Politcal Ad Project

By Regina Kilburn, HS English Teacher

The November presidential election offered an ideal time to examine how persuasive techniques are used in political advertising. Having the one-to-one computer program allowed us to combine research, writing, and production skills in a way that would not have been possible before.

We began the unit by looking at rhetorical techniques (repetition, rule of three etc.) First we identified and discussed them. Once students knew some of the techniques they were asked to find political ads (either presidential or MA senate), which used the specific techniques and identify where and to what purpose the techniques were being used. All of the necessary handouts, background materials, suggested extension work and rubrics were posted on my Moodle site as either documents or URL links.
 
We then expanded our investigations to consider logical fallacies. Students were given a link to the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) explanation of logical fallacies and we then discussed them in class.

Next students were told to go to a presidential candidate’s own web site and choose one television ad. This they had to analyze for rhetorical/persuasive techniques and logical fallacies. They were cautioned that they were not to comment on the worth or validity of the actual claims or candidates; their job was simply to consider techniques.

The students were next asked to do the same task but with the opposing candidate. Therefore, each student would have looked at both a Romney ad and an Obama ad. The purpose of this was to show students that these techniques are universal and not confined to one side.

Students then presented each ad to the rest of the class and identified the techniques being used. This produced extremely insightful work. Students were surprised by the use of the techniques and they were pleased that they were able to identify them with some ease. Our discussions were lively and fun.

The final task was for each student to produce a similar ad for a third – fictional – presidential candidate belonging to a third – also fictional - party. Those students who had already done freshman tech seminar and/or felt comfortable using i-movie were encouraged to produce a thirty second TV ad; those who did not feel capable of making a filmed product were asked to produce a storyboard for a thirty-second TV ad. Most students chose the filmed version (using iMovie). They were asked to make an ad for a specific and identifiable audience (senior citizens, new voter, women, etc.) and to use appropriate techniques and logical fallacies. They were told they could use any images for their “president” but that they should choose a character who could appear to be of the right age, appearance etc. for their party.

Students produced very successful ads and were able to use the persuasive techniques with great skill. They clearly understood how the techniques were being used and they were able to duplicate the process.

The whole project was extremely successful. It was real learning of important skills (both in an English class and in the real world) and it was fun. It would not have been possible without the one-to-one program as we used the computers every day and for every homework.

Personal Essays: Spoken and Written

By Fred Haas, HS English Teacher

Aggregated Dashboard of Student Blogs

Over the course of the year, my grade nine English sections have been migrating from writing personal narratives to more academic essays. As part of the transition, I asked my classes to write essays that were more personal in nature, providing the students with authority and confidence over their content.

Since these kinds of essays would be about them individually, they need not worry about being wrong in any way and the instruction could be more focused on how to construct and craft essays in a way that is engaging and powerful. To open the semester, students wrote essays that were statements of personal belief or values.

National Public Radio used to run a segment called “This I Believe,” which has since grown into a non-profit organization. Using the rich database of essays from the organization as models, students wrote essays inspired by a belief or value that guides their lives. Using this approach, the students immediately empowered as the content experts about what they chose to write.

All of the students having laptops in classroom enabled a deeper and richer set of experiences. Over the course of the year, students have routinely made use of the laptops for writing purposes. While simply writing with computers is a lower level of laptop usage, it simply serves as an entry point for a deeper writing experience. As part of the process, students collaborated with each other in reader response groups to give and receive feedback to each other in preparation for revision. Using Google Docs as a platform for their group collaborative efforts, students were able to easily share, while reading aloud, their work, preserve comments and feedback from the session’s multiple real-time participants embedded within the actual actual writing, and immediately begin the process of revising their work.

Additionally, these essays, by design, are meant to be written for a real audience, including not only peers but the public-at-large. As a result, blogs became the platform of choice for sharing. The blog now serves as a hub of public, digital work. In fact, all of the student blogs are aggregated by section for easy access on this dashboard. Classmates now respond to one another by leaving comments. Additional comments are welcome. Each student presenting their work on a blog introduced yet another opportunity to learn and employ a new tool into the overall process, all in service of literacy.

Using blogs also created a chance to discuss some basic aspects of how websites work, what makes data searchable, and how to combine media into a single, cohesive work. Moreover, introducing the concept tags or metadata, and applying it to their own content, will prove a seedbed for later research work.

Considering that the inspiration for this assignment was a radio segment, the opportunity to give voice to the essays was a natural enhancement to be included. The laptops afforded instant access to sound recording and editing tools for the vocal readings, software like GarageBand or Audacity. Students then used SoundCloud to store and play their edited audio on their blogs. This small addition of the recorded vocal reading by the student writer is an advantage, in terms of preserving a performance and linking spoken and written language in a way that provides a deeper and richer literacy experience.

Of course all of these individual activities could have been completed in analog fashion. In fact, apart from using a blog as a central hub and distribution platform, all of these tasks predate widespread computer use. Yet, the whole is worth more than the sum of individual parts. They were charged with wrestling with an array of tools and concepts and rendering a product. Plus, students were able to work and create quickly, building on multiple iterations. It is a very clear example of learning by doing.

Ultimately, students explored the connection between spoken and written language in a subtle but powerful way, developing pieces of writing that are deeply personal, powerful, and authentic. They wrote for themselves, their classmates, and the public-at-large. Even better, some even remarked that it was fun.

Bienvenidos!

by Colleen Worrell, Secondary Technology Integration Coordinator

Hola by ~MtDex

During a recent conversation veteran Spanish teacher José Barretto gave a warm bienvenidos (welcome) to the HS’s 1-1 laptop program. Señor Barretto pointed out two main reasons for his enthusiasm: time and flexibility. Instead of booking the language lab once per week, he is able to plan learning experiences that give students interactive, online vocabulary and grammar practice on a daily basis, simply by having student go “lids up” on their laptops. “Before,” Señor Barretto explains, “it would take up so much class time to move from the classroom to the language lab, get students set up, trouble-shoot, and get started. In the end, it would leave us with only about 30 minutes of lab time each week.” Now, with every student having access to a laptop, he and his students can weave digital learning into any given day, more than quadrupling the opportunities for listening and reading activities on a weekly basis. Moreover, his classes move seamlessly between in-person instruction and online learning with relatively few hiccups, which translates into more effective learning. ¡Que buéno!

I had the opportunity to work with Señor Barretto and his Spanish II students on their final project a few weeks ago. Students created a visual autobiography using Powerpoint, which they presented in Spanish to their classmates. Not only were students able to practice their Spanish and demonstrate mastery of the language, they also learned about digital copyright, design principles, and best practices for delivering oral presentations (without the aid of notecards!). Both Señor and his students found the project engaging and meaningful, and look forward to exploring more ways of making the most of the 1-1 environment over the Spring semester.