Learning Activity

Identifying and Choosing a Message in Media Arts

Subject Area

Arts Education
English Language Arts

Grade(s)

5

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.

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Media Arts

AE17.MED.5.1

Present original ideas and innovations for media arts products, utilizing personal experiences and/or the work of others.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.MED.5.1

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

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?

Skills 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.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 5

ELA21.5.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

UP:ELA21.5.R1

Vocabulary

  • Active listening
  • Discussion
  • Conversation
  • Rules
  • Participation

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Active listening skills.
  • How to engage in discussions and conversations in a variety of settings.
  • Agreed-upon rules for participation.

Skills

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

Students understand that:
  • Conversations and discussions follow agreed-upon rules which help us actively listen and gain understanding.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 5

ELA21.5.26

Analyze how two or more texts address similar topics in diverse media and formats, including graphics, live and/or recorded performances, and written works.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.5.26

Vocabulary

  • Analyze
  • Topics
  • Diverse media and formats
  • Graphics
  • Live and/or recorded performances
  • Written works

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Strategies to analyze text and diverse media formats.
  • Similar topics can be presented in different formats.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Analyze and explain how two or more texts explain similar topics in diverse media and formats.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Similar concepts can be explained in different ways depending on the format of the text and the viewpoint of the author.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
Learning Objectives

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. 

Activity Details

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

Assessment Strategies

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

Summative Assessment: Productive Thinking Rubric

Variation Tips

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.

Background and Preparation

Background / 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.

Digital Tools / Resources

Commercial for 2017 Porsche 911 (as an example for reference)
https://youtu.be/KRbzJ0L1Zn8

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

cherisealbrigh
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