Curated OER
Case Study of a Campaign
Students read a case study of one campaign to discover how political campaigns addresses the needs of the voters. In groups, they answer questions related to the case and discuss how the commercials affect society as a whole. They use...
PBS
Broadcast News
Just because a story is on the news doesn't mean it's being presented fairly. Analyze news broadcasts with a lesson focused on evaluating television journalism. At home, kids watch a news show and note the stories presented, including...
Curated OER
Talk Shows
Eighth graders are exposed to different types of media in order to investigate the tendency of being exposed to a set of values that run contrary to conservative values. They role play a television program in order to communicate the...
Curated OER
Dollars and Sense
Fourth graders read "Starting a Business" and answer the question: "How could you design an ad to let the community know about the business described in the story?" Then, they illustrate a written ad that could be posted in the...
Museum of the Moving Image
What Makes an Effective Ad?
As an introduction to a series of related resources that examine political advertising and commercials from 1952-2012, class members use the provided rubric to analyze and rate the effectiveness of the emotion, persuasion, factual...
Brown University
The Candidates and Their Values: Election 2016
Voting for the next president of the United States is about finding the candidate who most closely aligns with your own values and sense of democracy. High schoolers become acquainted with the candidates from the 2016 election with a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Clique
Mean girls and bully packs are favorite topic for films and TV shows that focus on the destructive power of cliques. High school freshmen are asked to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of cliques by reading a short...
Curated OER
State Commercials
Third graders create a travel commercial for an eastern state. They form small groups to do internet research on the state using guide questions. They use this information to write a script for the commercial. Then all group members...
Curated OER
Inventions, Puppets, and Commercials
Fourth graders, in groups, invent a product to sell, create a commercial for it using a stick puppet they make.
Curated OER
Effects of the Enlightenment
Ninth graders explore the Enlightenment and its historical effects. As a class, they discuss the characteristics of kings, queens and monarchies. Pupils design political cartoons to illustrate vocabulary words. Using a graphic...
Curated OER
Role Models, Fantasy vs. Reality
Students explore the qualities of a hero. Through a class discussion, they compare and contrast a reality hero to a fantasy super hero. Students watch television commercials and identify the influences in them. They determine positive...
Curated OER
Web Puts Undiscovered Musicians, Listeners In Tune
Students read an article from USA Today about technology and the music business. In this news article lesson, students read an article about failed musicians and their new roles in music and technology. Students discuss the article and...
Curated OER
Turn Off the TV
In this vocabulary usage online/interactive worksheet, students fill in the blanks in sentences with vocabulary words from the word bank. Students fill in 10 blanks.
Curated OER
Television Watching Workout
Students exercise during a thirty minute television program. They break the 30 minutes into 5 parts (Program, Commercials, Program, Commercials, and Program). They exercise during the commercials, and rest during the program.
Curated OER
Lights, Camera, Campaign
Students employ their technology skills to produce campaign commercials. In this political campaign lesson, students discover the appropriate uses of video cameras and create fictitious campaign commercials.
Curated OER
Imus: How much free speech is too much?
Students explore current interpretation of the First Amendment, including that of commercial speech. Next read background about Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
Curated OER
Bloopers and Accidental Humor
Give your hard-working students a chuckle with this humorous powerpoint, which features famous quotes that are "accidentally funny," as well as photos and a link to a funny Slovak commercial on Youtube. This slideshow would be a good...
Curated OER
Advertising Techniques And Target Audiences Used in Commercials
Students explain the power of advertising by researching advertising techniques, target audiences and a variety of ads. They learn and identify what advertising techniques are used: Bandwagon, Propaganda, and Testimonial.
Curated OER
Contra Los Ladrones de Carros
Learners read descriptions of various anti-theft devices and investigate car security systems on the Internet. They write and present a television commercial for one of the anti-theft devices and present it to the class.
Curated OER
Pitcher Perfect
Students consider how advertising messages are constructed and relayed. They invent fast-food businesses and create presentation posters outlining the first commercials to promote their new brands.
Curated OER
Pros and Cons of Advertising
Twelfth graders compare and contrast television commercials. They write paragraphs explaining how different company commercials for the same product can confuse consumers.
Curated OER
Elect Me! Creating a Campaign Platform and Video Commercial
Learners conduct political campaigns. In this campaign investigation instructional activity, students research political parties and political offices. Learners choose an office to run for and create election videos that incorporate...
Museum of the Moving Image
AdMaker, Nixon vs. Humphrey, “Convention” (1968)
After viewing the infamous 1968 Presidential campaign ad, "Convention," groups use AdMaker to create their own 30 second ad that features Richard Nixon rather than Hubert Humphrey.
Museum of the Moving Image
AdMaker, Obama vs. McCain, “Fundamentals” (2008)
Truth is often left on the cutting room floor when political ads are produced. After viewing the 2012 backfire ad, "Fundamentals" that takes John McCain's comments on the US economy out of context, class groups edit the audio and...