Advertising Lesson Plan

Lesson: Magazine Ads and You, the Teenager
By: Rebecca K. Duffy
Primary Subject: Language Arts
Grade Level: Middle School

OVERVIEW/PURPOSE: Advertising is often aimed directly at young people. Not only do they spend $70 billion a year, but they influence their parents' purchase also. Youth are hit by certain appeals - appeals to be like everybody else, sex appeal, even negative appeal. This activity is to increase student awareness of persuasion tactics as seen in magazine advertising.

OBJECTIVE(S): The students will be able to:

1. Identify the persuasive techniques used in magazine advertising.
2. Explore the effects of magazine advertising.

MATERIALS:

1. Vocabulary of relevant terms
2. Enough magazine ads times 4 for each student
3. Bulletin board with advertising techniques pointed out in magazine ads
   
4. Enough worksheets for students to analyze ads
5. Materials to make magazine ads (i.e. paper, colored pens, pencils, crayons, etc.)
   

ACTIVITIES & PROCEDURES:

1. Students are given a vocabulary of relevant terms - basic message, visual image, medium, catchy words, testimonial, bandwagon, positive appeal, negative appeal, product character, product slogan, product comparison, and repetition.
   
2. Students and teacher look at various magazine ads making sure the students understand the terms and techniques. The class works through the attached work sheet together using one of the ads.
3. Students are given three ads to analyze using the work sheet below.
4. Students are divided into groups of three or four. Each group must invent a product and design a magazine ad using 3 of the advertising techniques.
   

MAGAZINE AD HANDOUT:

BRAND NAME & PRODUCT:
_____________________________________________

MEDIUM:
_____________________________________________

BASIC MESSAGE:
_____________________________________________

VISUAL IMAGE:
_____________________________________________

CATCHY WORDS:
_____________________________________________

TECHNIQUE USED AND WHY:
_____________________________________________

TECHNIQUE USED AND WHY:
_____________________________________________

TECHNIQUE USED AND WHY:
_____________________________________________

PERSUASION RATING (1 - 5):
_____________________________________________
                   (1 = Yawn.  5 = I'm sold on this product!)

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This is such an interesting way to teach students about advertising.

What was GOOD about Duffey's lesson?

• Duffey begins the lesson by giving students a real-world application; she shows her students why it is important to know and understand advertising techniques.
  
• Duffey is allowing her students to use a preferred method of learning -- looking at magazines! :)
  
• Before students work on in groups, Duffey gives them an example of exactly what to do; therefore, students know what is expected of them.
  

What would I do to IMPROVE Duffey's lesson?

• Instead of only using magazine advertisements and to incorporate technology into the lesson, I would display the following advertisements. Individually or in groups, students could analyze these advertisements.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Vocabulary Lesson Plan

Lesson: Vocabulary Review
By: Jen Dawes
Primary Subject: Language Arts
Grade Level: Middle School

Vocabulary review can be tedious for everyone. This activity has proven to be "the spoonful of sugar" that makes the inevitable a bit more palatable.

FIRST: Make sure that you have covered the vocabulary in some shape or form, whether you've asked the students to find definitions in the dictionary or you've at least mentioned some of the concepts in class. For this activity it's not essential that everyone have a complete understanding of each term, but at least a few of the kids need to have some idea.

NEXT: Pick six or seven terms that you feel have the best potential to be misunderstood by the class. Tell the students to each take a piece of notebook paper and rip it into eighths, putting their name on each scrap.

THEN: Call out the first term. Students have one minute to write its definition. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT KNOW THE TERM, THIS IS OKAY! Tell them to write a creative definition that would be likely to fool someone else. When the students are done with their definitions, they may walk silently up to your desk and give it to you. At this point, you should be choosing four of the slips: three incorrect versions and one that is acceptable.

FINALLY: Read all four definitions. Tell students that they are to vote for the ONE correct term. Let the voting commence and write the number of votes received on each slip.

EXAMPLE: The word is plunge.

1. "to fall from a tall building"
2. "a tool used to unclog a toilet"
3. "to drop suddenly and sharply"
4. "bird feathers"
   

SCORING/RESULTS: Have the kids tally their own points. Each student who votes correctly earns whatever amount of points you choose to assign. The authors of the four definitions get one point for each person who voted for the definition. You get to read some fairly hilarious definitions and score humor points with the kids. What a bonding experience.

CAUTION!!!!: To be fair, make sure you pick a different four people each time you switch terms. Otherwise, you may have an angry mob scene.

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What a fun activity to help students review their vocabulary words!

What was GOOD about Dawes' lesson?

• Dawes' students are being asked to recall information that they have previously learned.
  
• Dawes is giving students a review session. Many times, students do not study for their vocabulary quizzes because they think they can guess and do well. However, this is often not the case. Their lack of studying is usually evident. Providing opportunities in the classroom for students to review new vocabulary will more than likely help students to make higher grades on their vocabulary quizzes.
• Dawes is making learning fun for her students! Students love to play games like this where they are competing against one another. Little do they know, they are actually learning in the process. :)

What would I do to IMPROVE Dawes' lesson?

• Have a system set up for subtracting points. Points would be taken away for silly behavior, which I would define for students in detail at the beginning of the game. Points would also be taken away for 5 incorrect guesses in a row, which would probably motivate students to try even harder.
  
• Require one student to be the score keeper. This student would probably not be allowed to partake in the game. Instead, he/she would keep everyone's score during the game, so that the students could focus intently on the game. To prevent students from continually asking what their score is, the score keeper could tally the scores on the board or on an ELMO, which would project onto the board. You might be wondering: What is an ELMO?!! Watch the YouTube video below for a quick tutorial.
  
  
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Punctuation Lesson Plan

Lesson: Periods and Commas
By: John Foley
Primary Subject: Language Arts
Grade Level: 9-12

Punctuation plays an important role in a writer’s style. Writers are concerned with sound and flow, and punctuation affects both of these key elements. Let’s look at two popular writers, Cormac McCarthy and Garrison Keillor. McCarthy rarely uses commas in his writing. Consider the following passage from his novel (which later became an Oscar-winning film) No Country for Old Men:

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. I don't know what them eyes was the windows to and I guess I’d as soon not know. But there is another view of the world out there and other eyes to see it and that’s where this is going. It has done brought me to a place in my life I would not have thought I’d of come to. Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I don’t want to confront him.

Next, read the following passage from Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Days, about a fictional town in Minnesota that features women who are smart, men who are good-looking, and children who are all above average:

The first white folk known to have spend time in the Wobegon area were Unitarian missionaries from Boston, led by Prudence Alcott, a distant and wealthy relative of the famous Alcotts of Concord, a woman who sent a stereopticon and a crate of boysenberry jam to Henry Thoreau at his cabin by the pond, although he never mentioned her in his book.

Compare and contrast the two passages. What difference does the punctuation make in the sound and flow?
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Overall, Foley did a decent job on this grammar mini-lesson, but let's dissect the lesson a little further.

What was GOOD about Foley's lesson?

• Foley involves texts from novels, instead of only using boring examples in a grammar workbook.
• Foley provides an example and a nonexample of good punctuation.
• Foley asks the students to apply what they have learned about punctuation, specifically periods and commas, to compare and contrast the two excerpts. Genius!

What would I do to IMPROVE Foley's lesson?

• Provide more examples and nonexamples.
• Read the examples and nonexamples aloud to students, as they follow along. This will help students HEAR the difference between the excerpts and allow them to hear the need for punctuation to assist in understanding. If I didn't want to read the examples and nonexamples, I could also require students to complete this activity in small groups. You might be wondering: Is group work really beneficial? Watch the YouTube video below.
  
  
• Be specific on the assignment requirements! Let students know EXACTLY what I want them to do.