Quebec Competencies Chart - Media literacy key concepts Lesson 2: Media are constructions

Author: MediaSmarts has partnered with Concerned Children’s Advertisers to develop a suite of videos on each of the media literacy key concepts.
Level: Grade 4-6
Lesson Length: 45-90 minutes
Lesson Link: http://habilomedias.ca/ressources-p%C3%A9dagogiques/minutes-m%C3%A9dias-le%C3%A7on-2-les-m%C3%A9dias-sont-des-constructions

Description: In this lesson, students watch a video introducing the media literacy key concept that media are constructions. They then explore this concept by considering a pair of cereal boxes and identifying the different elements of the box and the purposes they serve. In an optional final task, students pick a target audience and create their own cereal box to appeal to that audience.

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

English Language Arts

To Read and Listen to Literary, Popular and Information-Based Texts

• To use a response process when reading and listening to literary, popular, and information-based texts
• To construct her/his own view of the world through reading and listening to literary, popular and information-based texts
• To construct a profile of self as reader
• To self-evaluate her/his reading development
• To construct meaning by applying appropriate reading strategies

To Represent Her/His Literacy in Different Media

• To apply appropriate strategies for constructing meaning
• To self-evaluate her/his development as a viewer and producer of media texts
• To follow a process to respond to media texts
• To construct her/his own view of the world through the media
• To follow a production process in order to communicate for specific purposes to a specified audience

To Use Language to Communicate and Learn

• To use language (talk) to communicate information, experiences and point of view
• To self-evaluate her/his language development
• To use language (talk) for learning and thinking
• To apply her/his knowledge of linguistic structures and features
• To interact in collaborative group activities in a variety of roles

Visual Arts

To produce media works in the visual arts

• To use creative ideas inspired by a stimulus for creation of media works
• To share his/her experience of media creation
• To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts language according to the message and the intended viewer
• To organize the elements that he/she has chosen, depending on the message and the intended viewer
• To finalize his/her media creation