LESSON SEVEN: Techniques Used to Convey Messages in Media

                             

LESSON DESCRIPTION

Students identify and explain techniques used to convey messages in various media. 

 

GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS

IL2          Identify and explain media techniques used to convey messages in various media (videos, pictures, various websites, artwork, plays, and/or news programs).

 

LESSON MATERIALS

§         Source of Literature

 

§         Supplies 

 

§         Handouts provided

 

§         Words to know

o        media

 

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT 

For homework, students select a media source used that evening and in a paragraph, identify and explain techniques used to convey a message. Students share information in class as a large group.  Scoring guide provided.

 

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

 

  1. Students brainstorm with a partner, forms of media used in daily life and share as a large group and discuss. 

 

Questions

for

Students

What is media?

What are media techniques?

How does media affect our daily life?

       

  1. Share examples of a visual (newspaper article), audio (recording or tape), and an audio/visual (news presentation from TV). For reference, see Communication Arts Grade-Level Expectations Glossary of Terms. Use a think-aloud strategy to identify techniques used in each form of media to convey a message.

 

Questions

for

Students

What information is important?

How do you tell a new topic is being introduced?

What is an advantage of using visual media over auditory-only media?

In print media, how is attention drawn to the most important information?

Why are pictures, graphs, and charts used along with the text in visual and audio-visual media?

What would be an advantage and disadvantage of each type of media?

 

Strategy 

Media: means of communication, including print and visual works, live and television/film/video/performances, audio, internet; plural of medium

Media techniques

§         Print techniques: text features such as headlines, captions, boldface type

§         Language techniques: style (e.g., dialect word choice, propaganda)

§         Symbolic techniques: visual symbol (e.g., objects, setting, color)

§         Technical techniques: camera angles, lighting, focus, etc.

 

Idea 

A resource of information on media: http://www.medialit.org

 

  1. Divide class into three groups. Assign each group a different media form (visual, audio, and audio/visual). Each group identifies techniques used in the forms of media presented to convey a message. Each group explains how techniques are used to convey each message.  

 

Questions

for

Students 

Are all techniques found in all media?

Is one technique preferred over others?

Why are techniques important to various media?

What does the word “convey” mean?

What does it mean to convey messages?

 

  1. Give students a graphic organizer. Students rotate through four media stations identifying and explaining the media technique and message conveyed for each media presented.  

 

Strategy 

Four different types of media will be placed in the four stations.

Stations need to be spread out as not to interfere with information coming out of other stations.

 As students rotate through the stations, encourage no sharing of information with others. Students share observations and finding after all have rotated through all four stations. One way to do this is to announce, “If you overhear others’ ideas, you may steal them.”

 

  1. Bring students back as a large group and to compare observations and findings.

 

Questions

for

Students 

What are some similarities in findings of the various media and media techniques?

What are some differences?

What media proved to be the most difficult to explain techniques to convey messages? The easiest? Why?