Understanding Media Texts

By the end of Grade 9, students will:

• explain how simple media texts and some teacher-selected complex media texts are created to suit particular purposes and audiences
• interpret simple media texts and some teacher-selected complex media texts, identifying some of the overt and implied messages they convey
• evaluate how effectively information and ideas are communicated in simple media texts and some teacher-selected complex media texts, and decide whether the texts achieve their intended purpose
• identify how different audiences might respond to selected media texts
• identify the perspectives and/or biases evident in a few simple media texts and teacher-selected complex media texts and comment on any questions they may raise about beliefs, values, and identity
• explain how a few different production, marketing, and distribution factors influence the media industry

Lessons that meet the Grade 9 expectations

Advertising

Marketing Tactics

Talking Back

Alternative Ads

Parody Ads

Gender Roles in Advertising

Selling Obesity

Sports Personalities in Magazine Advertising

The Price of Happiness: On Advertising, Image, and Self Esteem

Gotta Have It! Designer & Brand Names

Truth or Money

Kellogg Special K Ads

Television Broadcast Ratings

Alcohol

Alcohol Myths

Alcohol on the Web

Gender Messages in Alcohol Advertising

Don’t Drink and Drive: Assessing the Effectiveness of Anti-Drinking Campaigns

Internet

ICYouSee: A Lesson in Critical Thinking

Deconstructing Web Pages   
Thinking About Hate

Media

Defining Pop Culture

Individuality vs. Conformity

Looking Through the Lenses

Whose Lenses? How Mass Media Portray Global Development

Adjusting the Focus

The Function of Music

Comparing Crime Dramas

Crime in the News

Violence and Video Games

Defining Pop Culture

Movies

Violence on Film 

Music

The Function of Music

Popular Music and Music Videos

News Journalism Across the Media

Definitions and Comments about the News

Introduction

The Newspaper Front Page

Radio News

Television News

Summative Activities

How to Analyze the News

Crime in the News

You Be the Editor

Bias in the News

Writing a Newspaper Article

You Be the Editor

Scripting a Crime Drama

True Story

Privacy

What Students Need to Know about Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy

Online Marketing to Kids: Protecting Your Privacy

Who Knows? Your Privacy in the Information Age

The Privacy Dilemma

Stereotyping

Exposing Gender Stereotypes

Learning Gender Stereotypes

The Impact of Gender Stereotypes

Images of Learning: Secondary

The Girl in the Mirror

Television

Camera Shots

Cinema Cops

Crime Perceptions Quiz

Viewing a Crime Drama

Scripting a Crime Drama

Comparing Crime Dramas

Video Production of a Newscast

Crime Perceptions Quiz

Tobacco

Thinking Like a Tobacco Company: Grades 7–9

Freedom to Smoke

Gender and Tobacco

Tobacco Labels

Video Games

Video Games

Violence and Video Games

Educational Games

Click if You Agree

Student Tutorial (Licensed Resource)

MyWorld: A digital literacy tutorial for secondary students

Understanding Media Forms, Conventions, and Techniques

By the end of Grade 9, students will:

• identify general characteristics of a few different media forms and explain how they shape content and create meaning
• identify a few different conventions and/or techniques used in familiar media forms and explain how they convey meaning

Creating Media Texts

By the end of Grade 9, students will:

• describe the topic, purpose, and audience for media texts they plan to create
• select a media form to suit the topic, purpose, and audience for a media text they plan to create and explain why it is an appropriate choice
• identify a few different conventions and/or techniques appropriate to a media form they plan to use, and explain how these will help them communicate meaning
• produce media texts for a few different purposes and audiences, using appropriate forms, conventions, and techniques

Reflecting on Media Literacy Skills and Strategies

By the end of Grade 9, students will:

• describe a few different strategies they used in interpreting and creating media texts and explain how these and other strategies can help them improve as media interpreters and producers
• identify a few different skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing that help them interpret and produce media texts