-Constructing a Graphic Text
Suggested Learning Intentions
- To co-create an imaginative, informative, or persuasive text using deliberate language and textual choices
- To experiment with language features and visual choices to create new texts
Prior knowledge
Before you commence this sequence, it is suggested that you ensure your students are familiar with:
- Anne Frank’s Diary: the graphic adaptation, Folman, A. and Polonsky, D. (2018)
- key vocabulary such as: antisemitism, Holocaust, genocide, ideology, prejudice, belittling, ridicule and systematic
- the historical and social context that led to the Holocaust (see Stages 1 and 2 for information and resources).
Teaching strategies
The sequence has been written to align with the Holocaust Education - Delivery Requirements policy.
Before teaching this sequence, teachers should read the characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program which are included as part of the policy.
These characteristics draw on the Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust which were written by a group of international experts and published by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), of which Australia is a member.
The characteristics of a quality Holocaust Education program help teachers create a safe, supportive and productive learning environment that acknowledges and is responsive to the possibly traumatic nature of studying the Holocaust.
Teachers who feel that they may not know enough about the Holocaust to confidently teach it should use the list of background professional reading and viewing which is published on the department’s Holocaust Education FUSE page.
It is strongly recommended that teachers review all suggested stimulus texts prior to their use to ensure their appropriateness and to enable rich, respectful discussion. For guidance on text selection refer to the department's Teaching and Learning Resources — Selecting Appropriate Materials policy.
The Literacy Teaching Toolkit provides advice on the teaching strategies that you could use in this sequence. These strategies include:
- Think, pair, share
- Talk moves and Exploratory talk
- Guided student-teacher conferences
- Think Alouds
- Listening triangles
The sequence highlights opportunities to apply the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS), which are a component of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model.
Vocabulary
Students should be able to understand and use the following concepts and terms by the end of the learning sequence:
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Panel |
Salience |
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Splash |
Graphic weight |
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Gutter |
Focaliser |
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Bleed |
Social distance |
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Vector |
Subject gaze |
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Symbol |
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You can find definitions of some of these terms in the Literacy Teaching Toolkit and the Glossary for the English Curriculum.
It is recommended that the explicit teaching of vocabulary occur throughout this learning sequence. The Literacy Teaching Toolkit provides resources and sample activities to support this practice. In addition, a Visual Metalanguage handout can be found in the Resources for this sequence.
Assessment
Opportunities for formative and summative assessment are identified at different stages of the learning sequence.
You may want to develop a rubric to assess students’ progress. A range of Formative Assessment resources are available from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. This includes a Guide to Formative Assessment Rubrics, a series of modules to support you to develop your own formative assessment rubrics, and sample rubrics across six curriculum areas that demonstrate how you can put formative assessment rubrics into practice in the classroom.
In developing a rubric, you may wish to co-construct assessment criteria with your students. Each stage of the sequence provides sample success criteria for students working at Level 7.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has published annotated student work samples that provide teachers with examples of student learning achievement in each mode of the English curriculum: Reading and Viewing, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
Victorian Curriculum connections
Level 7
This sequence addresses content from the Victorian Curriculum in English. It is primarily designed for Level 8, but also addresses the following content descriptions from Level 7:
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Content description |
Stage |
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English: Reading and Viewing |
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Analyse how point of view is generated in visual texts by means of choices, including gaze, angle and social distance (VCELA370) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text |
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Compare the ways that language and images are used to create character, and to influence emotions and opinions in different types of texts (VCELT372) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text |
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Discuss aspects of texts, including their aesthetic and social value, using relevant and appropriate metalanguage (VCELT373) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text |
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Analyse and explain the ways text structures and language features shape meaning and vary according to audience and purpose (VCELY379) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text |
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English: Writing |
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Experiment with text structures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts (VCELT385) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Create literary texts that adapt stylistic features encountered in other texts (VCELT386) |
Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas to a specific audience (VCELY387) |
Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (VCELY390) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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English: Speaking and Listening |
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Identify and explore ideas and viewpoints about events, issues and characters represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (VCELT393) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Understanding Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Reflect on ideas and opinions about characters, settings and events in literary texts, identifying areas of agreement and difference with others and justifying a point of view (VCELT394) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning |
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Ethical Capability |
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Investigate criteria for determining the relative importance of matters of ethical concern (VCECU016) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Critical and Creative Thinking |
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Suspend judgements temporarily and consider how preconceptions may limit ideas and alternatives (VCCCTQ033) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Consider a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others (VCCCTM040) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Co-constructing a Graphic Text |
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Examine common reasoning errors including circular arguments and cause and effect fallacies (VCCCTR035) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Personal and Social Capability |
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Explore their personal values and beliefs and analyse how these values and beliefs might be different or similar to those of others (VCPSCSO038) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Investigate human rights and discuss how these contribute to a cohesive community (VCPSCSO039) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Intercultural Capability |
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Analyse the dynamic nature of own and others cultural practices in a range of contexts (VCICCB013) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context |
The sequence can be used to assess student achievement in relation to the following Achievement Standards from the Victorian Curriculum: English Level 7:
- Students demonstrate understanding of how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary affects meaning.
- Students understand how the selection of a variety of language features can influence an audience.
- Students create texts showing how language features, text structures, and images from other texts can be combined for effect.
Level 8
This sequence addresses content from the Victorian Curriculum in English. It is primarily designed for Level 8 and addresses the following content descriptions:
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Content description |
Stage |
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English: Reading and Viewing |
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Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures, individual people and concerns represented in texts (VCELT406) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Understand and explain how combinations of words and images in texts are used to represent particular groups in society, and how texts position readers in relation to those groups (VCELT405) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning |
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Apply increasing knowledge of vocabulary, text structures and language features to understand the content of texts (VCELY411) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning |
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Investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning (VCELA402) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning |
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English: Writing |
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Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively (VCELY422) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate (VCELY420) |
Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts (VCELT418) |
Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Experiment with text structures and language features to refine and clarify ideas to improve the effectiveness of own texts (VCELY421) |
Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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English: Speaking and Listening |
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Share, reflect on, clarify and evaluate opinions and arguments about aspects of literary texts (VCELT425) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Ethical Capability |
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Investigate criteria for determining the relative importance of matters of ethical concern (VCECU016) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Critical and Creative Thinking |
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Suspend judgements temporarily and consider how preconceptions may limit ideas and alternatives (VCCCTQ033) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Consider a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others (VCCCTM040) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Co-constructing a graphic text |
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Examine common reasoning errors including circular arguments and cause and effect fallacies (VCCCTR035) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Personal and Social Capability |
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Explore their personal values and beliefs and analyse how these values and beliefs might be different or similar to those of others (VCPSCSO038) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Investigate human rights and discuss how these contribute to a cohesive community (VCPSCSO039) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Intercultural Capability |
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Analyse the dynamic nature of own and others cultural practices in a range of contexts (VCICCB013) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context |
The sequence can be used to assess student achievement in relation to the following Achievement Standards from the Victorian Curriculum: English Level 8:
- Students can understand how the selection of text structures is influenced by the selection of language mode and how this varies for different purposes and audiences.
- Students can explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts.
- Students understand how the selection of language features can be used for particular purposes and effects.
- Students create texts for different purposes selecting language to influence audience response.
- Students use a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others.
Level 9
This sequence addresses content from the Victorian Curriculum in English. It is primarily designed for Level 8, but also addresses the following content descriptions from Level 9:
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Content description |
Stage |
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English: Reading and Viewing |
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Understand that authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects (VCELA429) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Explore and reflect on personal understanding of the world and significant human experience gained from interpreting various representations of life matters in texts (VCELT437) |
Building Understanding: the Sociocultural Functions of Narrative Building Understanding: Historical Context Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning |
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Analyse text structures and language features of literary texts, and make relevant comparisons with other texts (VCELT439) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Analyse and evaluate how authors combine language and visual choices to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (VCELY442) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning |
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English: Writing |
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Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features (VCELY449) |
Co-constructing a Graphic Text Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Review and edit students’ own and others’ texts to improve clarity and control over content, organisation, paragraphing, sentence structure, vocabulary and audio/visual features (VCELY450) |
Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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Publishing texts using a range of software, including word processing programs, flexibly and imaginatively (VCELY451) |
Independent Construction: Creating Graphic Texts |
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English: Speaking and Listening |
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Reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary value and how and why such notions vary according to context (VCELT454) |
Exploring how Words and Images Create Meaning Co-constructing a Graphic Text |
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History |
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Significant events, turning points of World War II and the nature of warfare, including the Holocaust and use of the atomic bomb (VCHHK147) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Critical and Creative Thinking |
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Challenge previously held assumptions and create new links, proposals and artefacts by investigating ideas that provoke shifts in perspectives and cross boundaries to generate ideas and solutions (VCCCTQ045) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
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Examine a range of rhetorical devices and reasoning errors, including false dichotomies and begging the question (VCCCTR046) |
Building Understanding: Historical Context |
The sequence can be used to assess student achievement in relation to the following Achievement Standards from the Victorian Curriculum: English Level 9:
- Students analyse the ways that text structures can be manipulated for effect.
- Students evaluate and integrate ideas and information from texts to form their own interpretation.
- Students understand how to use a variety of language features to create different levels of meaning.
- Students create texts that respond to issues interpreting and integrating ideas from other texts.
Learning Progressions
The Literacy Learning Progressions support teachers to develop a comprehensive view of how literacy develops over time. You can use the Literacy Learning Progressions to:
- identify the literacy capability of your students
- plan targeted teaching strategies, especially for students achieving above or below the age-equivalent expected level in the Victorian Curriculum: English
- provide targeted feedback to students about their learning within and across the progressions.
The Literacy Learning Progressions have been mapped against the Victorian Curriculum F – 10: English. Teachers are advised to familiarise themselves with this map to understand how particular progression relate to the Reading and Viewing, Writing and Speaking and Listening modes and particular curriculum levels in English.