Overview
An intro lesson plan for an advertising unit -- broaching what is an advertisement, how to identify ads, and the components of advertisements. Designed for a Grade 12 English College Preparation classroom, within a 75 minute period. Note: while this lesson is designed to be completed within one 75 minute period, it may be beneficial for students to have work periods between each lesson, in order to work on/complete the tasks and review the information, as well as to ensure that students are not overwhelmed with information or moving at a pace that is not conducive for full comprehension.
The second lesson plan in this unit can be found here. The summative task for this unit can be found here.
Guiding Question: What is an advertisement?
Curriculum Links
Based on the 2007 Ontario Curriculum for English Grades 11 & 12
| Subject: ENG4C (Grade 12 English, College Preparation) |
|---|
| Strand: Media Studies |
| Overall & Specific Expectations | |
|---|---|
| 1. Understanding Media Texts (Media Studies) | demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts; |
| 1.1 Purpose and Audience | explain how media texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, are created to suit particular purposes and audiences |
| 1.2 Interpreting Messages | interpret media texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, identifying and explaining the overt and implied messages they convey |
| 1.3 Evaluating Texts | evaluate how effectively information, ideas, themes, issues, and opinions are communicated in media texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, and decide whether the texts achieve their intended purpose |
Work Skills & Habits
Addressed in this lesson are the skills of:
- Collaboration
- Self-Regulation
- Initiative
- Organization
As outlined in Growing Success (2010)
Learning Intentions & Success Criteria
Learning Intentions
Today I will:
- Practice identifying and understanding traditional and non-traditional advertisements
- Explain the subject, audience, and message in an advertisement
Success Criteria
- I can identify advertisements in a variety of forms
- I can identify & explain the subject of an advertisement
- I can identify & explain the intended audience of an advertisement
- I can identify & explain the intended message of an advertisement
Lesson Execution
Hook: Is it an ad?
A hook focuses attention on the learning intention to come, provides a framework for the learning, and examples/analogies for understanding, and promotes interest and involvement and bridges from past lesson(s)/learning or prior knowledge.
In this lesson, students will, as a class, rapidly cycle through a series of advertisements – ranging from classic, standard advertisements (ex: magazine prints, radio ads), to more contemporary and modern advertisements (ex: Instagram posts, sponsorship copy for podcasts). They will have approx. 5 seconds to decide if each one is an advertisement – and why or why not.
Timing: 5 minutes
Development: Review & Scavenger Hunt
The development provides experiences that guide and support students. Introduces content that is meaningful and relevant, challenges the students without frustrating them, actively engages the students, and involves a range of instructional approaches and activities.
In this lesson, students will take a look at many different advertisements, and review the fundamental pieces of an advertisement (subject, audience, message). They will look back through the ones from the hook, and discuss what the subject/audience/message was, with guidance from the teacher. They will then, in small groups, practise identifying these elements for several new advertisements. Each group will share their findings to the class as a whole.
In their groups, students will then take on a scavenger hunt style activity. They will use tech to search for and find all the various types of advertisements as given to them in a scavenger-hunt-style list. They will need to identify the subject/audience/message for each of the ads found.
Timing: 55 minutes
Closure: Exit Card
The closure is what the instructor does to facilitate wrap-up at the end of the lesson - it is a quick review, to remind students what it was that they have learned (or should have learned) and allows you to see where the students are to assist you in planning for the next lesson. May also help students to think about their own learning (metacognition).
Before the end of the lesson, students will have some time to individually respond to a few questions: What did they already know about advertising? What did they learn? What are they still wondering about? Which was their favourite ad they found in their scavenger hunt activity?
Timing: 15 minutes
Assessment Strategies
Assessment FOR Learning: the teacher will collect and review both the practice worksheet and the scavenger hunt lists in order to see where students are at, what they know, and what they need more time on.