Middle School teacher, Mary Kate Lonergan, leads her students through a decoding of domestic and international newspapers - using the Project Look Sharp lesson: “Storming the Capital” - to analyze media construction and bias in news coverage. (Total Time: 8:57) Published 2023
Middle School, High School
Social Studies
Pre-service Teacher Education
Civics
Students analyze political ads from the 2024 presidential campaign for messages about immigration, media construction, and our own interpretations.
Middle School, High School, College
15-30 Minutes
Students analyze historic and contemporary campaign media for messages about purpose, media types and democratic process.
Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary
30-60 Minutes
Students explore political satire through the analysis of comedy sketches related to the 2024 presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
High School, College
15-30 Minutes
Students analyze speeches and analysis from the 2024 Republican and Democratic conventions for messages about defining masculinity, political campaign messaging and identity as a factor in media interpretation.
High School, College
30-60 Minutes
Students analyze webpage issue lists to identify which are from the Harris and which are from the Trump campaigns, reflecting on language choices, target audience, and their own biases.
High School, College
15-30 Minutes
Students compare an audio recording, video, and text of the Aesop story, the Tortoise and the Hare, to understand fables and compare different media forms.
Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary
30-60 Minutes
Students analyze short quotes from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports from 1990-2020 for messages about scientific conclusions and persuasive language related to the climate crisis.
Middle School, High School, College
15-30 Minutes
Students analyze Donald Trump and Kamala Harris film biographies for messages about presidential leadership, media creation, and how political bias shapes media interpretation.
Middle School, High School, College
15-30 Minutes
Students analyze video game trailers for messages about climate change and possible futures, about storytelling and marketing techniques and about whether video games can impact social change.
Middle School, High School
30-60 Minutes
Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns
A study of select campaign posters, cartoons, and ads teaches students to critically analyze messages from media source and to understand the role media have played throughout the history of American elections. By Chris Sperry and Sox Sperry, Social Education, November/December 2007.
High School
Social Studies
Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns
The webinar offers high school educators and teachers-in-training pedagogical techniques and free curriculum materials to support a deeper understanding of how to use a wide variety of media forms across the historical spectrum - media from 19th century portraits, songs and handbills, to 21st century websites, twitter and email - to study historical context and to question their credibility.
High School
Social Studies
Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns
An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns. Students in this video decode political cartoons against Thomas Jefferson.
High School, College
Social Studies
Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns
An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns. Students in this video decode various magazine covers portraying Barack Obama during the 2008 election.
High School, College
Social Studies
English Language Arts
This article helps teachers to understand how to use media documents from the 2016 presidential race (as well as past campaigns) to critically analyze media messages to teach objectives from the new NCSS C3 Framework for the Social Studies and the Common Core ELA standards for secondary social studies. When students examine election posters, cartoons, and ads they will comprehend that many themes--including xenophobia, income inequality, and women's political power--have been historical mainstays on the campaign trail.
High School
Social Studies
Students analyze Time magazine covers from 1970-2022 for messages about how climate change has been represented in a mainstream magazine and the choices magazine designers make in selling their products.
Middle School, High School
15-30 Minutes
Students use mathematical reasoning to evaluate claims about crowd size for President Trump’s 2016 inauguration, and reflect on confirmation bias when assessing truth claims in the media.
High School, College
30-60 Minutes
Students analyze memes for messages about climate change and about how memes as a media form impact social change.
Middle School, High School
Under 15 Minutes
Students analyze political campaign ads for messages about female presidential candidates, historical and cultural context, and techniques of persuasion.
Middle School, High School, College
15-30 Minutes
Students analyze graphs and media analysis for messages about the relationship between media reporting on the economy and public opinion.
High School, College
Over 60 Minutes
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