Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Analyzing Political Campaign Commercials
Imagine a lesson that models for learners how to separate facts from opinions. How to detect bias. How to evaluate a source of information. How to identify propaganda. Although designed for middle schoolers, the activities in this packet...
ReadWriteThink
Decoding the Dystopian Characteristics of Macintosh’s “1984” Commercial
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 lesson focused on identifying dystopian...
National History Day
Propaganda Posters of World War I: Analyzing the Methods Behind the Images
The power of a picture. During the events surrounding World War I, propaganda posters were widely distributed in American society to sway the emotions of its citizens. By analyzing World War I propaganda posters in the first installment...
University of Wisconsin
Analyzing Presidential Campaign Propaganda
Campaign propaganda has evolved from 1952 through the presidential election of 2008. A social studies activity prompts class members to analyze the devices used in ads and political cartoons, noting strategies they believe would work to...
National Council for the Social Studies
Analyzing a Product or Political Advertisement
How do advertisements evoke specific thoughts and feelings? Class members find out through the exploration of the Internet, videos, television, magazines, radio, and posters. Learners investigate commercial advertisements, political...
ReadWriteThink
Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising
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...
EngageNY
Analyzing the Power of Different Mediums: Little Rock Girl 1957
Scholars begin the instructional activity by watching a video of media history and discussing it in a Turn and Talk. They then look at the texts A Mighty Long Way and Little Rock Girl 1957 to make a connection to the role of the press in...
Curated OER
Propaganda: Making a Commercial
Seventh graders study different propaganda techniques. In groups, they write and perform a 60-second TV or radio commercial. Classmates rate the effectiveness of the commercial and whether or not they might buy the product.
Curated OER
Advertisements and Commercials
Students analyze advertisements. In this advertising lesson, students share their favorite print advertisements and commercials and explain why they like them. Students view more print or television advertisements aimed at children and...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Digital Commercials
Students create commercials using a digital camera. After brainstorming their ideas, they spend three days writing their commercials. Students practice and edit their commercials and then present them for review.
Curated OER
Everyone's a Critic: Analyzing Sitcoms as Cultural Texts
Start by defining the word sitcom with the goal of launching a discussion. What exactly is a sitcom? How is a sitcom different from sketch comedy, drama, and reality television? Class members give examples, remember storylines they've...
Curated OER
You've Gotta Have a Gimmick!: A Lesson in Junk Food Advertising
Students examine marketing techniques used in television and magazine snack food ads. They analyze and discuss Internet kids clubs, complete various handouts that examine ads for food, and create a commercial for a food product.
Curated OER
Commercials...What Are They Saying?
Learners identify how culture and experiences influence people's perceptions of places and regions. They list and apply the generalizations pulled from these observations.
Curated OER
Producing Commercials for Videotaping
Students explore television commercials to classify them into categorizes. In this commercial categories lesson, students brainstorm about commercials that catch their attention. Students analyze the categories for commercials and then...
Curated OER
Political Commercials: Leading or Misleading Voters
High schoolers watch election commercials for a homework assignment. They analyze the commercials and create a commercial for a fictitious candidate using the techniques they observed.
Curated OER
Cool Commercials Critique
Students investigate advertising by critiquing commercials in class. In this media activity, students view several commercials on their computers while completing a worksheet which helps them critique the ads. Students define several...
Curated OER
Graphing and Analyzing
In this graphing and analyzing worksheet, 9th graders first state if each graph represents a linear or nonlinear relationship. Second, they create a difference table for each set of data presented and determine whether it represents a...
Museum of the Moving Image
Playing on Emotions: Focus on Political Ads Featuring Children
Political ads are designed to play on viewers' emotions. The focus of this resource is on ads that feature children, either to establish the candidate as family friendly, or to create fear for children in the minds of viewers. Groups...
Curated OER
Inventions, Puppets, and Commercials
Fourth graders invent a product and present it to the class. In this inventions lesson plan, 4th graders get into groups and have to come up with an invention. They also advertise by writing a television commercial with a script and part...
Curated OER
The Role of Television Commercials in Presidential Election Campaigns
Eighth graders investigate the evolution of the presidential election campaign. In this media awareness lesson, 8th graders examine the use of television commercials during campaigns and their impact as they complete worksheets based on...
Curated OER
Words That Sell
Explore words, definitions, their connotations and associations with brand names. Middle and high schoolers identify words used in commercials and determine their effect upon the consumer population. They explore how meanings are...
Curated OER
Advertising Gimmicks - Critical Thinking Required
Students identify reasons why advertising works, evaluate reasons for its success, and write commercials.
Curated OER
Analyzing Congruence Proofs
Looking at numerous examples of triangles, each with different properties, geometers develop their understanding of congruency. They use the notation of a counter-example to disprove certain conjectures and prove geometric theorems and...
Curated OER
Commercial Applications
Students identify the different types of artists needed to produce television commercials and the kinds of work they do in this Arts lesson for the high school classroom. The lesson is cross-curricular in nature and includes an example...