ALEX Learning Activity

Students will use critical and creative thinking to generate many, varied, and unusual ideas for a media arts product through synthesis, using personal experience and/or the work of others.

This is the second activity in a series of four to meet Media Arts Standard 5.1:

Using Productive Thinking in Media Arts

Identifying and Choosing a Message in Media Arts

Cracking the Secret Code in Media Arts

Storyboarding in Media Arts

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

Learning Targets:

I can identify the message that is being communicated in an existing commercial.

I can engage appropriately in a range of discussions, building on others' ideas.

I can identify the ideals of a company based on the message in a commercial.

I can use productive thinking to generate many, varied, and unusual ideas for a new message that fit within the ideals of the original message. 

The students will watch a commercial for a high-interest product and respond to teacher probing questions to discover the message(s) of the commercial. See the digital tool for an example commercial. 

Examples of questions:
--How did the commercial make you feel? What did it make you call to mind? What did the camera focus your attention on? What did you hear? How were the people in the commercial feeling? How do you know? What does the commercial make people want?

The students will use think, pair, share to identify the ideals of the company based on the message(s) in the commercial. Students will share ideas with the class and repeat think, pair, share to refine their answers.

The students will use productive thinking to generate many, varied, and unusual new messages for a commercial for this product: 
"many" = number of ideas; good or bad; generating ideas
"varied" = number of ideas from different categories. For example, many ideas that send a message of gratitude vs. many ideas that send a message of power vs. many ideas that send a message of future dreams
"unusual" = unique ideas; divergent ideas; ideas that no one else thought of

Students will choose a message from their lists that fits within the ideals of the company.

Students will use this idea in the following activity to create a media arts product.

Formative Assessment: Teacher observations of class discussion from probing questions and student responses during think, pair, share.

Summative Assessment: Productive Thinking Rubric

Prepare students to use productive thinking. The learning activity Using Productive Thinking in Media Arts should be used to prepare students to use productive thinking.

In determining "categories" for varied ideas: As long as the student can justify his or her choices, then the category is valid. 

For example, if a student lists: "grass, house plants, leaves, weeds, our couch, cooked spinach..." then there could be a category of "things inside the house" with "couch, cooked spinach, and house plants" and a category of "outside the house" with "grass, weeds, and leaves." That would be two categories. However, more productive thinking would be that there are four categories: 
Living Things: grass, weeds, house plants, leaves
Non-Living Things: couch, cooked spinach
Inside Things: couch, cooked spinach, house plants
Outside Things: grass, weeds, leaves

Find and save a commercial of a high-interest product in a format that can be shared with the class, such as an MP4, online video link, etc.

Students may research and find their own commercials, identify the message, and share with the class. 

Students may research to find two commercials for the same product or from the same company that show similar messages or different messages.

This is one activity in a series of activities to address Standard Cr.5.1.1 in Media Arts.

Associated activities are as follows:
Using Productive Thinking in Media Arts
Cracking the Secret Code in Media Arts
Storyboarding in Media Arts