Quebec Competencies Chart - Don’t Drink and Drive: Assessing the Effectiveness of Anti-Drinking Campaigns
Author: MediaSmarts
Level: Secondary Cycle Two
Subject Area: English Language Arts, Physical Education and Health
Lesson Link: Don’t Drink and Drive: Assessing the Effectiveness of Anti-Drinking Campaigns
Description: In this lesson, students explore a variety of anti-drinking and alcohol awareness campaigns in order to determine their effectiveness. Students will deconstruct the different approaches that have been used by various organizations to reach teens and young adults and will debate those techniques that are most likely to resonate with youth. In a summative activity, groups of students create and implement an alcohol awareness campaign for students.
Cross-curricular Competencies |
Broad Areas of Learning |
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This lesson satisfies the following English Language Arts Competencies from the Quebec Education Program:
COMPETENCY 1 uses language/talk to communicate and to learn
- Compares the affordances of written, media and multimodal languages in achieving a specific purpose
- Constructs criteria for choosing the mode of spoken language in a specific context, by considering audience needs and demands of the context
- Examines how poets and others have used the sound patterns and other auditory elements of spoken language to great effect:
- in media texts: slogans and jingles in commercials; repetition and sound patterns in music videos
COMPETENCY 2 Reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts
Constructing a Reading of a Text
- Focuses on a topic and/or issue that is of interest to her/him to construct an efferent reading, (e.g. makes sense of the text by coming to terms with the ways in which a topic has been developed by a writer/producer)
- Focuses on the relationship between self as reader and the text to construct an interpretive reading
- Activates relevant prior textual knowledge before, during and after reading text(s) to monitor the meaning(s) s/he is making, (e.g. uses what is known about a writer/producer and her/his style to make predictions, draws on knowledge of structures and features of a specific genre, applies knowledge of codes and conventions particular to specific texts)
- Activates relevant prior personal knowledge and experience to make sense of a text which is frequently expressed in text-to-self connections, text-to-world connections, text-to-text connections
- Asks questions of self, writers(s) and text(s) as s/he reads to clarify and focus reading
- Determines the most important ideas/messages/themes in a text
- Draws inferences from a text
- Retells or synthesizes what s/he has read, e.g. attends to the most important information and the quality of the synthesis itself to better understand the text
Reader, Text, Context
Draws inferences about the view of the world presented in a text
- Identifies dominant elements and interprets their use, e.g. point of view, specific literary conventions, structure and sequence of argument, patterns of cause and effect
- Examines how language (word, sound and image) is shaped to present ideas and information
Justifies her/his interpretation(s) of texts on the basis of own fluency as a reader
- Evaluates the way specific codes and conventions of a spoken/written/media text are employed to have an impact upon the assumptions, actions, values and beliefs of readers:
- mode(s) of representation (sound, word and image) that influence the message(s)/meaning(s) of a text and how these reveal the intention(s) of the writer/producer(s)
- linguistic and textual features that situate or position the reader, e.g. connotations and denotations, stereotypes and bias, aspects of characterization and setting that evoke a specific emotion or response, appeals to mainstream values and beliefs
- Interrelates characteristics of the writer/producer(s) of a text and self as a reader:
- evaluates a perspective or point of view and its impact on self as reader
- recognizes the use of rhetorical strategies, e.g. use of first person to convey attitudes and feelings about an issue/topic, appeals to common beliefs or values in a culture, appeals designed to evoke a certain age group
- recognizes how authors and producers of written persuasion and argument, whose views are accorded great respect in our society and culture, influence her/his interpretation(s), i.e. in particular, of what can be considered factual, objective
COMPETENCY 3 Produces texts for personal and social purposes
Researching as a Writer/Producer
- Develops topics that are personally and socially relevant:
- looks at multiple perspectives on the topic, e.g. pros and cons of an argument, how different people perceive the issue
Assuming Roles as a Writer/Producer
- Adopts a stance to a topic and audience appropriate to the genre
- Considers who s/he represents, e.g. the beliefs and values of a company and/or an organization
- Experiments with active and passive voice, e.g. uses active voice to project a sense of reality or immediacy in recounting experiences
- Explores different dimensions of a character, issue
- Applies language conventions to establish relationships, e.g. using gestures to elicit sympathy; using statements, conditions and commands to imply control and power; tilting the camera up to show authority
- Experiments with register:
- establishes the tone, e.g. uses dispassionate tone of anchor on news report, intimate tone when writing in a journal
Characterizing an Audience
Investigates how different target audiences use and respond to particular texts:
- identifies factors that constitute a target audience and evaluates how media texts are shaped to suit them
- collects data about audience’s text preferences by engaging in interviews, polls, surveys, peer feedback
- compares and contrasts own responses, reactions and use of texts with those of peers, family, other households and more distant audiences
Analyzes characteristics of audience for own productions:
- chooses an audience depending on context for production
- draws on previous experience with audience
- generalizes factors such as age, gender, cultural background, race, location, level of education
- identifies potential barriers to communication, e.g. audiences’ level of knowledge of topic
- considers the relative status of producer and audience, e.g. same, higher, or lower
- analyzes the expectations of audience, e.g. the uses the audience will make of the text (for entertainment, for information, for escape), generic conventions
Public and Private Space
Examines the difference between producing texts for private and public audiences:
- questions issues of ownership, intellectual property, creative freedom, boundaries of genres
Conducts a genre analysis:
- evaluates the structures, features, codes and conventions used
- examines how language (sound, word and image) is shaped:
- to represent and/or exclude people, events, ideas and information
- to organize and develop ideas
- for special effect
Uses texts as models to guide production:
- refers to model text(s) throughout the production process
- creates criteria for guiding production
- identifies specific structures and features to reproduce own interests, purpose and audience
Applying Codes and Conventions
- Applies conventions of the genre:
- chooses textual structures and features
- chooses linguistic codes and conventions
- Combines and/or manipulates codes and conventions of specific genres for special effects (multi-genre texts)
- Combines and/or manipulates codes and conventions of different modes (multimodal texts), e.g. the PSA draws on conventions of sound, word and image. It uses music to appeal to the emotions, includes a voiceover of a well-known person to draw attention to the cause and uses images to shock or jar the audience
- Adopts ethical standards in own productions
Production Process
Media Practices
- Manages resources, e.g. financial constraints, available technologies
- Manages production constraints, e.g. time line, deadline, group roles and responsibilities
- Respects genre constraints, e.g. format, layout, target audience’s expectations, industry standards such as time allotment
Planning and Drafting
- Brainstorms ideas, clarifies and extends thinking by talking with peers and teacher
- Uses strategies to work out ideas, plan and draft, e.g. concept map, free writing, storyboard
- Develops expertise in manipulating resources
- Makes preparations prior to production
- Uses different available ICT in order to draft own texts, e.g. shoots video footage, takes photographs
Reflection
- Evaluates production process and texts produced, with group and individually
- Participates in teacher-student and peer conferences with an explicit focus:
- discusses development of her/his writing/production profile
- reflects on common issues/themes in own productions over time
- discusses techniques and strategies used and decisions made to produce texts
- talks about ways that peer/teacher feedback influences own choices
- talks about own revision/media editing strategies
- makes reading/production connections between texts
- sets attainable individual and collaborative goals for future projects
- Reflects on the differences between working collaboratively and alone:o examines the impact on creativityo considers issues of ownershipo discusses issues of freedom
Going Public
- Chooses most suitable ICT to present production, e.g. PPT® presentation, CD-ROM, etc.
- Makes final adjustments before presentation
- Presents text to intended audience
For specific topics, relate broad area of Media Literacy to:
Physical Education and Health
The secondary cycle 2 Physical Education and Health curriculum states:
The messages conveyed by the media can have major repercussions on adolescent behaviour. Therefore, it is important to encourage students to exercise critical judgment. Consider, for example, the violent images involving professional players shown during televised hockey games, the prestige awarded to successful athletes who use substances that are legal but whose long-term health effects have not been evaluated, and the promotion of weight-loss diets or products that rapidly affect body weight. These issues raise questions about the place and influence of the different media in daily life, in society and in the way reality is represented. Questions of integrity, morality and ethics may be discussed in relation to different types of physical activity that students practice.
Competency Three: Adopts a healthy, active lifestyle
- Critically assess the myths perpetuated by their peers and the media regarding health