Propaganda and Political Campaign Ads
About This Product
This is Lesson 7 - Propaganda and Political Campaign Ads which appears in my unit, Every Four Years...The Presidential Election. In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of propaganda and how politicians use propaganda, particularly through campaign ads, to influence voters. Students will be able to explain what propaganda is, why it’s important to know what propaganda is, how politicians use propaganda in their campaign ads, and how effective they think the message is in those ads.
This lesson includes an “into” activity, a “through” close viewing and analysis of campaign ads, and a “beyond” writing assessment. To get the students into the lesson, students will explore the word propaganda. Then they will analyze several 2020 presidential campaign ads. Finally, they will write about their conclusions.
The lesson includes detailed lesson plans with clearly stated objectives and learning targets that are aligned with the Common Core Standards for Literacy in Social Studies. The learning targets are:
--I can define what propaganda is and explain why it’s important to know.
--I can analyze campaign ads and identify the types of propaganda being used.
--I can evaluate the effectiveness of those campaign ads in getting the message across.
My unit: “Every Four Years… The Presidential Election Unit” is designed using the Into, Through, and Beyond model of lesson planning. This lesson can be taught independently, but it does set the foundation for future lessons in the unit. Here is a summary of what is in the unit:
Intro Lessons: Creating Schema
Lesson 1: Anticipation Guide: Essential Statements about the Election; Lesson 2: Understanding Essential Election Terms; and
Lesson 3: What Are Your Political Viewpoints Survey?
Through Lessons: Learning the Content
Lesson 4: Major and Minor Political Parties; Lesson 5: A Brief History of Who Can Vote; Lesson 6: The Nuts and Bolts of the United States Presidential Election; Lesson 7: Propaganda and Political Campaigns; and Lesson 8: Where Do the Candidates Stand on the Issues
Beyond Lessons: Summative Assessments
Lesson 9: Argumentative Letter to the Editor on a Candidate and Lesson 10: Election Group Project.
What's Included
1 Word doc with 17 ready-to-print pages
Detailed lesson plans with clearly stated objectives and learning targets aligned to the Common Core Standards
Word Exploration: Propaganda
Links to 6 online political ads: 3 from Joe Biden's campaign and 3 from Donald Trump's campaign
Close-Reading Analysis of the campaign ads
Analyzing Campaign Ads chart targeting 4 criteria of propaganda: card-stacking, fear, name-calling, and pinpointing the enemy
Directions for the writing assessment on propaganda and political campaign ads