Let's Try This....

So today, I had this brilliant beyond brilliant idea.

We were talking about audience and how important audience is in order for us to understand writing and to be good writers. I posted 9 different ads that I ripped out of magazines around the room and started the class off with a museum walk (they brought their journals and were required to choose three ads to analyze the audience of the advertisement and give evidence for each). I even put on "museum" music!

That part - turned out great.

Then, they were going to choose a magazine out of my trunk of magazines, find an ad of their own and do the same thing (moving from we do to I do, my friends). Except, it didn't work.

I thought I had gone through most of the magazines to ensure that the content was solid and wholesome; however, some must have slipped through my fingers. It wasn't incredibly inappropriate; however, in the presence of 7th and 8th grade eyes, any and all style ads or perfume ads are blatantly sexual.

Yikes.

So I panicked. I had my first 7th grade period toss all the magazines back immediately and we simply reviewed my chosen ads on the walls as a class. Which worked okay but wasn't as interactive as I would have hoped.

So my 8th grade period came in and I quickly did some adaptations. Maybe my 8th graders can handle it. I'll just set some expectations that if they see something not so appropriate, they immediately rip it out and throw it away. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to find out what happened and I'm a goof for not realizing it before. They pretty much went looking for those inappropriate ads. When they found one, they very dramatically brought it to everyone's attention, and then ripped it out to throw it away.

At this point, I'm thinking, forget the magazines, woman. Move on and come up with something else.

So my next 7th grade class walks in. As I'm rolling with the punches, I have them do the museum walk (where I still had some comments like, "Well I know this magazine is for guys because the girl in the picture is hot."), and then they sit down. We review a few things, I ask them which ads were the hardest to find audience, and we have a small discussion. Then, I have them choose one ad that they analyzed and make a significantly different choice for audience. Then they had to write and tell me what they would change about the ad because of that audience change.

This worked okay. I probably could have been more creative and had them actually draw the new ad, but, hey, that's what 4th, 6th, and 7th period are for, right?

I love that teaching is learning. It seems so appropriate, right?

And here comes my 4th period now! :D Yay for interactive and lively Fridays.