ALEX Learning Activity

  

Identifying and Choosing a Message in Media Arts

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Cherise Albright
System:Huntsville City
School:Huntsville City Board Of Education
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 1683
Title:
Identifying and Choosing a Message in Media Arts
Digital Tool/Resource:
Commercial for 2017 Porsche 911 (as an example for reference)
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

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.
  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 5
Media Arts
1) Present original ideas and innovations for media arts products, utilizing personal experiences and/or the work of others.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Creating
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Process Components: Conceive
Essential Questions:
EU: Media arts ideas, works, and processes are shaped by the imagination, creative processes, and by experiences, both within and outside of the arts.
EQ: How do media artists generate ideas? How can ideas for media arts productions be formed and developed to be effective and original?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
Original
  • Synthesize
  • Innovation
Proposal
  • Concept
  • Action Plan
  • Materials List
  • Roles/ Team Needed
Design
Purpose
  • Persuade
  • Discredit
Meaning
  • Subtext
  • Connotation vs. Denotation
Principles
  • Emphasis
  • Exaggeration
Skill Examples:
  • Brainstorm with a group and list many, varied, and unusual ideas for a class media arts project. Use a storyboard to capture and organize ideas to advertise a product in a new way with a new message.
  • In a group and after brainstorming choose one idea and create a plan and/or model for a media arts production that meets the group's artistic goals based on the elements of design. Challenge the model by getting feedback from classmates and revise the storyboard to better communicate to the audience.
  • After researching choose many and varied images for a media arts production that convey a chosen purpose. Images and sounds will use emphasis and exaggeration.
  • Refine a media arts project from feedback to get a specific audience reaction, communicating through metaphor and symbolism.
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 5
R1. Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
R1.
  • Active listening
  • Discussion
  • Conversation
  • Rules
  • Participation
Knowledge:
R1. Students know:
  • Active listening skills.
  • How to engage in discussions and conversations in a variety of settings.
  • Agreed-upon rules for participation.
Skills:
R1. Students are able to:
  • Demonstrate active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings.
  • Converse in pairs, small groups, and large groups.
  • Practice the agreed-upon rules for participation.
Understanding:
R1. Students understand that:
  • Conversations and discussions follow agreed-upon rules which help us actively listen and gain understanding.
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 5
26. Analyze how two or more texts address similar topics in diverse media and formats, including graphics, live and/or recorded performances, and written works.

a. Explain how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the overall meaning and tone of a text.

b. Compare and contrast the approaches to theme in several stories within a genre.

c. Locate information quickly within a text and apply information from multiple sources to analysis of the topics.

d. Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.

e. Compare the approaches of several authors of articles about the same or similar topics.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
26.
  • Analyze
  • Topics
  • Diverse media and formats
  • Graphics
  • Live and/or recorded performances
  • Written works
26a.
  • Visual elements
  • Multimedia elements
  • Overall meaning
  • Tone
26b.
  • Compare
  • Contrast
  • Theme
  • Genre
26c.
  • Locate
  • Analysis
  • Topic
26d.
  • Explain
  • Reasons
  • Evidence
  • Points
26e.
  • Compare
  • Approaches
  • Articles
  • Topics
Knowledge:
26. Students know:
  • Strategies to analyze text and diverse media formats.
  • Similar topics can be presented in different formats.
26a.
  • A creator chooses to include visual or multimedia elements in text to convey a particular tone and meaning.
  • Tone is the attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience.
26b.
  • Compare means to tell how something is similar and contrast is to tell how something is different.
  • Theme is the main, recurring idea in a text.
  • Stories within a genre will have similar in forms, styles, or subject matter.
26c.
  • Strategies to locate information quickly in a text, such as utilizing text features.
  • Techniques to synthesize information from multiple sources.
26d.
  • Authors often include logical reasons and evidence to support their points.
26e.
  • Compare is to tell how something is similar.
  • Authors that write about similar topics will often have similar approaches to explaining the content.
Skills:
26. Students are able to:
  • Analyze and explain how two or more texts explain similar topics in diverse media and formats.
26a.
  • Identify visual and multimedia elements in text.
  • Describe the overall meaning and tone of text.
  • Explain how the visual and multimedia elements impact the overall meaning and tone of the text.
26b.
  • Identify and describe the theme of a story.
  • Identify similarities between themes of texts in the same genre.
  • Identify differences between themes of texts in the same genre.
26c.
  • Quickly find information within a text.
  • Analyze text topics by applying information from multiple sources.
26d.
  • Identify key points in a text.
  • Identify reasons and evidence that support the author's points.
  • Explain how the author uses reasons and evidence to support their key points.
26e.
  • Identify similarities of writing approaches in articles with the same or similar topics.
Understanding:
26. Students understand that:
  • Similar concepts can be explained in different ways depending on the format of the text and the viewpoint of the author.
26a.
  • Visual and multimedia elements are added to text to enhance or clarify the overall meaning and create a tone.
26b.
  • Identifying, describing, and analyzing themes of stories within the same genre improves their comprehension of the text and their knowledge of text genres.
26c.
  • Quickly finding information in a text is an important skill they will use in various situations.
  • To deeply analyze a topic, they must combine information from multiple sources.
26d.
  • Authors use logical reasoning and factual evidence to support their points.
26e.
  • Authors who choose to write about the same topics will often have similar approaches.
Learning Objectives:

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. 
  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
During/Explore/Explain
Activity:

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.
Assessment Strategies:

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

Summative Assessment: Productive Thinking Rubric
Advanced Preparation:

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.

 
Variation Tips (optional):

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.
Notes or Recommendations (optional):

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
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