Lesson Plan:

Are you for real?

This lesson is particularly relevant for years 3 - 5
Pre-record and view excerpts from current television cartoons, soapies, drama, sitcoms or a children's series.

Discuss the concepts of real people and actors pretending or acting a role. Introduce terminology such as sets, props, costumes and special effects. Discuss how each contributes to the illusion of reality in the imaginary worlds portrayed in the excerpts viewed by students. Create a table to record relevant information, for example:

Program excerpt	Character	Actor	Sets used	Props, costumes used	Special effects
Superman flying over building	Superman	Christopher Reeves	Tops of buildings	Special suit with cape	Illusion of flying

Have each student select the excerpt they think best achieved a sense of reality. Create a pie graph to display results. Consider the top three excerpts and discuss the techniques or features that helped these to achieve a sense of reality.

Discuss as a class

•Are characters on a TV soapie showing their own real lives? Whose lives are they showing?
•Are characters we see in television cartoons real?
•What is the difference between real life people and characters on television or in films?
•What things can television or film characters do that real people cannot do? Can Superman fly?
When an actor is hurt on television are they hurt in real life?
•What types of television programs show real life people?
•How are imaginary television or film worlds and the real world alike and different?

View the scene from Episode 1 where the children meet the Silver Shadow. The Silver Shadow has been described as a ‘real live dead superhero’. Discuss the meaning of this phrase. Is The Silver Shadow real? Was he ever real? Is he alive? Was he ever alive? Is he a dead superhero? Why do you think the creators of this series decided to create a character who exists as a memory in a computer? What about the children who meet him? Are they real? Which characters seem most believable? Why?

Construct a bar graph to show students favourite TV programs. Take turns to discuss what it is about the favourite programs that contribute to engagement and enjoyment. Encourage students to consider set design, effects, props, costumes, script and acting.

Read, discuss and display magazine articles detailing the personal lives of actors. Have students select a character from the favourite programs graph and ask them to find out the name of the actor portraying that character. Challenge students to locate information about the real life of the actor. Compare and contrast the portrayal of characters lives with what the media tells us about their real lives.

View the credit sequence of an episode of The Legacy of The Silver Shadow to find out and record the names of the actors who portray each main character. Choose one of the main characters and make some predictions about their real lives.

Look at the bios on The Legacy of the Silver Shadow web site for some of the characters from Legacy of The Silver Shadow and distribute to the students. Discuss; do you think that the actors real lives are like this? View Episode 6 then ask the students to work with a partner to use what they know about The Crab and the Silver Shadow to write a pen portrait for one of these characters.

Print out the interview with Fiona the Crab-Girl
Who is Eloise Mignon?
What surprised you about this actor's real life? Why was that surprising?
How is the imaginary life of Crab-Girl similar to the life of Eloise Mignon?
How is the imaginary life of Crab-Girl different from the life of Eloise Mignon?

Have students work in groups of four to make a Memory Game. Create 20 pairs of cards that match an actor with a character they portray in Legacy of the Silver Shadow or other children's television programs or films. Challenge another class and teachers to play.

View episode 3. Pin up a large piece of paper and get students to create a mural showing some of the things Crab-Girl can do that Eloise Mignon would not be able to do in real life. Encourage students to also add ideas from other episodes they have viewed.

On another large sheet of paper have students list weapons, tools or equipment invented by The Crab and used by Crab-Girl. Use a table like the one below to indicate what each invention can do and whether or not it is an imaginary invention or something that exists in real life.

Discuss why inventions listed above might have been included in the series? How did each invention add to the storyline? In small groups have students improvise a 30 second radio advertisement "selling" one of these inventions to a superhero. Take turns to share advertisements.

Visual Effects. (VFX)
Begin a class "FX List". As the class views episodes of The Legacy of the Silver Shadow, list events or inventions that might have required visual or special effects to make them seem believable.

View the credit sequence of episode 6 of The Legacy of the Silver Shadow to discover how many people were involved in creating the imaginary world seen in The Legacy of the Silver Shadow. Discuss: Who was the person responsible for supervising VFX (visual effects)? What is this person’s title? How do you think this job would contribute to making imaginary events in the series seem real? Ask students to imagine that they are applying for this job. Use the job application worksheet 5 (pdf file) to list five skills they would need to have to do this job well.

Print the How did they do that? The special effects in Legacy of the Silver Shadow, Interview with the VFX Supervisor . Have students research the difference between visual and special effects.

1. How was Eloise Mignon able to do some of the amazing feats seen in the series? Discover how special and visual effects were used to enhance weapons, tools, equipment and action in the series.

2. Use the library or Internet to find out more about special and visual effects used to create imaginary television and film worlds. Make a list of as many different effects as possible. Categorise them as either visual or special effects. A good place to start is at http://utminers.utep.edu/lacarrera/, The Revolution of Special Effects in the Movies’.

Create a class factual text to explain some of the special or visual effects used in Legacy of the Silver Shadow or other television or film stories. Remember to include a table of contents, index and a glossary to explain technical terms.

After reading about how the Cloak of Shadows effect was created, view episode 4 where Josh drops the cloak. With the students examine the way he had to hold and use the imaginary prop. The students then work in groups of four to develop a new scene using the "Cloak of Shadows". Students rehearse until they feel confident they could convince an audience that they were using the cloak. Groups share their scenes.

That's a good idea – invent it!

An inventor is someone who solves problems. Inventors can be male, female, young or old. Whenever someone comes up with a new solution to a problem, he or she is an inventor. Every day we use inventions that we simply take for granted, from the potato peeler to the calculator. For each one of these objects there was an inventor or inventors. Complete the worksheet Australian Inventions that changed the world (Crash Zone program). Discuss how these inventions affected people's lives and add your own ideas. For more activities related to inventions see Crash Zone Lesson Idea: The Robin Hood Factor creativity, ethics and piracy!

Find out more about men and women who invented many of the everyday things we use in our daily lives by visiting your library or conducting an Internet search. Relevant sites include:
http://members.aol.com/acalendar/February/11th.html
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/inventors.htm
Challenge: find out about some unusual, less well-known or less used inventions. Use the Inventors and Inventions worksheet to complete a commendation certificate for one of these inventors. Create an advertising poster ‘promoting’ the invention.
Students complete worksheet 6 Inventions and Inventors
Work in groups of six to conduct two surveys; one for teachers and one for parents. Plan questions that will help you to find out:
• what they think the worst invention has ever been
• the invention that annoys them the most and
• the invention they need that has not yet been invented.

Create a multimedia display or representation of class findings using software such as Kahootz, KidPix or Powerpoint. Share findings with the class.

List the inventions of both the Silver Shadow and The Crab you have noticed while viewing episodes. View episodes 12 and 13 and add any other inventions. Create a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) table for each invention, for example,

The Crab's Inventions

How many of these inventions are real? Why have they been included in the series? What types of powers do they give the character who uses them? What powers do The Crab and the Silver Shadow have without these inventions?

Get students to consider the powers, tools, inventions or weapons used by each of the children. In what ways did these objects contribute to them becoming heroes? Could they be described as superheroes? Why or why not? If they were superheroes what type of invention would they like to have to help them perform heroic actions?

Ask students to invent a new weapon or tool that would help a superhero solve problems peacefully. Draw it to scale, write a description of it and an explanation of how it works. Make a model of it and hold a class exhibition of all the inventions.

References

J. Hamilton, Special Effects in Film and Television, Dorling Kindersley, London, 1998.
L. O’Brien, Lights, Camera, Action!, Owl Books, Ontario, 1998.
D. Parkinson, The Young Oxford Book of Cinema, Oxford, 1995.
R. Quin, B. McMahon, and R. Quin, In the Picture, Curriculum Corporation, Carlton, Victoria, 1997.
R. Quin, B. McMahon, and R. Quin, Teaching Viewing and Visual Texts Primary, Curriculum Corporation, Carlton, Victoria, 1996.
D. Travers, and J. Hancock, eds, Teaching Viewing: ten units of learning with visual texts, Dept for Education and Children’s Services, Adelaide, 1996.