For three weeks, I had the pleasure of observing students in a grade 5 class. Mrs. A’s class begins their day with 20 minutes of physical education (P.E), shared with another class. These students move their bodies and get their brains fired up before heading to class. Last year in my P.E class, I had the pleasure of reading an amazing book called ‘Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain’ by John J. Ratey, MD. According to the book, ‘German researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise than they did before exercise’ (pg. 45). Allowing these students to run wild before learning begins helps them learn better when language arts class starts.
After returning to class students began to learn about commercials and how they themselves were going to create a commercials in groups with their classmates. To begin this unit, Mrs. A showed her different commercials and explained how commercials use four strategies to hook their audiences.
The first style is called Bandwagon. In this type of commercial, the audience believes they should buy the product because ‘everyone else is doing it.’
The second style is known as Celebrity Spokesperson. As the title implies, these commercials feature someone famous to endorse their product.
The third style, Humor, sets out to make the audience laugh but often provides very little information about the product being shown.
The last style reaches the audience’s heart and makes them feel certain emotions for what is being shown. This style of commercial is titled Emotional Appeals.
Mrs. A handed out large green worksheets for the students to use while watching videos of these different styles of commercials.
I cannot find the exact video that she used in her classroom, but here a few to watch to understand what the students saw.
After watching these commercials, students were than tasked to create their own commercial using one of the styles they had just learned about. The next few classes students worked in groups to create their commercials. Again, they were tasked with large green worksheet to help them create their commercials.
Unfortunately, my time in that classroom ended before I could see the final product, but I could tell they were going to be amazing because the students were having so much fun creating them. The students learned how to question what they heard and read to become educated and engaged citizens, a Big Idea under the B.C Curriculum. They also had the chance to develop skills through practice, effort, and action, which is another Big Idea under Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies in the B.C Curriculum. These students were learning but having so much fun, rather than completing boring worksheets and tests.”
I loved this idea and if I ever work in a class that is grade appropriate, I would love to use this idea!
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