By Stacy Huber
Essential Question:
Does media influence or
reflect teenage views and behaviors?
Target Level:
9-10 Grade English
Outcomes:
Students will become aware
of their wants and values and what shaped them.
Students will investigate
advertising targeted toward teenagers.
Students will become aware
of persuasive techniques used to make them buy.
Students will create
advertising for two different audiences.
Students will keep a journal
of their advertising exposure.
Students will connect their
perceptions of different groups of people to music videos.
Students will keep a journal
of media vocabulary.
Students will become smarter
consumers and media literate.
Students will write a
persuasive essay debating the essential question: Does media influence or only
reflect teenage views and behaviors?
Questions posed:
What is media?
What is advertising?
How often are you exposed to it?
How much TV do you watch per day? week?
month? year?
How often do you listen to music?
How often are you surfing the net?
Do you wear clothes with logos?
How do advertisers persuade you to buy?
Who gets the money?
Do media play a part in shaping you views and
behaviors?
Why do you want what you want?
What good do media do?
Do companies market to teens?
Why learn about media literacy?
Are analytical about media or only critical?
Can you recognize when you are being persuaded?
Do music videos shape how you see men, women, and sex
and violence?
What can you do about it?
Daily Lesson Plan:
See each day
Assessment:
Wksht. 1 “Wants and Desires” 10
Wksht. 2 “Argumentation and Persuasion” 10
Wksht. 3 “Matching Techniques” 10
Wksht. 4 “Advertising Analysis” 10
Wksht. 5 “Deceptive Advertising” 10
Wksht. 6 “Music Video Analysis” 20
Hmwrk. 1 “Brand Names” 15
Hmwrk. 2 “Print Advertising” 15
Hmwrk. 3 “Wrksht
1, col. 3” 15
Hmwrk. 4 “Two Target Audiences” 50
Hmwrk. 5 “Parody Ads” 25
Hmwrk
Vocabulary list 30
Handouts : Slogan Quiz, Persuasive Words,
Articles, Persuasive Essay Components
Final Projects:
Persuasive Essay 150
Traditional Test 150
= 520 total points
Concept: What
do we desire and why do we desire it?
Can media and advertising shape our desires?
Outcomes:
Students will identify what they
want and why they value it.
Students will draw links to
advertising to those wants and values.
Students will identify feelings
that come with owning brand names.
Students will demonstrate an understanding
of the links between status, consumption and advertising.
Students will become aware of our own
feelings and perceptions regarding what advertisers tell us we 'must have'.
Lesson Introduction: Students often know what they want, but do they know why they want
them? Today’s lesson will introduce the
entire unit and help the students begin to think about how the media may shape
their wants and values. It is important not to mention media at this
point. You don’t want to lead the
answers. Then, it becomes a critical unit not an analytical unit.
Student Activities:
Writing Into The Day 1: What do you want?
* Students will use the first
five minutes of class to free-write in their journals based on this posed
question: What do you want most in life? Make
a list of things, ideas, and experiences.
*The next five minutes the
teacher will write down volunteered answers to that question on the board or
the overhead.
*Students will chose their top
five answers and record them in worksheet
#1, column 1.
*Students and teacher will
discuss column 2 on worksheet, then students will complete.
*Column 3 will be used at a
later time.
Homework Activity: Social
Status and Designer Wear (due Day Two)
Activity
Tell students they can work
alone or in partners (each partner has to do their own work, but they might
want to talk to each other about what they are writing). Each student needs a
piece of paper to divide into four parts.
- In the first section, they will write down or draw a picture of one
item of designer/brand name clothes or a designer/brand name accessory
they own or would like to own. Then they will cut that item out of a
magazine, or one like it.
- In the second section, they will describe some positive things
people might assume about them if they had or wore that particular thing.
- In the third section, they will describe some negative things people
might assume about them if they had or wore that particular thing.
- In the fourth section they will write why they think other people
might think some of the things they stated in sections 2 and 3 of their
page. Their pages will look like this Homework
1.
|
1. Brand name thing I own or would like to own: |
2. Positive things people
might assume about me if I had it or wore it: |
|
3. Negative things people
might assume about me if I had it/ wore it: |
4. How I know/why I think people would assume these
things about me: |
Conclusion: Class Challenge: Tell students that tomorrow is "no logo"
day. The challenge is for each student to come to school in clothing that has
no identifiable brand labels or logos. When students come to class next day,
see who has the fewest logos showing. Give them 3 bonus points.
Concept:
How does one persuade another?
Outcomes:
Students will become aware of what
feelings are associated with wearing name-brands.
Students will list ways to change
perceptions about them other than the brands they wear or own.
Students will name persuasive techniques
advertisers use to persuade them.
Students will write persuasive paragraphs
using specific language to convince the reader.
Lesson
Introduction: This lesson will pick up with discussion
of the homework assignment due today.
Students and teacher will discuss the answers about designer brand names
and the feelings they give us.
Writing into the day Activity: How’d you feel about no-logo day?
·
In
their journals have students reflect on how easy or
difficult this was for them to do, and how they felt about dressing in this
manner.
·
How
did their friends react when they found out students were doing this?
·
Next,
ask some people to share the name of the product they chose with the class.
Questions for discussion:
- Were many of the answers similar? What was similar about them?
- Even if the products mentioned were different, were the responses
in sections 2, 3, and 4 similar?
- If you have seen any of the items people mentioned advertised,
where did you see them? Were they trying to market to teens?
- How many of the things people mentioned are easily recognizable
brand names?
- How can other people tell what brand it is? Is the name prominently
displayed?
- Does the prominence of the brand name say anything about the person
wearing it?
- Why do you think teens like brand names so much?
- Other than buying and wearing products, what can we do to improve
people's perceptions of us?
Key Point: Companies want us to base our identities on their
products. Teenagers (like everyone else) need to feel like they are accepted,
and advertisers make them feel like they would be if they wore the right
clothes or owned the right stuff.
Activity: Logos? Pathos? and Ethos?
1.)
The teacher will show print ads and video of ads and discuss how the
advertiser is trying to make you feel.
2.)
Remember a time when you have tried to persuade your parents or anyone
to let you do something or get something or believe the way you do. How did you do it? (Write answers on board) Students will generate a good list of techniques
such as logic, threats, facts, appeal to emotions:
guilt, affection, etc.
3.) So what is
persuasion? Write down your definition in your vocabulary list. Persuasion: the act of moving by
argument to a belief, opinion or course of action.
4. ) Using worksheet
2, students and teacher will discuss the three: logos, pathos, ethos. Write these down in your vocabulary list. Begin vocabulary list with media.
5. ) Students will
write three paragraphs using a different technique to persuade someone to buy
something or believe something or to get permission to do something. Do not label which technique was being used.
6. ) Students will
exchange paragraphs and try and label which ones their neighbor used. Also, write which paragraph was the most
convincing.
7. ) How many thought Pathos? Ethos?
Logos?
Conclusion: Review words and ideas of the three and the vocab.
Concept: What do advertisers do to persuade us? What do they call their techniques?
Outcomes:
Students will learn the techniques advertisers use to
persuade us.
Lesson
Introduction: The students will enter the classroom and
a slogan quiz will be on
their desks. They must take this. Prize for the most correct. (Something insignificant that fits the mindless
bank of knowledge.)
Discussion:
·
Ask academic
questions like Who was our fourth President? How many feet in a mile? Who wrote Scarlet Letters? Explain the
greenhouse effect.
·
Why don’t we
know these answers, yet we can remember that 4 out of 5 dentists prefer Trident
or that a swoosh means Nike???
·
Are we being
brainwashed? Why and how are ads for
these products so convincing? Can we
escape them?
- What are some ways in which advertisers try and
persuade us? What is an ad? We’ve identified advertisements all
around us. Get out your journals
and write down a definition of “advertisement.”
What is an
advertisement? An ad is
something that is trying to influence a person to "buy" (or
adopt) a product, service or idea. (Answers will vary!)
·
Let’s make a
list of where advertisers place their ads.
What is an advertisement? Are
there any in school? Yes, you wear them
everyday –we’ve proved that in the no-logo day.
- We’ve talked about Logos, Pathos, and Ethos? What are they again? How do advertisers use them? Let’s take a look at some techniques and
their names.
Worksheet
3: Matching techniques
Powerpoint on advertising techniques
- Which techniques had pathos? ethos?
and logos?
Conclusion:
Discussion on commercials that use these techniques.
Concept: Can we pick apart an advertisement and become
smart consumers?
Outcomes:
Students will become aware of persuasive
techniques in advertising.
Students will be able to match commercials and
advertisements with the technique being used.
Activity: Dissecting an Ad.
1.) Show three commercials and fill out worksheet 4 for each ad.
2.) Discuss the worksheet. Are any of the techniques we learned about
being used? Which ones?
2.) Using only the techniques
discussed. In groups of two, identify
techniques in the next five commercials shown in class. Explain why it fits that technique in a
paragraph.
Conclusion: Model Homework
2 for the homework assignment.
Homework: Have students find two effective print
ads and fill out Homework 2
for the next day. Use language in logos,
pathos, ethos terms.
Concept: What are advertisers selling? Are they really selling the product or are
they selling image and ideas that they want associated with their product or
service?
Outcomes:
Students will learn specific language
that advertisers use.
Students will question if advertisers are
selling a product or an image.
Intro: Discuss homework assignment 2. Discuss
the Handout 1 Persuasive Words used
in print advertising. Why do they
work? What magazines appealed to
you? Do the placement of the ads
(publication, position, color, left or right page)
matter to their effectiveness?
In these print ads…
- What do you notice first?
What info is given about the product?
What is shown as important in the image?
What is the lifestyle or fantasy being promoted?
What is the message of the ad?
Key
note: Try to get the students to notice that very
little info about the product is actually offered; instead, an image or fantasy
is created. Thus, the consumer is led to believe that the product is the key to
the lifestyle or fantasy.
Create a list of what is being promoted
in groups of three. Make a list on posterboard. As a
class identify those things: youth, sex, fun, money, exercise, joy, love. . .
Conclusion: Review and assign Homework 3:
Have students go back to worksheet
1 and find ads that advertise what they want and value. Write down the magazine or the show that it
was on during.
Concept: Are companies marketing to teens? If so, Why? Where?
How? Does media shape or reflect
teenage behaviors and views?
Outcomes:
Students will understand that advertisers
spend a lot of time, money, and effort to market to teens.
Students will question what “cool” is.
Students will be able to answer the
question: Does media shape or reflect teen
society?
Students will understand that our media
is owned by only five major conglomerates.
Students will discuss and understand the
term “feedback cycle”.
Students will create ads for two
different audiences.
Introduction:
Discuss homework. Segue into target audience and
demographics. Introduce video. Ask questions the video attempts to answer.
Watch Merchants of Cool (56 minutes) (USD Library LRL)
Summary of Video: "Frontline journeys into the world of
the marketers of popular culture to teenagers. They spend their days sifting
through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus
groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of
the 'next big thing' that will snare the attention of their prey, a market
segment worth an estimated $300 billion a year. They are the merchants of cool:
the creators and sellers of popular culture, who have made teens the hottest
consumer demographic in
Using the PBS website, discuss themes and
read interviews, especially the ones by kids.
Using the teacher’s guide, discuss the
interviews done with teens and their reactions to the videos.
Do you agree with them or not?
What do you think about the five
conglomerate owners of your media?
What do you think of cool hunters?
Do you believe media is a reflection of
your behavior and ideas or the cause of them?
Vocabulary: Demographics and Target Audience
Conclusion: Create
two ads using the same product. One
targeted at teenagers and the other at any other group. See homework 4.
What
is cool?
Outcomes:
Students will define what “cool” is.
Students will read articles about being
cool and share with class.
Introduction:
Writing into the day:
What is cool? List things and ideas that are cool.
Groups discuss answers and make a list of
their top coolest things. These will be posted and all students will circulate
the room, viewing the lists and trying to develop a thesis statement.
Thesis Statement: Cool, as defined by
Cool is a value, one that is extremely
hard to even identify, let alone define. Still, companies realize that they
must be cool to be consumed by teenagers. Here are some of the ways in which
companies have become successful by becoming cool.
Read:
Each group will be given one of these
articles (listed below) to read and present in a jigsaw fashion. As students
read, they should reflect upon this question: Do the techniques used by these
companies sound familiar? Can you cite any ads that use these techniques?
After they read silently, they should
discuss the article in their groups and then prepare a summary of the articles
main points to write up and share.
"Hilfiger"s
Music Ties Hit The Right Note With Teens" Kidscreen
Magazine
"Alloy Bets New Spots Reflect Teen
Spirit" AdvertisingAge, Aug. 1999
"Advertising to Teens" Kidscreen Magazine, Mar. 2000
"Humor: The Hard-Core Kid
Creative" Kidscreen, Feb. 1999
"Best Magazines: Teen-age Girls,
Advertisers Both Heed Seventeen"" AdvertisingAge,
Feb 1999
Conclusion: Writing Out of the Day: Given your
understanding of these articles we just read, do you think these companies are
reflecting or influencing teenagers? Are you Cool? Do you care?
Concept: Can you identify advertisers
techniques? Do you know when you are
being taken advantage of by advertisers?
Outcomes:
Students will show mastery of persuasive
language techniques with a traditional matching or multiple-choice quiz.
Students will learn about unethical and
deceptive advertising.
Students will create situations to prove understanding
of the deceptive techniques.
Activities:
Quiz over techniques and logos, pathos,
and ethos. (persuasion and argumentation)
Worksheet
5 Deceptive Advertising
that advertisers use.
Create 2 situations in groups of two to
show understanding of techniques.
Conclusion:
What happens to advertisers that get caught? Review techniques and help students come up
with situations.
Concept:
Can you create an ad or parody of an ad?
Outcomes:
Students will demonstrate that
advertisements don’t necessarily tell the whole truth about a product.
Students will demonstrate an awareness that advertisements are designed to deliver
very specific messages to consumers.
Activity:
Students will create parody
advertisements Homework 5 Parody Ads.
This will be done in the computer lab
using Microsoft Publisher software.
Students will display their ads on
sharing day.
Conclusion:
Advertisements contain
hidden messages. Look at context.
Concept: Do music videos have an effect on teen’s
behavior and views of sexuality and minorities?
Outcomes:
Students will create a connection between
visual imagery and music.
Students will identify feelings
associated with watching music videos.
Students will identify how minorities and
gender are depicted in music videos.
Students will decide if the videos show
their “authentic” selves.
Introduction: Review advertising and how it affect us. Review different types of media. Review how images and words affect our perceptions
and shape our behaviors. Now what about
music? How does music affect us? Does music mean a lot to you? How about videos? The very first video played on MTV was “Video
Killed the Radio Star” in 1981. Do you
think video has changed the world of music and radio? What does image and sight have to do with
music?
Activities:
Show music video without sound. Ask students to record their feelings as they
watch. Worksheet 6 Music Video Analysis. Discussion will follow. Does this video reflect your true (authentic)
self?
Conclusion:
Writing out of the day: What do videos add to music? Do videos show
your true self? Do you think your perception of minorities and gender is
affected by music videos? Why or why
not?
Concept:
Does violence in the media affect behavior or only reflect it?
Outcomes:
Students will be able to define and
understand “desensitization”
Students will understand the progression
of violence in their media.
Students will answer the concept
question: Does violence affect behavior
or only show what society is already like?
Introduction:
Factual Information about number of incidents of violence on TV and in
movies and in music.
Activities:
Vocabulary: desensitized.
How has violence and sex changed over the
years on TV and movies?
Discuss Ozzy
and Harriet and TV shows from the beginning and now. How about number of violent incidents? What words are allowed on the radio and on TV
that were not 10 years ago, 20 years ago.
Explanation
of desensitization (according to Handout IOANNIDIS
NIKOLAOS)
Young people becoming desensitized to violence
means that they gradually come to not be aroused by violent scenes and to not
be bothered by violence in general. The dominant argument in this respect is
that children perceive screen violence as play or spectacle and somehow become
immune to the horror of violence which makes them as a result less sensitive to
the pain and suffering of others, or even aggressive towards others.
Give
Analogy: Something kids have become used
to because of constant repeat.
Concept:
What good do mass media do? What
does it fulfill in our lives?
Outcomes:
Students will demonstrate an
understanding of what good mass media do for society.
Students will become analytical about
their world and not just critical.
Activities:
Writing into the day: What good do media do? What good does advertisement do?
In groups of three, using the computer
come up with five positive effects of mass media. Explain them in a couple sentences or more.
As a class, go over those positive
findings.
Conclusion:
We need to be analytical not critical.
What does this mean?
Concept:
Review key learnings and present persuasive
essay components.
Outcomes:
Students will demonstrate an overall
understanding of the main points of this unit.
Students will understand what is expected
on the test and in the persuasive essay.
Students will work on unfinished
projects: ad parody, two target audiences, vocabulary
for sharing day tomorrow.
Activities:
Jeopardy Review Game: main concepts,
vocabulary, ad techniques, etc.
Handout Persuasive Essay Components and
discuss.
Work time for finishing projects.
Concept:
Sharing Day
Outcomes:
Students will demonstrate a professional
presentation of their ideas (advertisements and journal writings)
Activities:
Students will present their Ad Parody
Students will present their Target
Audience Ads.
Discussion about the projects will
follow.
Conclusion:
Students will be reminded on Test tomorrow.
Concept: Test
Activity:
Test over material of unit.
Afterward, students should work on essay.
Essay Due on day seventeen.
Day Seven: Are
teens’ perceptions and behaviors shaped by media?
Watch Killing Us Softly by Jean Kilbourne. (USD library in LRL)
This video shows how media
and advertising portrays women and the effects it has on all society.
Dreamworlds 2 [videorecording] : desire/sex/power
in music video / written, edited & narrated by Sut
Jhally.
http://www210.pair.com/udticg/lessonplans/consumerism/index.html
Urban Dreams
OUSD Curriculum Unit
Critical Consumerism: Advertising and Teen Culture
Lesson Plan Author:
Jill Flaningam
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/class/teamed3/teenmarketing1.htm
Media Awareness Network
http://www.writesite.org/html/oti.html
the write site (journalism) graphic organizers and 5 w’s and curriculum
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/lesson_search_results.cfm
media awareness site (complete with lesson plans for ads and media)
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/
lesson plans on keeping up with the Jones’ (media and overconsumption)
lists what commercialism does globally (overconsumption is ruining us)
individuality vs conformity (debate the issue)
music video themes and lessons
teaching about Napster
the function of music
public images how music is occupied with creating images to sell their music
ratings of movies and film
advertising and self-esteem (happiness)
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/senioryear/reachout/quiz.html
television quiz with answers
http://www.medialit.com/beyond_blame.html
Center for media literacy
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/health/pdf/violence.pdf
Violence and media