Media Literacy Unit Plan Digital and Printable

Help your students in third, fourth or fifth grades think critically about digital and print media. Advertising is everywhere: in movies, in books, on youtube, and on every website students visit. This unit helps students to see how media is designed for a variety of purposes in order to become critical thinkers.

This unit includes digital student pages that are ready for GOOGLE classroom and distance learning.

Included in this 2-week media literacy unit is:

• Introduction - Introduce students to the concept of media using simple graphic organizers (or chart paper!) by doing some simple student-led research
• Media Literacy Definitions (Direct Instruction) - Teacher-led instruction to help students define the terms media, media literacy, types of media, persuade, entertain and inform. Worksheet based.
• What's the Purpose? - A hands-on sorting activity to help students see the different types of media in a common book order flyer
• The Way to Persuade, Slogans and Phrases (Group Lessons) - Teacher-led instruction with whole-group participation. Students will think critically about advertisements that they have seen on youtube or in-person and think about how customers are persuaded to buy an item to change an opinion. Looking at how companies use catchy slogans and phrases to persuade. Analyzing YouTube videos for clever advertising techniques
• Advertisements - What makes a good advertisement
• Cereal Box Challenge (Student Led Learning) - Students will put their advertisement skills to the test and design their own ad and write about these techniques.
• Flyer Flipbook (Student Led Learning) - Hunt for the different types of media found in common neighborhood flyers. Assemble these findings into a simple flipbook that can be displayed in the classroom.

Which pages are digital in this media literacy unit?

• Introduction graphic organizers
• Media Literacy Definitions worksheets
• Slogans and Phrases activity
• The Ways to Persuade
• Advertisements Worksheet
• Cereal Box Challenge (requires students to use Google Slides drawing tools and upload images if needed)
• Media Literacy Flyer Flipbooks (requires students to upload images from online flyers and insert them into the flipbook).