Media Smarts
Thinking About Television and Movies
As part of their study of the influence of TV and films, class members consider how music, lighting, costumes, camera angles, etc. are used to influence the response of viewers.
Curated OER
Is Seeing Believing?
Pupils study different photographers who started the concept of battlefield photography. For this media lesson young scholars explore how to "read" a photograph and relate the use of photography during the Civil War to current use today.
Curated OER
Who Pays for My Favorite Television Program?
Ninth graders analyze media messages. In this media messages lesson, 9th graders identify techniques in television commercials that appeal to the senses and emotions. Students analyze the elements in example ads. Students keep journals...
Curated OER
Magazine Production
Analyze magazines as a class, looking carefully for the target audience, advertisements, and topics presented. Small groups then work as a publication team and receive a magazine that they have to "sell." Each individual has a different...
Curated OER
Reading & Using a Nutrition Label
Students discover the importance of healthy eating. Using food nutrition labels, they read and examine the nutritional value. Students collect the data on a spreadsheet and create a graph. They analyze the media influences on product...
ReadWriteThink
Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Help your 21st century learners develop their media smarts with this resource that has them examine the persuasive techniques advertisers use to influence specific demographics and then to use these techniques to craft their own ads.
Scholastic
Persuasive Communication (Grades 9–12)
Before your students reached your morning class to learn about persuasive writing, they probably saw dozens of examples of persuasive communication in the form of advertisements. A short, introductory lesson inspires class members to...
Media Smarts
Newspaper Ads
Just how free is the press? After examining the advertising and propaganda techniques used by advertisers, class members consider the influence advertisers may exert over newspaper content.
Smithsonian Institution
Changing Gender Roles on the Home Front
Many historians discuss how gender roles changed because of World War II, but how did this come to be? An informative resource challenges scholars to do some digging and research the information for themselves. They research how...
Museum of the Moving Image
Political Ads in Historical Context
Campaign ads target both timely issues and general themes. Presidential campaign ads from 1952 and 1988 provide class members an opportunity to compare how the topics ads choose to address can dramatically influence election outcomes.
Curated OER
Microbiology Lesson Plan Aseptic Technique
Pupils examine the importance of aseptic technique, become familiar with media plates, and general microbiology techniques. They study the benefits and dangers of bacteria and other microorganisms in their lives.
Curated OER
No Publicity, Bad Publicity?
Students examine the factors that can influence a celebrity's media image and marketplace viability. They read an article, answer discussion questions, role-play advisors to a studio head, and write a letter to a studio head.
Curated OER
Body Image
Fifth graders look at advertisements paying close attention to the people in them, then create an advertisement based on a healthy body image. In this health lesson, 5th graders analyze magazine or television advertisements for the...
Curated OER
What Is the Influence?
Students investigate propaganda techniques. In this media awareness lesson, students watch instructor-selected commercial clips and use the provided propaganda handouts to identify the propaganda techniques used in each of them.
Curated OER
Are We under the Influence? A First Look
Learners explore propaganda techniques. In this media awareness lesson, students watch instructor-selected commercial clips and identify the propaganda techniques used in each of them using the provided propaganda handouts.
Curated OER
34x25x36: Advertising and Body Image
Point of View’s short film, “34x25x36” launches a study of how images presented by mannequins and advertisements influence body image. Class members read and discuss the fact sheet "Media's Effect on Girls: Body Image and Gender...
Media Smarts
Looking at Food Advertising
Tony The Tiger, The HoneyComb Kid, The Nestle Quick Bunny. As part of a study of the methods advertisers use to sell foods and how this advertising effects their food choices, kids create their own spokescharacter and/or jingle for one...
Curated OER
Fighting The Horse Race: Creating Ads Which Explore 2008 Presidential Candidates & Issues
What is advertising? What role does it plan in an election? Middle and high schoolers discuss advertising and its purpose by sifting through different magazines and discussing the products they find. Then they relate advertisements to...
Curated OER
Temperature and the Tomato
You will need a photovoltaic system and monitor at your school in order to obtain all of the data required to thoroughly implement this lesson. Your class monitors daily temperature and insolation amounts over a two week span of time....
Media Smarts
Teaching TV: Learning With Television
As part of a series of resources focused on the influence of television, elementary students watch an educational program and identify the information presented and analyze the point of view from which the information is presented.
Curated OER
I Don't Pay Attention to Advertisements
Sixth graders examine the eight persuasive techniques, identifying them in all avenues of media including magazine, TV, Internet, and billboards, and making them aware of how advertising already influences them. They write an essay using...
Curated OER
"I Don't Pay Attention to Advertisements? (At least I don't think so?)"
Sixth graders study eight persuasive techniques that occur in a variety of media types. They write a persuasive essay and present it to the class. They create a "new product" for which they produce an advertisement using persuasive...
Curated OER
Oragami Village Diorama
Students take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas. Then they select and evaluate a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas of...
Curated OER
The Internet of Things: IoT
How has the Internet of Things affected our lives? Scholars examine the massive influence of mobile devices in this analysis lesson plan, which begins with a seven-minute documentary clip. They also read a New York Times article (linked)...