My first session from the Virtual Digital Conference was a session about using commercials and Public Service Announcements in the classroom to teach students the three modes of writing. Eric Hammerstrom led the session "Video: An Important But Forgotten Medium." Although the recording did not have the best audio quality, and was difficult to follow at certain points, I gained several "take aways" from his session. Eric discussed how commercials and PSAs have the power to combine three modes of writing: narrative, informational, and argument in a short snippet of time. They are great teaching tools to show students that will spark discussions about the power of word choice. Creating a commercial is a difficult task as Eric discusses how authors of commercials have two seconds to capture the audience’s attention and eight seconds to maintain the audience's attention. If words, images, audio, and the message are not interesting, the audience will simply change the channel. Mr. Hammerstrom displayed a slide showcasing The Rhetorical Triangle, and how it is important to teach students the three points on the triangle. The first point is the author. In this case, students are the author and have creative freedom to design the commercial. The second point is the audience. Students need to be aware of who their audience is, and have the knowledge about their audience, the third point on The Rhetorical Triangle, to write a commercial that will appeal to the specific audience.
Learning about making commercials and Public Service Announcements was interesting and left me reflecting on how I could actually use videography in my classroom. I thought about having students make commercials advertising books that they have read and enjoyed. Using a video to advertise or recommend books to peers would be a very engaging activity. Eric stressed in his session that before a quality commercial can be shot, the storyboard and script writing of the commercial need to be done. Students would need to focus on quality writing before getting to the fun of creating the actual video. Currently, my students are finishing up National Park travel brochures that they created as an activity to supplement the anthology story we read about Yellowstone and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. I could incorporate a video element to this project. Possibly having students work collaboratively to create a Public Service Announcement stressing the importance of preserving and protecting National Parks. The possibilities are endless…having the time and equipment is another story.
Anne, the National Parks project lends itself to creating an informational commercial/public service announcement. My concern would be the amount of time it would take to produce something like this, however I'm sure the learning that would come out of it would outweigh the time spent. Also, the kids would be actively engaged in authentic work! They would love this if it somehow could be incorporated into what we already do - maybe take the brochure and make it completely digital. I would have to get a whole lot more comfortable with this platform before I would even consider a project like this, but this is right up your alley!
ReplyDeleteAnne, having students create a commercial or PSA is a brilliant way to get them hooked into writing a narrative, persuasive, or informational piece. They’ve been targets of advertisers for most of their young lives, so they’re certainly familiar with the format. How empowering for them to be the creators instead of the receivers. They’ll have to focus on exactly what kind of audience they want to reach. In addition, the added challenge of having to convince their audience in a short amount of time adds to the excitement and encourages the students to be clever with their word choice. I’m definitely interested in doing this with my students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gottlieb. As a teacher of media literacy, I know that the average person will have spent three years of their lives watching TV commercials by the time they are in their 70s. That's a significant amount of time. Teaching them media literacy and giving them the opportunity to learn how they are manipulated by advertisers is infinitely valuable and eye-opening. In addition, I might extend the activity, as advertising is being extended. I have older kids and they'd probably jump at the chance to make an example of a non-traditional form of advertisement like product placement, which happens to be rivaling the traditional 30 second commercial in popularity for advertisers. This would be another teachable moment to show that TV shows and movies are becoming advertising in themselves. Here's a link to an oldie but a goodie about just how pervasive product placement is: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=102
ReplyDeleteAnne, I love your idea to incorporate PSAs into your National Park projects. You and Janice continue to impress me with your willingness to incorporate new ideas into your curriculum and how you integrate learning into cohesive units. As a fourth year teacher, I am just now beginning to play around with integrating cross-curricular ideas, as the first few years of teaching I was just trying to figure out how to manage everything! I like the Rhetorical Triangle idea, and I think it would be another way to teach author's purpose to my students, instead of the classic "PIE" acronym. I am also toying around with having my students create commercials to write hooks for their pieces. Even after two or three lessons on leads, my students are still struggling with writing effective hooks. Sharing with them the idea that if the opening two seconds are not effective, viewers will change the channel, may be the connection my students need to see how important leads are.
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