Quebec Competencies Chart - Online Propaganda and the Proliferation of Hate

Author: Jeff Gagnon, Media Education Specialist, MediaSmarts
Level: Grades 10 – 12
Lesson Length: 2 – 4 hours
Subject Area: Propaganda and hate speech online
Lesson Link: http://mediasmarts.ca/lessonplan/online-propaganda-and-proliferation-hate-lesson

Description: In this lesson students learn about the ways that propaganda techniques are used to promote hatred and intolerance online. The lesson begins with a class discussion about what propaganda is and how it works. Students will review various types of propaganda deployed for a variety of purposes and explore how propaganda can be used as a tool for promoting hatred. For homework, students analyze examples of propaganda techniques found online and identify the rhetorical devices used.

Cross-curricular Competencies	Broad Areas of Learning
To use information To solve problems To exercise critical judgement To use creativity To adopt effective work methods To use information and communication technologies (ICT) To cooperate with others To communicate appropriately	Media Literacy Health and Well-Being Environmental Awareness and Consumer Rights and Responsibilities Citizenship and Community Life

This lesson satisfies the following Competencies from the Quebec Education Program:

English Language Arts

Uses language/talk to communicate and learn

Establishes a repertoire of resources for communicating and learning in specific contexts

• Investigates the affordances of spoken language as a mode of communication
• Examines some of the aesthetic qualities of spoken language
• Develops rhetorical strategies to achieve specific purposes
• Examines the affordances of genres
• Extends the range of strategies for collecting the data needed for use in specific genres

Participates in the social practices of the classroom and community in specific contexts

• Investigates the uses of spoken language in the school and community
• Plans and carries out independent units of study
• Conducts exploratory ethnographic research
• Organizes and maintains an integrated profile of work over the cycle
• Engages in a process of self-evaluation and reflection
• Confers with the teacher in regular and ongoing evaluation conferences

Interacts with peers and teacher in specific contexts

• Collaborates with peers to construct knowledge about how things are done
• Participates in collaborative action research groups using an inquiry process
• Applies procedural and meaningmaking strategies to achieve a purpose
• Contributes to team efforts as an interactive and critical listener

Reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts

Integrates reading profile, stance and strategies to make sense of a text in a specific context

• Reads for pleasure and to learn
• Draws on prior experience and the features of a genre to make sense of a text
• Adjusts reading strategies and stance to the context
• Develops research and organizational strategies for working with information

Talks about own response to a text within a classroom community

• Deepens own meaning(s) of a text in discussions with other readers
• Situates meanings within own experiences and the world of the text, in order to transform initial readings into more conscious interpretations
• Considers possible reasons for own responses and the responses of others to clarify and reshape the relationship between self as reader and the text
• Shares Integrated Profile in teacher-student conferences

Interprets the relationship(s) between reader, text and context in light of own response(s)

• Explains the impact of a text on self as reader by returning to its social functions, as well as the way meanings and messages are constructed
• Draws on own reading profile, including knowledge of textual structures and features, to locate textual details that support own interpretations
• Constructs interpretations that embody both own world and the world of the text

Produces texts for personal and social purposes

Extends repertoire of resources for producing texts

• Immerses self in texts to learn how they are constructed
• Investigates the codes and conventions of various genres
• Creates criteria for what makes text(s) effective
• Examines the affordances of different modes and genres to make production decisions
• Uses models of different texts to apply chosen features in own work
• Applies codes and conventions of written and media language
• Compares own style in relation to other writers/producers
• Develops standards for using language responsibly to represent people, events and ideas

Constructs a relationship between writer/producer, text and context

• Understands that all texts are constructed in specific contexts for specific audiences and purposes
• Researches as a writer/producer to become more informed, to create authentic contexts and to characterize an audience
• Assumes various roles in own productions
• Analyzes the elements of the context and shapes the text accordingly
• Examines the differences between producing texts for public and private spaces.

Adapts a process to produce texts in specific contexts

• Participates both individually and collaboratively in different recursive phases of the production process
• Confers regularly with peers and teacher throughout the production process
• Uses feedback strategies to improve own productions and support peers
• Reflects on own development as a writer/producer over time
• Monitors own learning
• Cultivates a variety of media and writerly practices
• Explores a variety of avenues for wider publication

Visual Arts

Creates media images

Uses ideas to create a media production

• Is open to a stimulus for creation
• Is receptive to ideas, images, emotions, sensations and impressions evoked by the stimulus
• Takes into account the characteristics of the target audience
• Keeps a record of his/her ideas
• Explores various ways of conveying ideas through images and adapting them to the target audience
• Chooses ideas and plans a media creation project

Shares his/her experience of media creation

• Considers his/her creative intention and progress
• Identifies the important elements of his/her experience and its characteristics
• Makes comparisons with his/her previous learning
• Identifies what he/she has learned and the methods used

Uses transforming gestures and elements of media language

• Experiments with methods of materializing his/her ideas
• Makes use of his/her memory of transforming gestures and knowledge of media language
• Chooses the most meaningful gestures and elements for his/her creative intention
• Develops methods of using these gestures and elements in order to adapt them to the target audience

Structures his/her media production

• Applies the results of his/her experiments
• Shapes the material and language elements and organizes them on the basis of the message to be conveyed
• Validates the media impact of the visual message on a control group
• Reviews his/her choices of material and language
• Makes adjustments
• Refines certain elements, if necessary

Ethics and Religious Culture

Reflects on ethical questions

Analyzes a situation from an ethical point of view

• Describes a situation and puts it into context
• Formulates a related ethical question
• Compares points of view
• Explains tensions or conflicting values
• Compares the situation with similar situations
• Compares his/her analysis of the situation with that of his/her classmates

Examines a variety of cultural, moral, religious, scientific or social references

• Finds the main references present in different points of view
• Looks for the role and the meaning of these references
• Considers other references
• Compares the meaning of the main references in different contexts

Evaluates options or possible actions

• Suggests options or possible actions
• Studies the effects of these options or actions on oneself, others or the situation
• Chooses options or actions that foster community life
• Reflects on the factors that influenced these choices

Engages in dialogue

Organizes his/her thinking

• Identifies the subject of dialogue
• Makes connections between prior knowledge and new knowledge
• Distinguishes between what is essential and what is secondary in the different points of view expressed
• Takes stock of his/her reflections

Develops a substantiated point of view

• Uses his/her resources and looks for information about the subject of dialogue
• Develops further his/her understanding of different points of view
• Imagines various hypotheses
• Fleshes out a point of view
• Anticipates objections and necessary clarifications
• Validates his/her point of view
• Reflects on his/her process

Interacts with others

• Develops an awareness of his/her reaction to the subject of dialogue
• Looks for conditions that foster dialogue
• Expresses his/her point of view and pays attention to others' views
• Explains different points of view, using relevant and coherent arguments
• Asks for clarification
• Implements means to overcome obstacles to dialogue