200 - 1131 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2L7 - T: 604-688-8202 - F: 604-688-8204 Media Literacy Roadmap Outline Topic: Advertising and Healthy Eating - Target Audience: Kindergarten-Grade 2 Introduction & Setup: Introduce the main topics to be explored over four sessions: • Reflecting on our daily media consumption, how it makes us feel, and how to start self-regulating our usage; • Learning how to identify advertising both obvious and covert; • Examining food advertising and identifying its appealing and effective traits; • Using a template, creating an advertisement for a healthy food. Session 1: Daily media consumption reflection Materials needed: My Daily Activities–Blank Worksheet; My Daily Activities–Stickers (printed on standard Avery 5160 labels, cut into 6 strips (each label cut in half), and 2 strips of cut labels per student); Zones of Regulation Chart Warm-up (5 mins): Students should take a moment to think of their favorite kind of media (TV, movies or video games), turn to a partner (or Teachers can assign them), and should share what they like about it. Share that media is very fun, and also that many kids spend lots (maybe even too much) time using media instead of doing other things. Main Activity, Part 1 (15 mins): Share that we will be using a pie chart to show what our activities are at each point in the day: morning, afternoon, evening and night. Using the My Daily Activities handout and stickers, model how students will put their activity stickers in the “Morning” section of the graph, then give the students time to work on the “Morning” section of their own worksheet. Repeat this process for each of the “Afternoon,” “Evening,” and “Night” sections of the worksheet. Main Activity, Part 2 (10 mins): Students will work with a partner (or for very young students, in adult-assisted groups) to discuss how the media activity they do the longest makes them feel at the beginning of the activity and at the end, using the Zones of Regulation. (Most students start media activities in the “Green” zone but do them too long and end up in “Red” or “Blue” – assist the students to better understand this by using examples of TV or video games they enjoy but can become obsessive about.) Repeat the activity for the non-media activity they do the most, and ask students to note the difference. Conclusion (5 mins): Ask students to share with a partner: What fun things can you do instead of using or watching media? What choices do you normally make, and how can you make a better choice the next time? Possible Extension: Students can journal or draw (depending on age) to illustrate before-and- after portraits of themselves when using media to excess, and when self-regulating appropriately.
Topic: Advertising and Healthy Eating - Target Audience: Kindergarten-Grade 2 Introduction & Setup: Introduce the main topics to be explored over four sessions:
• Reflecting on our daily media consumption, how it makes us feel, and how to start self-regulating our usage;
• Learning how to identify advertising both obvious and covert; • Examining food advertising and identifying its appealing and effective traits; • Using a template, creating an advertisement for a healthy food.
Session 1: Daily media consumption reflection Materials needed: My Daily Activities–Blank Worksheet; My Daily Activities–Stickers (printed on standard Avery 5160 labels, cut into 6 strips (each label cut in half), and 2 strips of cut labels per student); Zones of Regulation Chart Warm-up (5 mins): Students should take a moment to think of their favorite kind of media (TV, movies or video games), turn to a partner (or Teachers can assign them), and should share what they like about it. Share that media is very fun, and also that many kids spend lots (maybe even too much) time using media instead of doing other things. Main Activity, Part 1 (15 mins): Share that we will be using a pie chart to show what our activities are at each point in the day: morning, afternoon, evening and night. Using the My Daily Activities handout and stickers, model how students will put their activity stickers in the “Morning” section of the graph, then give the students time to work on the “Morning” section of their own worksheet. Repeat this process for each of the “Afternoon,” “Evening,” and “Night” sections of the worksheet. Main Activity, Part 2 (10 mins): Students will work with a partner (or for very young students, in adult-assisted groups) to discuss how the media activity they do the longest makes them feel at the beginning of the activity and at the end, using the Zones of Regulation. (Most students start media activities in the “Green” zone but do them too long and end up in “Red” or “Blue” – assist the students to better understand this by using examples of TV or video games they enjoy but can become obsessive about.) Repeat the activity for the non-media activity they do the most, and ask students to note the difference. Conclusion (5 mins): Ask students to share with a partner: What fun things can you do instead of using or watching media? What choices do you normally make, and how can you make a better choice the next time? Possible Extension: Students can journal or draw (depending on age) to illustrate before-and-after portraits of themselves when using media to excess, and when self-regulating appropriately.
Session 2: What is an advertisement? Materials needed: Sample Ad (choose one or more of the McDonald’s ads in the pages below), Advertisement Printouts document, with cut-out (and possibly laminated) ads hidden around the room. Chart paper with five key advertising components written out (found below), (optional: electronic device with Internet access to play McDonald’s jingle (type “McDonald’s I’m Lovin It” into YouTube for examples). Warm-up (5 mins): Students should take a moment to think of a product they want but don’t have. They should share with the class: How did they find out about it? Share with students that most of the time, we learn about a product because there is an advertisement that uses different ways to make us notice it, and sometimes they can even make us want something we didn’t know about before. Main Activity, Part 1 (10 mins): Show students the sample ad (McDonalds poster) and ask students: what do you see on this that might tell you it!s advertising a product? With the group!s help, break down the “5 parts of an advertisement”:
1. Image of product 2. Product name and/or logo (often the same thing) 3. Tagline or Jingle (short phrase we remember and we see in lots of different ads from the
same product – play McDonald!s advertisement for the “I!m Lovin! It” jingle/slogan) 4. Other pictures or words, often that give information about the product, or even that tell a
kind of story. Sometimes this story is so distracting we don!t realize it!s an advertisement. Sometimes it!s an offer for a “FREE” item, either in the box, in coupon-form, or in mail-away form. In this case it might be a “sneaky ad.”
5. Discount or bonus information. Tell students that when they see “bonus” information it might be a “double ad.”
Main Activity, Part 2 (15 mins): Using magnifying glasses, students will walk around the room in partners to look for advertisements. When they find them, students will see which components they can identify, consulting the “5 parts of an advertisement” as a reference. Conclusion (5 mins): Students will turn to a partner and discuss the ad they liked the best, and share what they liked about it. Extension Activity: Challenge students to look for visual ads in the real world (e.g. in grocery stores, on public transit, on billboards or street signs), and to return to the next session with examples of advertisements they!ve seen and can share with the class. Session 3: Food advertising – why it works! Materials needed: Chart paper, 6 cereal boxes (or print-outs of box covers) taped together or posted on the board in a long line, from approximately most healthy (usually least colourful and with the least amount of product tie-ins) to least healthy (usually very colourful packaging, with games and toys inside and product tie-ins regularly included).
Warm-up (5 mins): Students will take turns sharing information about the advertisements they have seen in the real world: where they saw them and what product or service they were advertising. Main Activity, Part 1 (10 mins): The Teacher will point to the most healthy cereal box, and will ask students to hold up a chosen number of fingers to represent how much they are excited about eating this cereal when they look at the box (1 finger is not very excited, 3 fingers is super excited). Repeat this activity for each of the cereals. In pairs, students will decide what about their favorite cereal box (of those presented) makes them excited about the cereal. Then, they will share their discussion results with the rest of the class, with results charted at the front of the board. Points covered should include the following:
• Colours (bright or appealing) • Tagline or words• Images or pictures of the product (usually looking appetizing and ready to eat) • Cartoon character or mascot • Product tie-ins, prizes, games or other items on or included inside the box • Memories of eating the product and enjoying it • Knowledge that the cereal is popular (through commercials)
Main Activity, Part 2 (10 mins): Students will next decide which of the cereals are healthy. The Teacher will go down the line of cereal boxes and this time students will stand or sit in place to represent how healthy they imagine the cereal to be, from not at all healthy (sitting small) to very healthy (standing tall). Conclusion (5-10 mins): Ask students to share their thoughts about the exercise: is there anything they notice? (If students don’t notice anything, share that usually less healthy foods have advertising that makes us want the product more so that they can convince us to eat it even though we know it isn’t good for us.) Students should also be reminded that there are many other breakfast options that are more healthy even than the healthiest cereal (or elements you can add to a healthy cereal to increase its nutritional content) that you might never see advertised. Have students quickly share other healthy options (e.g. fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables, eggs and other lean proteins). Session 4: Make your own healthy food advertisementMaterials needed: Healthy products (fruits, veggies, other whole, nutritious, unpackaged foods), Chart paper with the template commercial script and/or materials for drawing and colouring. This session has two options: classes can either draw visual advertisements, or can act out very simple advertisements using the provided Template Commercial script or any other script the Teacher would like to use or create. Older students can also create their own scripts. All advertisements should highlight the benefits of a usually-unadvertised healthy, whole food.
Option A: Performed Commercial Warm-up (10 mins): As a class, students will watch the teacher and two helpers present a pretend food commercial for a healthy product that includes the following Template Commercial Script:
! Persons 1 & 2 play characters who are hungry and don!t know what to eat. ! Person 3 plays a product spokesperson who has a healthy product for the person. ! Persons 1 & 2 say they!d rather eat another kind of unhealthy food. ! Person 3 shares all the good things about the healthy food. ! Persons 1 & 2 get excited and decide to eat the food.
Main Activity (20 mins): White the above-listed commercial sections (or exact words) on chart paper. Break students into groups of 2 or 3 and allow each group to choose a healthy food to advertise, and think about their favorite features of the food. Allow work time and rehearsal time and encourage students whose commercials are ready to share their commercials to the class. (You may not have time to see all the commercials, in which case students can hopefully present them in other class time.) Option B: Drawn advertisement Warm-up (10 mins): As a class, students will look back at the McDonald’s advertisement used in Session 2 and are reminded of the five elements of an advertisement:
1. Image of product 2. Product name and/or logo (often the same thing) 3. Tagline or Jingle (short phrase we remember and we see in lots of different ads from the
same product – play McDonald!s advertisement for the “I!m Lovin! It” jingle/slogan) 4. Other pictures or words, often that give information about the product, or even that tell a
kind of story. Sometimes this story is so distracting we don!t realize it!s an advertisement. In this case it might be a “sneaky ad.”
5. Discount or bonus information. Tell students that when they see “bonus” information it might be a “double ad.”
The Teacher can pick a fruit or vegetable to demonstrate the next step: identifying the most exciting features of the food for the advertisement (e.g. lemons are juicy, sour, and make delicious lemon water to have in the summer). Main Activity (20 mins): Students should pick a healthy food, and think about their favorite features of the food. They should draw an advertisement using these features, involving as many of the advertising elements (listed above) as they want to include. Session Conclusion (5 mins): Students share one new thing they learned about advertising as they walk out the door. Extensions: Classes can participate in mindful tasting and/or group cooking sessions. Classes can also take grocery store field trips with a variety of possible activities: price comparing between whole food and processed foods; tours to map the grocery store and to see what areas contain the healthiest foods (outer ring) and which contain the most processed (aisles); discussions of how advertisements and packaging placement in the grocery store make us want foods (ie. impulse purchases at tills and aisle-ends, and child-eye-level placement of sweets).
