Favourite Sports and Athletes: Introduction to Sports Media - Lesson Lesson Plan

Diversity in Media
Gender Representation
Marketing & Consumerism
Sports
Television
Violence

Level(s): K - 3

Author: Used with permission from Responding To Media Violence: Starting Point for Classroom Practice K-6, by the Metropolitan Toronto School Board.

This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Overview

This lesson develops a beginning awareness by students of how they feel towards, and respond to, different sports, and how the media represents athletics. The lesson begins with a class discussion about the sports that students enjoy playing and watching on TV. Students talk about the differences between watching sports on TV and in person, and explore the marketing of sports by looking at the sports-related clothing and toys they own. Students also broaden their understanding of sports by reflecting on how they feel when they get hurt in sports and by discussing issues such as the role of women and the disabled in sports.

Learning Outcomes

Students demonstrate:

  • a beginning awareness that media preferences may depend on age, sex and cultural background
  • a beginning ability to identify and explain a few aesthetically pleasing media techniques, e.g., colour, shape, design, texture and pictures (symbols) used in sports logos, uniforms/costumes
  • a beginning awareness that media convey value messages to the audience, e.g., women aren't as athletic as men.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) is available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit