Some of the key social justice concepts addressed by these lessons include
- the meaning and impact of stereotypes;
- the impact of unequal representation and access;
- the effect of biased messages about how to view ourselves and others; and
- the importance of developing independent voices as activists.
Some of the key language arts skills addressed by these lessons include
- using oral and written language to express a point of view;
- putting words and images together to comprehend a cohesive message;
- considering an author or a creator’s purpose in conceiving a specific text; and
- synthesizing information from a variety of sources.
Each lesson addresses three specific essential questions. In addition to these, the series asks students
- What is the purpose of advertising?
- How can we ‘read’ advertisements actively and critically?
- What are stereotypes, and how can we work to fight against them?
- What is representation, and why is it important?
- What is the relationship between advertisements and fairness or justice, and how can we play a role in this relationship?
Mini-Lessons
Part One: Introduction
Students discuss the purpose of advertisements and their relationship to social justice.
Lesson 2: Reading Advertisements
Students construct strategies for reading advertisements critically to use in other lessons.
Part Two: Advertising and Stereotypes
Lesson 3: Stereotypes in Advertising
Students learn about stereotypes and examine how advertising can influence them.
Lesson 4: How Advertising Perpetuates Stereotypes
Students analyze advertisements that perpetuate stereotypes.
Lesson 5: How Advertising Fights Stereotypes
Students will create advertisements that fight against commonly held stereotypes.
Part Three: The Issue of Representation
Lesson 6: Representation in Advertising
Students discus representation and why it matters in advertisements.
Students analyze how some groups are over-represented in advertisements (and how some are excluded).
Lesson 8: How Are We ‘Supposed’ to Be
Students consider how advertisements represent families.
Students debate diversity in advertisements.
Part Four: Bias in Advertising
Lesson 10: The Impact of Bias in Advertising
Students examine the messages advertisements send about people who are different.
Lesson 11: Minimizing the Impact of Biases
Students develop strategies to view advertisements without succumbing to biased messages.
Part Five: Advertising Activism
Students write letters to advertisers.
Lesson 13: Advertisements of Our Own
Students design and create a social justice advertising campaign.
These activities address the following standards using the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
CCSS: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, R.6, R.7, R.8, R.9
