The Media Pack : Units for GCSE Media and English

Cops on the Box * Activities and background on why TV crime drama is so popular with audiences and producers; what makes a good crime narrative and how representations of law and order have changed from Dixon of Dock Green to The Cops. * Writing to analyse, review and comment; structured argument writing tasks and close textual analysis exercises, role-plays, and practical production activities. * Video includes: extracts from UK crime drama (1956 to 2001); a video interview with Tony Garnett, producer of Between the Lines, This Life and The Cops. Selling chocolate, changing lives - an advertising simulation * Opportunities to debate questions of representation and audience. * Support for producing commercials in a variety of media with both oral and written outcomes. * Links with the Citizenship curriculum. TeenZines * Opportunities for language work, non-fiction reading and argument writing. * Background to the magazine industry and its marketing strategies. * Lively and accessible non-fiction and editorial texts for close analysis. * Detailed explorations of design and layout, image analysis, and varieties of language. Bait - reading and writing a short film * A workshop approach to analysing and making a short film. * Tasks to develop textual analysis skills. * Small-group screen-writing exercises. * Sustained written and practical assignments for English or Media coursework (writing a screenplay; still-movie productions). * On video: an award-winning short film, Bait, plus an interview with the director. * Extracts from the original script and production documentation.

Understanding the Music Business * A hands-on music industry simulation. * Opportunities to analyse and write different varieties of music journalism, produce lyrics, formal reports, oral pitches, press information and a variety of other practical outcomes.