Unit Plan
Curated OER

Understanding the Influence of the Media

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Critically analyze advertising techniques, such as circular reasoning, bandwagon, testimonial, and repetition, with worksheets that effectively discuss and illustrate how the media aims to influence.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bias and Crime in Media

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Critical thinking and social justice are central themes for this resource on bias and crime in media. The class views and discusses an incisive PSA that highlights assumptions based on race. Small groups read newspaper opinion pieces...
Lesson Plan
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ReadWriteThink

Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Commercial advertising—we can't get away from it, but do we realize just how often we are being advertised to? With this lesson, scholars analyze mass media to identify how its techniques influence our daily lives. Learners browse...
Lesson Plan
Southern Poverty Law Center

Analyzing Gender Stereotypes in Media

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
Why might toy advertisers use gender stereotypes to sell their products? Young people think critically about media messages and its role in gender stereotyping with a thought-provoking activity.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

News Journalism Across the Media: Introduction

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Although students are aware of news as information that influences their perceptions of the world, they are often unaware of the various ways to present that information. Encourage them to investigate, discuss, analyze and make valuable...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Favorite Sports and Athletes: an Introduction to Sports Media

For Teachers K - 3rd
Even young children watch sports and like team logos and products. It's never too early to think critically about what's onscreen. This exercise develops awareness that media communicate values (i.e. who participates in sports and who...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Anatomy of Cool

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students explore differences between superficial and real "coolness," how marketers use cool to sell products, and how their own attitudes and perceptions are affected by media messages that reinforce specific messages about what...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Thinking like a Citizen

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Explore the influence social activism can have on important issues, and create a class full of young citizen activists. This plan calls for learners to participate in a whole class discussion and brainstorm about ways to effectively...
Activity
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Google

Online Safety Roadshow Activity

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
What does it mean to have digital citizenship? A set of lessons teach middle schoolers how to be safe and productive online. From sharing posts to creating secure passwords, learners discuss the importance of remaining diligent—and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Marketing to Teens: Introduction

For Teachers 7th - 12th
An introductory lesson shows learners how pervasive and influential advertising is in our culture; particularly, how teenagers are actively targeted by advertisers. As teenagers, your learners already have all the information they need...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Television Newscasts

For Teachers 11th - 12th
When we watch news broadcasts on television, we receive a much more visual perspective than when we read the newspaper. How do sets, clothing, and music contribute to our understanding of the story? Compare American and Canadian news...
Lesson Plan
NPR

Can You Beat Cognitive Bias?

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
In a time of fake news, media manipulation, and Internet trolls, a resource equips learners with the tools they need to recognize and combat resources that are designed to appeal to our cognitive biases. Introduce learners to five...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Thinking About Television and Movies

For Teachers 1st - 6th Standards
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Magazine Production

For Teachers 11th - 12th
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...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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.
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Newspaper Ads

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
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. 
Lesson Plan
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Museum of the Moving Image

Political Ads in Historical Context

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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.
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Looking at Food Advertising

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Teaching TV: Learning With Television

For Teachers 1st - 6th
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...
Lesson Plan
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5
Curated OER

The Internet of Things: IoT

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
How has the Internet of Things affected our lives? Scholars examine the massive influence of mobile devices in this analysis lesson, which begins with a seven-minute documentary clip. They also read a New York Times article (linked)...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dr. Seuss and Read Across America

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class...
Lesson Plan
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Museum of the Moving Image

Developing Critical Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 12th
To gain an understanding of how images and sounds are used to influence viewers, class members analyze these features in Presidential campaign commercials from 1952-2012.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tobacco: Promotion Tactics and the Law

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Youths aged 13 & 14 are most likely to notice and remember in-store tobacco promotions. Class members dissect tobacco advertising tactics and learn about relevant legislation by participating in guided discussion. Assessing...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stamps of Approval for Women Journalists

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research, explore and analyze the history of how American women journalists have influenced major social change in the nation and the world. They visit major institution's to examine the written legacies of Abigail Adams,...