CAP THAT! helps Australian teachers boost literacy and inclusion with captions

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Tuesday, 5 July 2011 12:14pm

In the lead-up to National Literacy and Numeracy Week, Media Access Australia has today launched CAP THAT!, a new campaign asking teachers Australia-wide to turn on captions in the classroom to boost literacy and inclusion for students.

With proven benefits for all students, captions - subtitles that include speech and other sounds - are a tool already available on many DVDs, online videos and TV programs used in the classroom. By simply turning captions on, teachers can help bridge the gap for Deaf and hearing impaired students, ESL students, struggling readers and students with learning disabilities, while benefiting the whole class.

Media Access Australia CEO Alex Varley said, “Captions help all students link together spoken and written language and improve their comprehension and vocabulary. Australian teachers have a great opportunity to make a very real difference for their students.”

Research shows that while captions are essential for hearing impaired children, these students will often not ask for captions for fear of being singled out.

“What can really become just a simple habit for a teacher could mean the difference between inclusion and exclusion for some students,” said Varley.

The cap that! website provides downloadable teaching resources such as lesson plans and activity sheets that incorporate captions, and the resources for educators to be informed about what captions are, how to find captioned resources and how to turn on captions on TV, DVDs and online videos.

By signing up to cap that! news alerts, teachers, librarians and principals can keep up-to-date with developments in access to education and captioning, when new resources are added to the site and cap that! progress around Australia.

Educators also have the chance to win 1 of 8 ClickView 2 subscriptions for schools, and captioned entertainment DVDs and cinema passes for teachers, by sharing their ideas about using captions in the classroom.

Visit www.capthat.com.au and follow us on Twitter (@cap_that) to get involved and help improve learning outcomes for all students.

cap that! is proudly sponsored by Australian Communication Exchange, with major prize sponsor ClickView and supporting prize sponsors Hoyts, Event Cinemas, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.


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