During the past few months in our humanities 8 class, we’ve been working on a unit call The Media Is The Message. Our driving question was “how does what we hear, read and see influence us.” Before I answer that you have to understand the process that we took in our learning and how our knowledge has grown in this subject. In our PLP program we have milestones in our learning. A milestone is basically an assignment with a competency within our project/unit that we get assessed on. We also have stepping stones. Stepping stones are assignments that lead up to a milestone and they help us grow towards the final competency we are assessed on. In our project we had 7 milestones (including this one), each one on a different subject covering the big idea. We are assessed on our competency’s by emojis sent to us. You’d expect to have a developing cloud emoji on the first milestone as we haven’t learned about it much and it’s our first assignment on that competency.

For milestone 1 we watched an ad for the Apple HomePod then we had to dissect the ad trying to explain what the ad was trying to convey or what message it was trying to send and who the target demographic for the ad was. The competency we were getting assessed on was “text comprehension and appreciation strategies.” During this assignment I was just starting to develop my comprehension of the competency as I got a emerging cloud ☁️. After this assignment my comprehension of the competency definitely developed as it was my fist time learning about it and I had just started to grasp the concept. I assessed the ad and dissected what message the ad was trying to send to us and was comprehending what the message was meaning. I was starting to appreciate more what thought and actual work went into these ads.

For milestone 2 we had to take an advertising survey on ourselves and someone older than us. Then we had to write a paragraph on the different perspective in our historical differences. The competency being assessed was historical perspectives. Before this assignment as a stepping stone we learned how ads evolved over time and was is socially acceptable as an ad with out backlash from the population. In the milestone this time I got an accomplished sun ☀️ as my comprehension of this competency had already been somewhat developed outside of school. I demonstrated the different historical perspectives in my paragraph by explaining the different events my interviewee and I had experienced thus differentiating our perspectives on advertising and how it effects us. I had already developed my comprehension of this competency but I definitely improved my understanding after the assignment and I realized how big of an impact historical events and different timelines had on peoples perspectives.

Tumisu / Example of the interview.

Milestone 3 was all about analyzing different types of ads. We assessed 2 paper ads, 2 TV ads and 2 internet-based ads. For the second time, the competency being assessed was text comprehension and appreciation strategies. During this assignment my understanding of the competency was developed tremendously. I learned the differences between types of ads and comprehended how the type of ad affected who it targeted, how it affected the audience and how it reached the audience. Once again it raised my appreciation on how much thought actually goes into making ads and how much the paper, TV and interned ads differentiate from each other. On this assignment I decided I was going to work hard and get an extending rainbow 🌈. It turns out I had worked hard enough and demonstrated my understanding of text comprehension and appreciation strategies as I achieved an extending rainbow 🌈!

 

During our whole unit up until this point we had been reading “The Highest Tide” by Jim Lynch. In a nutshell it was about a boy named Miles who found great discoveries on the beach and how the media was covering him and affecting him. For milestone 4 we had to write a reflection paragraph on the book writing about how the media affected Miles and what did Miles learn about media and the message. The competency being assessed was literary identification and analysis. Since it was a new competency that we hadn’t learned about yet (except in the stepping stones) I got a sun cloud ⛅️ for developed. As I got a ⛅️ I had already developed my knowledge of this subject outside of school. Regardless my understanding still improved as recognized the literary elements of the book by stating what message Jim Lynch was trying to convey. The literary elements shaped the meaning at the end of the book as I realized how Miles was understanding the media and the message. Jim Lynch used lots of writing techniques in The Highest Tide such as foreshadowing and that shaped the meaning of the book as even before the book ended I could somewhat answer how Miles’ understanding of the media and the message developed over the time of the book. I analyzed the book critically and answered the topic question on the book.

Milestone 5 was about creating our own ads! First, we had to interview a business in our local area! We interviewed in groups but created our ads individually. Our business was called InGrain Pastificio. The type of ad they wanted us to create was modern, visually pleasing and to include lots of white space and photos. The competencies being assessed for this milestone were again text comprehension and appreciation strategies and creating and extending shared understanding. For this ad we created multiple drafts. For each draft we had a gallery walk and gave each other feedback to improve the ad. Here is all my drafts and the evolution of my understanding of how to create and extend shared understanding. I shared my understanding throughout my group and helped create and give feedback to other in my group. I developed my understanding of text comprehension and appreciation strategies by taking the feedback, critically analyzing it and implementing it into my ads. As you can see from the first draft to the second there was a big jump. Then the later drafts it was more fine tuning my ad. Again I created shared understanding by a skiing our interviewee key questions to the creation of our ads. I extended this by giving feedback to each of my group members on how they can improve. For this assignment I got an accomplished sun ☀️. My understanding developed for creating and extending shared understanding a lot as it was my first time learning about it. It developed as I learned how to collaborate and give good, specific feed back to my group members. My understanding for text comprehension and appreciation strategies developed and fine tuned itself as I was starting to understand the small points of analyzing text and comprehending it and appreciating what work it takes to create a good ad after making one myself.

Here is the drafts for my deep cove ad! With all the awesome feedback I got from my classmates there was a lot of evolution between the first ad and the second ad. The type of feedback we use is kind, specific and helpful so we can get right to the point on helping each other create a better final product.

  • Draft #1

Next we travelled to Oregon where we were assigned milestone 6. Before we left we researched a business and before interviewing them, made a first draft of our ad. We learned how to interview and create an ad in our hometown so we did it again in Oregon. This time our group created an ad for Chalet. Chalet is a small hometown restaurant family friendly with great food. We ate at Chalet and took pictures for our ad. We shortly interviewed them and asked key questions. The same competencies were being assessed as last time. This time since we already learned how to create an ad we had a shorter deadline. 

  I haven’t received my grade for this milestone but it will be coming soon. My understanding for creating and extending shared understanding developed even more this time as I thought about it more in depth this time. I exchanged ideas and gave feedback to my group members while developing a group/shared understanding of Chalet together. My development for text comprehension and appreciation strategies continued to improve as I was comprehending how businesses conveyed their message in text and appreciated how they sent it to the audience.

My Oregon ad has an even bigger evolution as I got feedback from not only my classmates but also my teacher. My ad definitely couldn’t be as good as it is now as the feedback plays a huge role in the final draft. Here’s all the drafts from my Oregon ad.

  • Draft #2

Milestone 7 is creating this blog post! We have to create a well designed blog post that shows how our understanding of our competencies has developed throughout this project. The competency being assessed is once again text comprehension and appreciation strategies. I will now write a reflection/summary paragraph on how this post ties together.

kaboompics / Pixabay

I have developed my understanding of the competency on creating and extending shared understanding through 2 milestones. The 2 milestones were both ads we had to create. My understanding developed as I exchanged ideas with my group members on how to improve our ads and key points into crafting a great ad. My understanding improved as I now can collaborate much more efficiently and effectively in a group. For historical perspectives my understanding improved as I created a paragraph explaining how they differ and started to realize how different events in our life timeline affect our opinions and perspectives. My understanding for text comprehension and appreciation strategies developed greatly as we had lots of milestones based off this. It improved as I learned how to comprehend and dissects all types of text and oral and visual texts. At the end I could recognize all types of advertising techniques, appeals, pathos, ethos and logos and how much thought and work actually goes into advertising and getting people interested in your product. For literary identification and analysis I developed as I crafted an extensive explanation and analysis on the Highest Tide and how Miles was affected by the media and the message. My understanding developed as I learned how an author can sneak different literary elements into their book to help you understand and shape the meaning. 

twinsterphoto / Pixabay

By now I’m sure your still wondering how what we hear read and see influences us. Now this question is very diverse. The obvious is advertising. If you see an ad then by the product or even think about buying it then it has influenced you. If you read an article about how devices are bad for you and you shouldn’t use them an hour before bed and you dissect that or even think about what it was trying to convey then it of course has influenced you. If you hear about some cool product just by word of mouth then, you guessed it. It influenced you.

That is how I think what we hear, read and see influences us.