 |
|
Lesson: Images As Persuasion
Description
The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that images can function as a means of persuasion. This lesson will focus on how images can be used to convey messages that may influence an audience. Students will also learn that an image's message or meaning may depend on from what perspective it is coming and on how it is being framed, be it using captions, cropping the image to accentuate a certain part, etc.
Learning Outcomes I Suggested Procedure I Assessment for this Lesson
|
Materials for this Offline
lesson: |
Time allotment: 45 - 55 minutes Grade Level: Grade 6 - 12 |
Students will be able to understand
that images can function as a means of persuasion.
Students will be able to use an image to persuade an audience.
Set-up
Cut and prepare the strips of paper
Divide the class into groups of three
Identifying images that persuade (small group activity - 10 - 15 minutes)
Explain to students that images can be used as a mechanism for persuading an audience to do or believe something.
Ask, Who uses images to persuade? What are some of their reasons for doing so? Where do you think you could find images that intend to persuade? In what ways do those who use images to persuade frame them?
Divide students into groups of three. Give them two or three magazines and ask them to find examples of images that are being used to persuade the viewer of something. Instruct them to cut out these images and write down of what the image is trying to persuade the viewer. What is the intended message of the image? From whom is this message coming? Is this message targeted towards a specified audience? If so, who is in that audience? How has whoever wants to send the message framed the image to make it clear to their audience?
Discuss some of the examples with the entire class. Does the rest of the class agree with the group's answers?
Persuading debates (mock debates - 20 minutes)
Give each group of three an image and a corresponding role.
*The factory - one perspective is that of the factory owner who will argue how important it is to keep the factory running, and the other is that of an environmentalist who advocates shutting the factory down.
* The vacant lot with the plastic bottles - one side is that of an advertiser trying to sell milk, and the other is that of an organization that is trying to stop littering.
* The two houses - one side will argue from the point of view of a real estate agent who wants to sell the two houses and the other side will assume the role of a city developer who wants to tear down the two houses.
Tell the students that they are going to participate in mock debates. They must assume their designated role, and use evidence from the image to persuade the rest of their class of their agenda.
Give students time to brainstorm, and then, perform the mock debates. During the debates, give each side two to three minutes to present their side. Encourage them to use the image as much as possible when presenting their argument.
Creating advertisements with images (individual production 15 - 20 minutes)
Instruct the students to create an advertisement using any one of the three images 1, 2, & 3. They may take on one of the roles used in the debate, or they may assume a perspective that they create. They can frame the image however they would like in order to best communicate their point. Remind them that they can use captions too.
Other visual literacy lessons: Locating
Images I Scanning
for Visual Details I Structural
Comparisons I
The
Function of Images in Text I Framing
and Point of View I Images
as Persuasion
Other media literacy lessons: Images as Persuasion I Evaluating Websites I Framing and Point of View
 |
This
page was last updated April 25, 2002 This lesson was created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiatives for 21st Century Literacies. Images as Persuasion was created by Cricket Heinze and Cornelia Brunner. |