Teens and pre-teens are a prime target for advertisers, so how are they doing it? An interactive lesson highlights the strategies used by advertisers, such as visual imagery and verbal clues. Then, a short writing assignment puts those...

Known as one of the most iconic advertisements of the 20th century, Macintosh's "1984" commercial has become more of a social statement. Present the ad to a new audience of viewers with a activity focused on identifying dystopian...

Explore the New York Times, online and in print. Partners take the roles of reader and monitor while each peruses the newspaper. Discussion questions compare the online version to a hard copy print edition. Links provide comparison of...

Pupils become informed consumers and citizens with this lesson on the influence of advertising, identifying basic advertising techniques and discriminating between fact and claim in modern advertisements and commercials.

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. 

Movie theaters, shopping malls, television, the Internet ... no matter where people go, they are inundated with advertisements. Scholars discuss the topic of ad awareness using the first of four Admongo lessons about advertising. Pupils...

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 lesson plan.

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...

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...

Beginning a persuasive writing unit with your middle schoolers? Approach it through something that persuades us all: advertising! Through studying video and print advertisement, your class will practice Common Core skills for reading...

Middle schoolers review magazine ads and take a look at some of the most common advertising techniques. From analyzing these ads, youngsters begin to become aware of how advertisers target specific age groups, gender groups, and how they...

Advertising is all around us. Sometimes those advertisements are directed at young people, so it's important for youngsters to recognize false advertising and fraud when they see it. That's what this instructional activity is all about....

Some ads really make products look great, and even better than they really are! Kids get into small groups to research and compare marketing used by various cell phone companies. They analyze advertisements, carrier options, and cell...

With so many different types of law, it can be difficult for learners to discern which is which! Use a newspaper to give tangible examples of various types of law, including criminal, civil, consumer, family, local, state, federal and...

What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...

Here is a set of advertising lessons, explore language, techniques, representation, and target audiences. Discuss the impact ads have on our daily lives. What do we see and how do they make us feel? Observe ads from around the...

How can you tell if a commercial or salesperson is being misleading? Encourage your learners to protect themselves and their money with a lesson about consumer rights. They review laws that keep consumers safe from faulty claims and...

If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

Young learners today are bombarded by media manipulation. Help them develop the skills they will need to become savvy 21st century media consumers with a unit on media literacy.

High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...

Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women...

Pick your poison: tobacco, alcohol, opiates, cocaine, or marijuana. An online exhibition launches a research project that asks groups to select one of the five drugs and gather information on how the use of the drug and the regulations...

The guiding question for this lesson plan is "Do computers and their contents shape who we are?" Open with a selection of Apple's commercials to introduce stereotypes and people's relationships with their computers. Then, read the...

The role women played in the Civil War, especially in relief efforts, is the focus of this seven-page resource. Groups examine primary source materials to determine how this work reflected and expanded the traditional roles women held in...