Lesson Summary: Students identify exaggeration and bias in ads and the messages that advertisers are sending their audiences. After reading “Trolley,” students describe the narrator’s bias and then share a bias they hold/held. Advanced students will write a print advertisement using exaggeration and/or bias. Struggling students will create a T-chart about a bias they hold and a solution to solve it.
Lesson Objectives:
The students will know…
· that authors sometimes use exaggeration to emphasize their bias or feelings about a topic.
The students will be able to…
· identify, explain, and/or interpret how the author uses exaggeration and bias in nonfiction texts.
Learning Styles Targeted:
Visual / Auditory / Kinesthetic/Tactile
Pre-Assessment:
1) Review the meanings of exaggeration (to make something appear better, worse, larger, more common, or more important than it really is) and bias (an unfair preference for or dislike of something).
2) Offer the following examples, and ask volunteers to identify the exaggeration or bias. (I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse. His eyes were as wide as saucers. My smile was a mile wide. She can run faster than the speed of light. All kids are irresponsible. Girls cannot run as fast as boys.)
Whole-Class Instruction
Materials Needed: copies of “Trolley,”* newspapers and magazines, paper, and pencils or pens
Procedure:
Presentation
1) Discuss how advertisers sell their products using exaggeration and bias. Which advertisements and commercials can students recall where these two techniques are used?
2) Brainstorm messages that advertisers are sending audiences, such as: You’ll fall behind if you don’t buy the latest technology; if you use our product, you’ll be as attractive as the model who is selling it; and convenience is more important than cost or the environment.
Guided Practice
3) Distribute copies of “Trolley.”* Have students read the selection. Ask volunteers to describe the narrator’s bias and why the narrator felt that way. What made the narrator change his or her mind?
4) Ask students to share a bias they hold or held about a type of entertainment, music, or food. What would or did make them change their mind about this preconceived notion?
Independent Practice
5) Have students analyze an advertisement that appears in a newspaper or magazine. Ask them to outline how exaggeration and/or bias were used, and then write a paragraph describing their findings.
Closing Activity
6) Ask students to share one word with the class conveying how something could be better, worse, larger, more common, or more important.
Advanced Learner
Materials Needed: paper and pencils or pens
Procedure:
1) Tell students that they will be stepping into the shoes of a creative director for an advertising agency. They should select a product and then write a print advertisement using exaggeration and/or bias.
2) Encourage students to read their ads to the class and discuss how the exaggeration and/or bias will help to sell their products.
3) Ask audience members whether they would buy the products and to explain why or why not.
Struggling Learner
Materials Needed: pencils or pens, paper
Procedure:
1) Ask students to create a T-chart about a bias they hold, for example, about school or their parents. On the left-hand side of the chart, they should write their bias. On the right-hand side, they should describe a solution to solve their bias. Give them the following example: My parents are too strict about my bed time. /Maybe we could compromise on a later bed time for non-school nights.
2) Have volunteers share their T-charts with the class. What other solutions can students recommend for the right-hand side of the T-chart?
*see supplemental resources
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