Tertiary Catalogue

Overcome a Writing Block is a video addressing a common problem of writer's block. For many of us, it's fear of staring at a blank page and wondering what to say. In this video, behavioural expert Peter Quarry explains how to overcome a writing block. Overcome a Writing Block is a video, in which you will learn to start by dumping words and ideas on a page, as a mindmap or like a lump of clay, and you can begin to shape it however you like. You will learn that gradually your writing momentum will build and you will discover an exciting opportunity to unlock thoughts and expressions you never realised you had within you. Show Less

This video examines common ways of creating fake news, such as maintaining a website that hosts misleading articles and using social media accounts and chatbots to increase traffic. It also explores the common reasons Fake News is generated and demonstrates how deliberate design and language choices can be used to trick and confuse people. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

The way in which news is delivered and consumed has changed rapidly over time and continues to evolve today. This video examines some of the issues that have arisen from this, defining fake news and explaining and providing examples of hoaxes, scams, clickbait, jokes, advertising, spin, propaganda, satire and sensationalism. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This engaging video tests what students have learned from the ‘Fake News’ series by checking their ability to distinguish real news from fake news. It includes ‘news’ such as clickbait from ELLE magazine, Russia releasing lions into the streets and the use of misleading images by news outlets. An essential resource for consolidating the knowledge about digital literacy that secondary students have gained from the rest of the series. Show Less

People frequently make important decisions about their health, families and political issues based on news, without knowing whether it is fake or true. This video shows how making, consuming and sharing fake news about events that never took place or conspiracy theories about prominent people and provocative topics can have extremely serious consequences. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This video equips students with strategic skills to analyse and easily spot fake news. It explores how to perform a visual check of an app or website, conduct reverse image searches and look for unusual domain extensions or misspelled words and poor grammar to verify whether news is real of fake. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This video explores the factors that make fake news easy to believe. Case studies, including the story of Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump for president and dolphins in Venice during the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrate how modern busy lifestyles mean we are prone to falling for fake news, making it an extremely powerful communication tool for governments, organisations and individuals. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This video explores the basic concept of sentence structure. Gil T. Mann is very close to learning the result of his court trial. The sentence structures contained in his written statement will determine whether he is found guilty, or just plain Gil T. Learners from secondary school age up to adulthood will benefit from this humorous exploration of simple, complex, and run-on sentences, and the value of the humble conjunction. Show Less

Learners can struggle with conjugation and tense agreement. It all sounds like utter linguistic jargon to Gil T. Mann. But these are actually core grammar concepts we use every day when writing English. Gil quickly learns the importance of matching the number of nouns with the correct conjugation of a verb, as well as using consistent verb tenses to get his meaning across on the stand. Will he learn quickly enough to get himself out of trouble? Show Less

This video explores basic grammar questions for learners: When should you use a comma? How do you use quotation marks in your writing to show someone else is speaking? And what on earth is the difference between a colon and a semi-colon, anyway?! Many learners from secondary school age up to adult struggle with these basic grammar concepts. Gil T. Mann shares the same frustrations as he fumbles his way through his written defence statement in court. Will he be able to correctly punctuate his innocence? Show Less

Ever wondered how to create a killer publication layout? Come and explore the visual and interactive elements of media texts with the irrepressible Bertram Poppingstock. In this episode, he launches into a mission to stop an evil media mogul from destroying the world with her hideous, sub-standard media publications. Who knew that visual print media layouts were so important? Show Less

Bertram Poppingstock is as determined as ever to save the world from his latest archrival – an evil media mogul manipulating the news to serve her own diabolical agenda. Want to become a savvier consumer of popular media? From sensationalised hard news to human interest stories and gossip columns, you’ll soon be an expert on techniques used to deliver news and entertainment in print and electronic media. Show Less

Tired of lame media clichés? Well, so are we, along with our auspicious pal, Bertram Poppingstock. Come along with us on our mission to weed out and stifle stereotypes in the media. We trace the origins of media stereotypes from false assumptions, traditions and prejudice, and look at how they are represented in popular media and how we should respond to them. Show Less

Do you find yourself getting all hot under the collar because of media bias? Well, Bertram Poppingstock knows exactly how you feel. Watch as he wages a one man war against biased reporting in print and electronic media, explaining to us mere mortals the ins and outs of persuasive media spin. Topics covered include rhetorical techniques and the use of evidence to manipulate a target audience. Show Less

This engaging clip provides clear and precise instructions to students who wish to develop fluency and neatness in their handwriting. A difficult skill to master, handwriting requires practice of simple, repeatable exercises such as those presented in this program. Left-handed writing is also addressed, with useful tips accompanied by graphic demonstrations. Show Less

Elmore is trying to construct the perfect movie trailer and Izzy wants to win an upcoming school debate. The secret to success might just lie in their abilities to use high modality language and nominalisation to improve the persuasiveness and strength of their presentations. Understanding when and how to use decisive language is an important skill for all students of English to learn. Show Less

Izzy and Elmore are both preparing speeches they have to give at upcoming conventions. It’s a perfect opportunity for Elmore to help Izzy improve her presentation by employing techniques for academic and technical writing. Abstraction, jargon, nominalisation and more sophisticated clause structures are introduced within the context of Izzy's unique speech about her favourite pet: cats. Show Less

When Izzy struggles to organise all of her great ideas for her school's 'grammar battle' about whether cats or dogs are better, Elmore enthusiastically offers helpful tips on how to construct effective sentences. Understanding various clause structures just might be the missing ingredient to Izzy's successful presentation. Show Less

Bertram’s video blog about spelling for humour and characterisation doesn’t seem very popular – until one of his fans invites him to do a stand-up comedy routine! But when Bertram goes missing, his friends Polly and Vocab-bot must follow his trail of spelling corrections around the city to find him. Can oxymoron, malapropism and eye dialect really lead them to Bertram – and why can’t Vocab-Bot stop laughing? Show Less

Engrossed in solving a crossword puzzle, Bertram fails to notice when the evil Sir Professor Teacher kidnaps his loyal customer Polly. Forced to participate in a Deadly Spelling Bee to save her, Bertram has to rely on his knowledge of word patterns, acrostics, and word origins to solve the toughest of spelling challenges. Will Sir Professor Teacher finally fail Bertram – or will Polly’s helpful tips save him from total spelling humiliation? Show Less

Sir Professor Teacher has taken the Internet hostage and Bertram has to complete a series of complex spelling challenges to stop him from shutting it down. Along the way Bertram relies on helpful spelling rules for vowel pairs, suffixes, compound words and syllables. There are always exceptions to the rule though! Show Less

Bertram is invited to his former school to make a speech about improving vocabulary when writing. But when his most loyal customer Polly and his robot sidekick Vocab-Bot find him in a trance induced by the diabolical Sir Professor Teacher, they have to follow the strategies in Bertram’s speech to break the spell. Will the effects of vocabulary choices on writing style, specificity and purpose be enough to reboot his mind? Show Less

When Bertram’s nemesis Sir Professor Teacher plants a bomb in the school’s boiler system, it’s up to Bertram and his favourite customer Polly to use their knowledge of vocabulary and reading strategies in order to make sense of a partly burned instruction manual. Knowing about synonyms, morphemes, word families and context has never been more important! Show Less

This accessible program explores common areas that pose challenges for inexperienced writers and provides numerous tips to help them create a well-written and engaging story. From tips on how to hook the reader to creating a successful ending, this valuable resource will get viewers thinking about their own writing and motivate them to overcome the blocks they face along the way. Show Less

Some of the most misused and misunderstood pieces of punctuation are also the smallest. This programme provides a practical review of two important punctuation marks - apostrophes and speech marks. We begin with the troublesome apostrophe - its origins, functions and the reasons why it remains a necessary part of the English language. The programme provides a detailed look at how to use apostrophes to indicate possession and to spell contractions. We also revise the proper use of quotation (or speech) marks, and examine some common errors in using these tricky punctuation marks in written expression. Show Less