Content Area: Language Arts Literacy

 

Index: 3.4A Grade 8 CPI 4

 

Standard: 3.4 - Listening

 

Strand: A - Active Listening

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 4 - The student will recognize persuasive techniques and credibility in oral communication.

 

Grade: 8

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        After listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, students are to identify persuasive techniques used by Dr. King, such as card stacking or connotative language.

 

·        Students are asked to watch TV commercials for two days and to keep a log in which they record sound effects (e.g., romantic music or rushing water) that are used to help promote products. They compare their findings and then suggest sound effects that would be effective for other products they know. Students work in groups to create commercials with some of these effects, using segments of existing audiotapes as sources for the sounds.

 

·        A teacher has audiotaped a number of television or radio commercials that represent the most common propaganda devices. Students are asked to listen to the tape and to identify each device, such as name calling, bandwagon, glittering generalities. Students then discuss how informed audiences might respond when they hear these commercials.