Marketing to Teens: Gotta Have It!

In this lesson students identify how we associate social status with  brand name products, and how we believe others perceive us by what we wear. Students will also explore the notion of “brand identity” and how companies use social networks, and advertising strategies to create parasocial relationships with their consumers. To assess their learning, students then independently analyze the identity of a brand of their choice and create a mock ad that more openly communicates its implicit appeal. 

Pay For Play

In this lesson, students discuss their experiences playing free online games and then learn the costs of these “free” games in the form of paying with money, sharing personal information or providing attention to advertising or branded content. Students then learn a variety of techniques for mitigating the risks and drawbacks of online games and communicate their learning by describing one of these techniques in video-game terms.

Ethics Overview

Many curricular expectations in Alberta Ethics courses relate to media and digital literacy. The following excerpts from Ethics A.1 (Junior High) (1985) detail how media and digital literacy have been integrated into the curriculum:

Wacky Media Songs: Community Engagement

This lesson series contains discussion topics and extension activities for teachers to integrate the TVOKids Original series Wacky Media Songs. This lesson focuses on students’ ability to influence positive social norms in online spaces and to speak out as active, engaged citizens.

Screen Stigma: Looking at mental illness in popular media

Students begin by viewing a slideshow that explores common stereotypes of mental illness and mental illness treatment in media. They read a prepared analysis of the portrayal of mental illness in a TV show popular with teens, then in a small group analyze another text of their choice. Finally, students create an annotated version of a scene or excerpt from a text in which they analyze and evaluate its portrayal of mental illness.

Outcome Chart - British Columbia - Social Studies Grade 8

This outcome chart contains media-related learning outcomes from the British Columbia, Grade 8 Social Studies curriculum, with links to supporting resources on the MediaSmarts site.

Outcome Chart - Prince Edward Island - Visual Arts 5

Outcome Chart - Prince Edward Island - Visual Arts 5

Quebec Competencies Chart - Data Defenders: Understanding data collection online

Level: Grades 4 to 6
Subject Area: Digital citizenship, privacy, online marketing
Lesson Link: http://mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources/data-defenders-understanding-data-collection-online

Outcome Chart - Atlantic Provinces - English Language Arts 8

This outcome chart contains media-related learning outcomes from the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation, English Language Arts curriculum, Grade 8, with links to supporting resources on the MediaSmarts site.

Each Atlantic Province follows closely the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation Framework for English Language Arts. In this Framework, media literacy is integrated throughout the English Language Arts curriculum under the general learning outcomes of Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing and Writing and Other Ways of Representing.

How Parents Can Promote Ethical Online Behaviours with Kids

We generally think of our kids’ online and offline lives as being two separate things. In reality, they constantly overlap, flowing back and forth face-to-face in the schoolyard and through texts and social networks at home. But on the Internet there are lots of moral and ethical choices that don’t have to be made offline.