UOI: How We Express Ourselves

People can create or manipulate messages to target specific audiences.

Finding Out: The Function of Advertisements

This week students used a series of visible thinking tools to find out more about how messages are manipulated and created to target audiences.

Student-chosen adverts

As a homework tasks to get them thinking about different kinds of ‘messages’ we see each day, students were to choose 2 advertisements (video, image, text) and blog about them answering the following teacher questions:

• Who is the target audience?
• What is the message?
• Why this message?

See sample from Aldo’s Blog

Note: Check out the Blog Roll (right side of this blog) to see what other ads students chose!

Students then shared their ads and analysed 2 blogs from the class. This activity tested their prior understanding/knowledge about elements of an advertisement (graphics, audio, copy). Many students were challenged by the task and had difficulty isolating these elements when looking at the blog.

Perspective: Analyse 1 advert through the lens of 6 Hats

Next students visited ADMONGO.GOV to learn more about the different kinds of advertisements we see in our lives. This website is fabulous! Students can go at their own pace and answer questions about what the message is and who they are trying to target.

Students completed level 1 and then chose one of ADMONGO’s adverts to analyse through the lens of the 6 Thinking Hats.

Wonderings…through 6 Hats

Students posted their questions through the lens of the 6 Thinking Hats. After finding out more about the elements of advertising, they filled out a KWL chart to show their understanding so far.

Afterwards, they wrote their wonderings on a sticky and decided which hat they were using when they asked the question. We are still learning about the 6 Hats and many find the Blue hat the trickiest as it requires a summary or overview of all the other hats and the topic at hand. So far here are some of the questions (and hats) students have posed:

 Admongo.gov as a secondary source for students:

So far we have found Admongo to be an excellent starting point for learning about advertising. We have not had much luck at our library finding appropriate sources, and the quizzes, videos, audio and graphics make learning accessible to EAL students while challenge the others with new terminology.