Sample Lesson Plan (Adapted)

Grade 9 Applied English Media Studies Strand - Introductory Lesson
Curriculum expectations for each task found on pages 66-69 of the Grades 9 and 10 English Curriculum, 2007
Minds On Task:
1. Understanding Media Texts: Audience Responses: 1.4. identify how different audiences might respond to selected media texts
Students are given access to a collection of advertisements, including print, video, audio, and textual media types that have been compiled by the teacher. In pairs, they will pick one advertisement and identify three possible responses the target audience might have. The advertisements will be organized by audience type, offering students at least ten different audience types to chose from (ideas include children, parents of children, teenagers, adults, seniors, families with high incomes, families with low incomes, adventurous people, organized people, messy people, etc.). Each pair will choose a different advertisement. After observing and discussing the advertisement, the pair will describe an emotional response (how the advertisement makes them feel), a cognitive response (what the advertisement makes them think about), and a consumer response (extent to which they want or need something after seeing the advertisement) that the target audience might experience. Each pair will share their chosen advertisement and audience responses with the class.
Students will be given a packet that includes all the new terminology and graphic organizers used in this lesson. ELLs in the class will be given a packet that includes additional language supports. Visual representations of the key terminology and definitions in the L1 language, as well as sentence starters inserted into the graphic organizers will provide extra language scaffolds so they can participate in the activities successfully.
Action Tasks:
2. Understanding Media Forms, Conventions, and Techniques: Form 2.1. identify general characteristics of a few different media forms and explain how they shape content and create meaning
The unit's big idea will be presented to the class: How does media influence our decisions?
We will discuss the characteristics that exist in the advertisements shared in the Minds On. These include advertising characteristics such as competition, loyalty, emotional intensity, fear, humor, durability, testing, substitution, etc. A brief glossary will be provided in the packet where students can connect the example advertisements to the characteristics. ELLs will be provided with the terms in their L1s as well, making it easier to connect the visual examples in class with the English concepts that may be hard to understand.
Once students understand what types of characteristics are used in advertising, we will generate a chart that lists the characteristics used in different types of media texts: print, video, audio, and text. Through this generation and the discussion, students will begin to understand how the different forms shape content and create meaning.
3. Creating Media Texts: Purpose and Audience 3.1. describe the topic, purpose and audience for media texts they plan to create; Form 3.2. select a media form to suit that topic, purpose, and audience for a media text they plan to create, and explain why it is an appropriate choice
Students will use this new understanding to create a pitch for a new advertisement. They will use the guided outline provided in the handout to describe the topic, purpose and audience for the type of advertisement they choose. They will use the types of audience responses and characteristics of advertisements previously discussed as a scaffold for thinking through their own advertisement. The outline will guide them through explaining why their choices are appropriate for the media type chosen. This lesson will take more than one class period, so students will be able to think about their advertisement and finish the outline for homework. They will be encouraged to talk about their advertisement with their parents, as they will offer valuable insights as adult consumers (a target audience students may not fully understand). During the next class, they will pitch their ideas in small groups using the outline as a guide and receive feedback on the advertisement's potential success from their peers.
Consolidation Task:
4. Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: Metacognition 4.1. describe a few different strategies they used in interpreting and creating media texts and explain how these and other strategies can help them improve as media interpreters and producers
Students will provide a short reflection (either written or recorded) on their understanding of the unit question. How did their initial idea change as they thought about the topic, audience, purpose, and form? Did they use advertisements they have seen as inspiration or guides? How well did they need to know their target audience to produce an effective advertisement? What did they learn about their understanding of the audience, topic, purpose, and form from their peers' feedback? The advertisement outline and reflection will be used as a diagnostic tool to plan the unit's following lessons.
Thoughts on student inquiry and the tasks:
This introduction lesson sets up student inquiry during the whole unit by frontloading the key terminology and structures they can use to analyze, evaluate, and discuss the observations they make when confronted with different types of advertisement. This allows all students to access the higher order thinking skills needed to fully engage with the unit question: How does media influence our decisions? Allowing students to plan their own advertisement and reflect on the decisions they made and their peer's feedback gives them a highly scaffolded inquiry task (based on the research, action, and reflection model of inquiry). Students are exposed to media and advertisements every day, and jumping into the analysis and production of such advertisements will push them to question what they see in their daily lives by giving them ownership over their connection to advertisement. It shows them there is agency for the audience and consumer, but also that their agency is highly curated by the advertiser's decisions. This sets up the nuances they need to understand to answer the unit question and allows for further inquiry.