Museum of the Moving Image
Understanding the Language of Political Ads
The verbal techniques and emotional appeals contained in the language used in political ads plays a vital role in creating the impact of the ad. As class members continue their study of Presidential campaign commercials from 1952–2012,...
Curated OER
Food, Glorious Food?
How are the reactions between American and European consumers different when it comes to genetically modified foods? Use the New York Times article "Consumers in Europe Resist Gene-Altered Foods" to inform your middle schoolers about the...
Curated OER
News Journalism Across the Media: Introduction
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...
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
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 instructional activity focused on evaluating television journalism. At home, kids watch a news show and note the stories...
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
Young scholars read an article from USA Today about technology and the music business. In this news article instructional activity, students read an article about failed musicians and their new roles in music and technology. Young...
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
Young scholars 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
Truth in Advertising
Does propaganda exist in popular media? Explore the concept of propaganda in this media education lesson. Middle schoolers examine persuasive techniques used in commercials. They then create commercials that feature truthful information.
Curated OER
Lights, Camera, Campaign
Students employ their technology skills to produce campaign commercials. In this political campaign activity, 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
Students 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.