Teaching about TV advertisements – A project on healthy snacks

1
Teaching about TV advertisements A project on
healthy snacks

• Ms Fiona Wong, Ms Zita Cheng, Mr Sam Ho
• NLSI Lui Kwok Pat Fong College

2
School background

• CMI school
• Students are creative and talented but..
• their achievement in English doesnt match that
  in other subjects, so..
• enriching the English environment is a high
  priority for the school and..
• infusing language arts into the junior secondary
  curriculum is one way in which this is being done

3
Why this project in S3?

• began two years ago
• students had to do a cross-curricular project
• teachers wanted to combine Home Ec and English
• textbook had Healthy Eating chapter
• TV ads a new idea students can learn some
  Language Arts features of jingles, slogans and
  packaging, as well as some advertising strategies
• presentation more interesting for inter-class
  competition

4
Inter-class competition for English Week
Group project and class competition
Lessons on features of TV advertising
5

• Poems and Songs
• Knowledge
• Different types of poems (eg haiku,
• acrostic, shape poem, sonnet)
• Poetic features (eg rhyme, rhythm, simile,
  metaphor, alliteration)
• Skills
• Appreciating, responding,
• Creating, performing

• Popular Culture
• Knowledge
• Pop culture text types (movies, advertisements,
  comic strips)
• Features of those text types (language, style,
  format , target audience, use of images)
• Skills
• Responding, creating
• Presentation skills

• Drama
• Knowledge
• Features of a drama script or screenplay
• Drama vocabulary (audience, stage, costumes)
• Skills
• Acting skills- showing feeling with voice,
  gesture, movement
• Team interaction
• Writing a script or screenplay

• Fiction / Short Stories
• Knowledge
• Story elements (eg plot, characters)
• Major features (openings, closings, dialogue,
  creating mood)
• Skills
• Analysing and appreciating stories
• Storytelling
• Writing stories or completing a given beginning
  or outline
• Character analysis

6
Overview
7
Features of packaging

• The colour, design and wording should attract the
  target consumers of the product and suggest
  something about the products selling point
• The name and packaging may contain special
  features, eg alliteration or play on words (pun)
• This is quite common in advertising, but
  difficult for students to replicate

8
(No Transcript)
9
Jingles and slogans

• Should be short and memorable
• May contain
• rhyming words
• puns
• alliteration

10
bright

• Be ________.
• Do it ________.
• Obey traffic lights.

right
11
TV Advertising strategies

• Using humour
• Using an image which shocks or surprises, but is
  memorable
• Using famous people
• Using science to scare/reassure
• Suggesting the product will solve a problem and
  also make life better in general
• Using images of beautiful, rich people in
  glamorous settings
• Using references to current events, hot topics
  etc.

12
Integration into the teaching schedule

• Number of lessons
• Textbook teaching (Healthy lifestyles) 8 lessons
• Project 18 single lessons 2 cycles (may take
  longer according to the class)

13
1. Introduction

• Students..
• watch a clip from Jamies school dinners in
  which children refuse to eat healthy food.
• discuss good ways to persuade children to eat
  more healthily.
• raise the idea of marketing healthy snacks

14
2. Packaging

• Students..
• identify features of packaging.
• evaluate examples of packaging of snacks
  (candies, chocolate bars, cookies, etc.) which
  they have collected
• work in pairs/groups to make a name, ingredients
  and design a package for their product

15
Features of packaging
16
Evaluating packaging
17
3. Advertising strategies

• Students
• watch a TV commercial as an introduction to
  highlight the different features, slogan, jingle,
  advertising strategy, etc.
• read a passage about the techniques used in TV
  commercials and answer comprehension questions
• watch and evaluate a selection of TV
  advertisements

18
TV Advertisements
19
4. Slogans and jingles

• Students.
• listen to/read some jingles.
• identify examples of rhyme, rhythm and
  alliteration. (Word plays are also used
  sometimes)
• work on a slogan and/or jingle for their own
  product

20
Slogans and jingles
Language features
21
5. Storyboard

• Students
• watch an example of a student product
  (advertisement)
• look at an example of a storyboard of the same
  advertisement
• draft storyboards for their own advertisements.

22
(No Transcript)
23
Students response to the teaching part

• Benefits
• Students can get ideas about types of strategies
  to use
• They learn some English jingles and slogans
• They learn the features of these

• Difficulties
• Not familiar with vocab about healthy lifestyle
  (eg vitamins, fibre etc)
• Time constraint
• Drama skills
• Getting suitable advertisements for showing in
  class

24
Changes for this year

• Add drama skills for one or two lessons
• Find more up-to-date advertisements!
• Change of timing to include CNY holiday
  students have more time to work on their videos
• Worksheets compiled as a booklet, so students can
  keep it for their reference

25
From project to performance

• Students present their products and
  advertisements in class
• Peer evaluation is conducted
• The best presentations and advertisements are
  chosen for the inter-class competition in English
  Week.

26
Preparation for performance

• Benefits
• Students are very motivated to perform well
• Enables them to use their IT skills in the
  context of English
• The only time they want to speak English in front
  of others

• Difficulties
• Some students have stage fright
• Lack of basic drama skills
• Students like to make last minute changes
• For weaker classes, coaching in pronunciation is
  needed

27
Holding the competition (Learning from painful
experience!)

• First time difficulties
• No hall rehearsal
• Timing was a problem
• Technical problems
• Second time improvements
• Rehearsal time allocated
• Improvement in technical aspects
• Third time?

28
Students products
29
Front
Back
Packaging
30
Corn carbohydrate , protein, fibre, vitamins
Ham protein, calcium , phosphorous, iron and fat
Iceberg lettuce Vitamins and fibre
31

• Space Pudding

32
2006
33
S3 students work
2007
No Sweat storyboard
34
Students responses
What did they enjoy most?
What was difficult?
Feelings about the teaching materials
Choice of presentation live action or video?
35
Impact on students

• Motivates them to produce something in English
• Motivating for boys can use IT skills
• Can draw the attention of students in other year
  groups if they see the performances
• Students gain confidence in presenting their ideas

36
Project assessment

• Assessment of project work by teacher using
  rubric
• Teachers feedback in project booklet
• Self and peer evaluation
• Competition adjudicators scoresheet and
  audience award

37
S3 project assessment rubric
The packaging is attractive and carefully done.
The design is suitable for the target
audience. The packaging gives additional informati
on about the product
38
(No Transcript)
39
Resources

• Materials from this project available on our
  website
• http//cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/languagesupport/res
  ource/English/26_healthy_snacks/index.htm
• Materials about TV ads
• http//www.teachit.co.uk/index.asp?CurrMenu132T
  411411
• Other websites with TV commercials
• www.youtube.com
• www.thebesttvcommercials.com (mainly US)
• www.visit4info.com (mainly UK)
• www.funnyplace.org (international)