Response to investigate
It looks good because the colours are nice.
Practical disciplinary literacy
Art & Design: disciplinary literacy in practice
Read a visual composition and connect a design choice to audience, purpose and evidence.
The task students are answering
Material to use
Use the sample poster below. Design brief: visitors should identify the exhibition first and then find its date and venue. This simple mock-up is for analysing hierarchy, not a finished artwork.
Ask students
Which visual choice helps visitors identify the exhibition? Which detail may be harder to read? Explain a revision and how you would test it.
Expected response
Three annotations on the poster: choice → intended effect; readability concern; proposed revision and audience test.
What to look for
- Names a visible feature such as size, contrast or placement.
- Connects that feature to the design brief.
- Proposes an observable readability check rather than relying only on preference.
How a response can develop
The model and sample responses below address the question above. Reveal the teaching interpretation after discussing what is clearer in the improved response.
Choice
A large dark heading sits above a quieter pale information panel.
Purpose
Visitors should identify the exhibition before reading details.
Evaluate
Check the heading at two metres and ask a viewer to locate the date; compare results with the intended hierarchy.
More precise response
The dark heading stands out against the pale background, helping visitors identify the exhibition first. A viewing test should check whether the date remains readable at the intended distance.
Reveal the teaching interpretation
Move from preference to an evidenced evaluation. The learner can point to or annotate a visual choice before developing the written explanation.
These are invented teaching samples. One response alone does not establish proficiency, attainment or a learning difficulty.
Teacher preparation and teaching sequence
Prepare the material described in Visual model. Read the exact student question aloud and show the expected response before modelling. For Music and PE, supply the recording or demonstration first.
- Read or observe: introduce the task: Evaluate the hierarchy and readability of an exhibition poster.
- Model: think aloud through the three-part model, connecting each decision to the evidence.
- Notice: compare the two sample responses. Identify one meaning difference, not just a difference in length.
- Rehearse: Annotate a poster with choice → intended effect → audience test. Redesign one element after peer feedback.
- Transfer: Evaluate a different poster for a different audience using a specific choice and observable criterion.
Useful language to notice
The dark heading stands out against the pale background, helping visitors identify the exhibition first. A viewing test should check whether the date remains readable at the intended distance.
Highlight words that connect evidence, explanation and qualification. Choose a small useful phrase set rather than asking learners to memorise the entire model.
Use the task with your class
Student instructions
Which visual choice helps visitors identify the exhibition? Which detail may be harder to read? Explain a revision and how you would test it.
Produce: Three annotations on the poster: choice → intended effect; readability concern; proposed revision and audience test.
Independent follow-up
Apply the same questions to another poster with a different audience. Explain how the audience changes your evaluation.
Use the fresh task after practice. Record what the learner achieves and which supports remain necessary.
Adapt and keep your resource
Edit these fields for your class or department. Drafts stay in this browser; use anonymised evidence. Download an editable text copy to keep it elsewhere.
Model the decisions, then invite a response
“How does that choice help this audience do something?”
“What evidence supports that connection?”
“Which condition, exception or limitation matters here?”
Respond to the sample
Move from preference to an evidenced evaluation. The learner can point to or annotate a visual choice before developing the written explanation.
First establish the learner’s subject meaning through talk, a sketch or a familiar-language response. Then address one English choice that helps communicate that meaning.
Access, independence and department use
Access: introduce essential terms with a representation; allow bilingual notes, partner rehearsal and a brief sentence frame. Keep the subject reasoning.
Independence: use fresh content and remove the full model. Retain required access arrangements and record any prompts.
Department pilot: use this routine in one unit. Collect a small anonymised sample before and after teaching, note the support provided and review with an EAL colleague.
Plan a manageable pilotArt & Design: disciplinary literacy in practice
Everyday communication and academic language
BICS is a useful shorthand for interpersonal communication; CALP draws attention to the language demands of academic learning. They are not two learner categories or a direct WIDA/CEFR conversion. Familiar conversation can conceal difficulty with a dense text or an unfamiliar subject explanation. Look at the task, context, support and individual language domains.
Plan from what learners can do
WIDA’s Key Uses provide a useful way to identify the communicative purpose: recount, explain, argue or discuss. Use the grade-band descriptors with the learner’s domain-specific evidence and choose support that keeps the subject thinking intact.
- Recount: Describe the sequence of decisions in making an artwork.
- Explain: Explain how contrast directs attention in a selected image.
- Argue: Justify a choice of composition by referring to its intended effect and visual evidence.
- Discuss: Compare two interpretations, referring to specific features rather than personal preference alone.
Open the subject language planner
Original teaching examples informed by WIDA Can Do Descriptors. They are not official descriptors or predicted assessment outcomes.