Lesson plan:

Johnno is deaf. If the students have no experience of deafness it might be useful to explain the relationship between hearing and speech so that students understand why Johnno's speech is difficult to understand.

View the film then replay part
Replay the scene in the family's living room. Discuss each character's behaviour and ask students to suggest the character's motivation, e.g.

• Why does Johnno free the crabs?
• Why is his father angry?
• How does Johnno's father feel about Johnno's deafness?
• What is Julie's response to Johnno?
  

The aim of the discussion is to take students beyond the obvious and get them to understand the strains that Johnno's disability places on other family members.

Analyse film techniques

Examine the camera work. Replay the scene in which Johnno's father lies in bed and talks to his wife. Ask students to watch the movement of the camera around the bed. Discuss the effect of the bed rails forming dark bars through which we see Johnno's father. Why might the filmmaker prefer to use this shot rather than simply a close-up of the father's face? Link the type of shot used to the creation of mood in the scene.

Johnno and (Tony) the Italian immigrant form an unspoken bond. Look at the jetty scenes and church scene. They are both outsiders and the object of ridicule by others. Discuss the scenes which mark each of them as different from others (neither have acess to the English language). What qualities does Tony have that Johnno's father lacks?

Examine the scene in which the teacher kills Captain Claw and Johnno loses his temper. Look at how drama and suspense is created in this scene. Focus on:

• the length of each shot (fast editing)
• the use of dramatic close-ups and angles (low angle close-up of teacher's face, low angle of Johnno)
• the loud sound effects (the banging of the cricket bat),
  dramatic music
• the effect of the use of low angle shots.

5. Focus on body language. Replay the scene in which Johnno's father beats him. There is no dialogue in this scene but it is very compelling. Discuss how Johnno's father feels after the thrashing based on the viewers' interpretation of the father's body language.

6. Look at the scene in which Johnno is at sea in the storm. Film has the capacity to present situations which never actually happened. This is possible because individual shots, perhaps taken many miles and months apart, can be edited together. How is the scene of Johnno at sea in a storm created through selective editing? (Look at the choice of shots and the sequence in which they are edited together.)

7. The people who have rejected Johnno make a symbolic gesture to welcome him back at the conclusion, eg.

• teacher uses sign language
• father hugs him
• children clap
  

Identify and discuss the importance of symbolic language to:

• the hearing impaired
• the hearing world.

8. Ask students to develop a list of television characters who are in some way impaired/disabled. Discuss the following

• How representative is the list of the range of disabilities in our society?
• Are the characters shown to have abilities as well as disabilities?

9. The Hollywood film industry is showing increasing sensitivity to individuals with special problems. This theme could be further developed through study of one or more of these titles:

• The Miracle Worker.1962. story of Helen Keller.
• Charly. 1968 based on the short story "Flowers for Algernon" about a man with a mental disability..
• Edward Scissorhands.1990.

10. This film raises a number of issues about family life - conflict responsibility, adjustment. Discuss students own experiences of disablitiy in families and how people they know have responded. Discuss the sort of support that families with disabled members need.