Alyssa Betz, Sarah Farbacher, Christianna Rivet, David Wishnow

This lesson would align with the following curriculums:◦ Upper Saint Clair: 148 Mass Communications◦ Fox Chapel: English 12 Accelerated

On a note card, describe your favorite commercial. Why is it your favorite commercial? Does it have anything to do with the product? What makes the commercial appealing? What does the commercial tell you?

With the people sitting around you, take 30 seconds and discuss what you think of when I write these words on the board (Addicts, Pickpockets, Dealers, Attacks, Warriors) Have a few people share.

Watch Coca-Cola commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=E8m5d6xENWA Take notes how the commercial changes

the way you feel about the words we discussed previously.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify types of

bias. Students will be able to understand the

relationship between media and bias. Students will be able to objectively compare

two differing perspectives on a single key issue and discern the truth for themselves.

Purpose: Students will understand the persuasive techniques most often used in advertisements.  As we progress through this unit on media and advertising, we will encounter many of these techniques in varying degrees and various forms.  Students will not only be able to identify the techniques, but understand how they work.  Once students have a grasp of persuasive techniques, they will then be able to view them more critically.

Show two YouTube clips of news coverage from the same day of FOX News and NBC News.

Ask students to list everything they know or learned about the government shutdown. Using Give One/Take One students will roam the room and share facts with each other. Ask students to highlight or mark the three facts they feel the most strongly about. Based on those facts, divide into two opposing sides about the shutdown.

Remind students of “160 Characters or Less” lesson. Ask them to talk about what they remember from that lesson.

Write the following two sentences on the board:◦ After the Republican-dominated Senate refused

to meet with President Obama concerning the debt ceiling, the government was shut down, leaving many without a job.

◦ Today the government shutdown because the two parties could not agree.

Engage students in a discussion about what makes language emotionally charged:◦ Strong connotations◦ Evokes an emotional response◦ Suggests an obvious opinion◦ Appeal to a person’s heart rather than head

Return to the sentence that was written on the board initially. Ask students to underline the emotionally charged language.

Take a break.

Distribute graphic organizer (Key 7 Three-Column Personalized Notes) that lists five emotionally-charged sentences in the left column. Ask students to first identify the emotionally charged language in the center column then rewrite the sentences so they deliver the information in a more direct way without an appeal to emotion or obvious bias in the right column.

Discuss as a class students’ rewritten examples. 

For the culminating aspect of this lesson, students will work with the peers that share the same viewpoint on the government shutdown from the beginning of the lesson.

Distribute three articles about the shutdown◦ One will strongly favor it◦ One will be neutral◦ One will be strongly against it

As students to read the article out loud then underline emotionally charged language and work as a group to create a new article that presents the information in the most basic way.

Product: Present the article to the opposing group to be graded against a rubric and then, using Socrates, submit an ‘exit slip’ that identifies three similarities between the two presentations.

Connection to unit: This lesson functions as an introduction to the way language is used in the media. Throughout our unit, we focus on how language is used to influence people’s perceptions.

Media Smart Introduction◦ Video that introduces students to the idea of

media Social Implications of Media

◦ Discusses explicit/implicit messages Name That Brand!

◦ Learn about the “branding” process in America Admongo

◦ Live the adventure with this advertising game Socrates

◦ Used in our example lesson to submit exit slips

Media Bias: Finding it, Fixing it By David Sloan◦ This book focuses on the arguments made about how media bias

impacts the views of issues such as politics, ideology, crime, race, gender, and many more.

Race, Class and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study by Paula S. Rothenberg◦ This book focuses on race, class, and gender issues.

Politics and the Media By Debra A. Miller◦ This book focuses on the relationship between the internet and

democracy while looking at the impact that media has on politics. Media Mash: A weekly review of bias in the news

◦ a video produced by Fox News to show bias that has occurred in the news.

Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News by Bernard Goldberg◦ A book that focuses on Bernard Goldberg’s realization of the slanted

quality of news reports that he was reporting. 

Persuasive Techniques in Print Advertising:◦ Scaffolded Instruction (Modeling, Guided Practice,

Independent Practice)◦ Partner/small group work

“160 Characters or Less”◦ Small group work◦ Presentations

How Media Influences Perception of Race/Gender◦ Group and individual work◦ Visual/graphic organizers to organize information

Hard News vs. Soft News◦ Think, Pair, Share◦ Whole class discussion◦ Graphic organizer

Bias in the Media◦ Give One/Take One◦ Small Group and Large Group Work

Research Paper Make Your Own Commercial Design a Print Advertisement

Make Your Own Commercial◦ Work in a small group with 3 of your peers

Writer (writes script and researches) Director (creates storyboard and films) Editor (edits final product) Actor (reads script)

Create a commercial for a social justice issue Complete these 2 steps:

◦ Complete storyboard with 12 frames that will appear in the video

◦ Write the script Make sure to identify your target audience!

Gallery wall of “busted” advertisements Quickwrite at end of class Presentation Collect completed graphic organizer Online discussion board

Adam Learns best through auditory explanations, visual

demonstrations, his MI strengths are intrapersonal and spatial Goals:

◦ To meet standards and goals of general curriculum with a C average with needed adaptations

His LD affects his learning in the general education curriculum in the following ways:◦ Difficulty processing information through one modality◦ Difficulty reading text information above sixth-grade level

SDI: books on tape or text on CDs that he can read on the computer, abridged novels, or novels on his reading level, visual organizers, structured outlines to support lectures, in-class activities

Example lesson: Video (visual) Group work (intrapersonal relationships) Three Column Personal Notes (graphic

organizer) Peers read articles out loud (strength in audio)

Resources: Videos (visual) Socrates (modeling) Admongo (intrinsically motivating)

Final Products:◦ Visual, creative option◦ Allows for group work

Multiple Assessments: Focus on intrapersonal and spatial strengths (i.e.

small group discussions, completed graphic organizers, etc.)