Designing a Curriculum for Learning, not Exams: Episode 1

These posts document my little journey of discovery when auditing and strengthening our A Level provision to enrich the course and challenge our more experienced students who have taken Media at GCSE.

I'm going to say it. Set texts suck. So do reams of media theories that are segued into those texts to create overly complex and obtuse examination questions. So do copious amounts of notes on specific industries (Media education isn't knowing how much a film grossed to the dollar. It's fun information for a pub quiz, and there is no harm in knowing it, but it shouldn't form the basis of an exam question at A Level). Eugh.

We all know that the exam boards are not to blame, and they very much made the best out of a bad situation. But that doesn't detract from the frustrations we often feel as Media teachers. Media is ever changing and dynamic. That is its very nature. So tethering us to a 'death by exam question' approach as my colleague quite rightly put it, is restricting.

I was someone who most definitely stuck to the 'script' (guidance for teaching) for the first couple of years of teaching the new specification. There was a lot of content to cover and I was terrified of missing some tiny detail that would turn into a whole section of the exam and I would let them all down with my negligence. Our lessons were packed full, rigorous and thorough. Great. However, looking back, there were opportunities to expand and explore the wider contexts of the texts we were studying, and they weren't really taken. As I have settled in to teaching the new spec, I've found my feet a bit. I've had to remind myself that I have a degree in this, and I've taught this for a bit, so if I want to discuss things further and go off script then I can without there being a negative consequence. It's all about finding that balance between exam and exploration of the subject, and that differs for teachers and for classes. I had started to fall out of love with a subject that I had dedicated my life to, and it was this prescriptive and narrow minded approach that was making it happen. Something needed to change.

But all is not lost.

We are the practitioners in the classroom. We are the ones delivering this content to students, and we are the ones who focus on preparing them for the next stage in their life. Life beyond exams. And I, for one, am done teaching to it.

Now, I am obviously not going to go full Rebel mode and teach whatever takes my fancy, because that's not fair on the students, and it also means that my ideology will influence the texts I choose, and as a young(ish) white Welsh female who is fairly sheltered (NEVER ask me anything to do with Geography or maps outside of Wales), that would probably be equally limiting to students. They would end up with a load of silent film, 90s girl bands and Queen, and some obligatory scoffing at the Daily Mail. Not exactly a holistic Media education. No, I plan on using the set texts as a starting point, and planning out from them, researching extensively to find a wide-ranging and enriching wider reading list. The set texts will be the keystones of our teaching, but they won't be the only texts we explore in detail by any means.

My first step in this process was to map out the tasks we do already. This allowed me to see a the balance of skills used by students in lessons, the questions and mini sequences that were followed, and the repetition of thematic ideas across several texts. This was really useful, because it turns out a lot of what we do simply uses the texts as a springboard for wider discussion, meaning there is an even greater argument for increasing the repertoire of students' Media experiences, in order to enrich those discussions. It also showed me just how much we cover, and the leap between AS and A Level. By including wider reading at AS, the A2 jump, and exploring nine texts holistically, will be much easier.

The mapping is unnecessarily pretty, but I do like a good infographic. I also feel that sometimes it is worth flexing our creative muscles and showing students that we can lead by example when it comes to making media. I did question if it was worth it while making it, but I have actually found it a really useful auditing exercise. I can see (and adjust) pacing, deadlines, interleaving of theories, practice questions and a whole host of other things. But the most exciting thing is that the set texts only take up a handful of arrows. All the other points are questions that explore the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that underpin the qualifications. And they also underpin a decent Media education. Wonderful.

The KS5 Media Map. KS4 is a work in progress!

My next step is to zoom in and create learning journeys with the set texts as keystones. I have a plan as to how I can do that, but it may seem a little strange! I like to plan very visually, so there will be mind maps and diagrams galore. I am sharing my thought process and development not because I think it is the only way forward or the only right thing to do, but because I want to share some ideas I have had in the hope that others will share or that some of these things may be useful to some people in a similar situation.

That's where I am at right now! If you have any thoughts on my process, principles or ideas, please let me know so we can start a discussion. I'm very much new to this and any additional opinions or recommendations are very welcome.

P.S. By recommendation of the author himself, I've just ordered myself a copy of Doing Text: Media After the Subject, so I imagine my ideas will develop after reading that!

You can access a pdf copy of the map by clicking the link below: