Persuasion

Hey, it's back-to-school time, and what do we have on tap for young minds hungry for new information and tools of discernment? How about some skills that can be used to see the real purpose of the media and advertising? Oh, and a (not too) short bit about the holocaust. This came home yesterday for me to sign off on (not signing means points deducted from my kid's grade).


Dear 7th grade Parent or Guardian,


This year your student will have the opportunity to participate in a semester long course focusing on Media Literacy and Persuasion. We live in an ever-growing media and technology culture and there is increasing national concern that students of all ages are not trained to correctly interpret all of the media messages that are saturating our society. The Persuasion class is designed to teach students to analyze and evaluate a range of the different media and persuasion techniques so that they can learn to be more critical and thoughtful about the messages they encounter.


The study of Persuasion and Media Literacy is especially important in the middle school years. Middle school students change in these years more than ever before with the exception of their first year of life. They are in the process of discovering who they are and where they fit in. Developmentally, these children are not automatically able to distinguish what is real and not real and they often believe everything they hear. Media sells an image of what you have to do to fit in. It is important for middle school students to learn the skills to distinguish between what media says who you should be and who you really are.


Not only will we be exploring media literacy in modern times, we will be exploring persuasion and propaganda evidenced in our history, specifically the Holocaust. Although we will be using a text that is specifically written for 7th graders, due to the nature of this nonfiction study, some aspects are graphic unpleasant. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.


It is impossible to control your child’s access to all media and exposure to persuasion. However, it is possible to empower 7th grade students by teaching life-long skills so that they will be able to analyze, evaluate, and to make sense of the media information and persuasion techniques they encounter in our technological world.

Sincerely,


CA, Persuasion ILA teacher

PERSUASION

SEVENTH GRADE

COURSE DESCRIPTION


Unit 1: What is communication? Who created this message?

Overview, Media literacy terms

Pre and post test on media literacy terms, reading strategies on concepts not

mastered.

The world in 22 minutes: Constructing a TV News Lineup

History of advertising

Mini ad campaign

Core Concept #1: All Messages are “Constructed”.


Unit 2: What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

Basic visual language: The three building blocks

Basic visual language: How to analyze a visual text

Basic persuasion Techniques

The power of editing

Pre and post test on persuasion terms

Create media wall

Core Concept #2: Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.


Unit 3: Do you see what I see? Interpreting Media Experiences

Silent symbols speak loudly: Brands, icons and you

Ads-R-Us: Understanding target marketing

Valuing different views: Taking a stand on media violence

Media survey

Core Concept #3: Different people experience the same media messages differently


Unit 4: What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or Omitted from, this message?

More than meets the eye: Embedded values in the news

Media stereotypes: How differences divide

Read “The Wave”, a play about influence and mind control

What’s missing? Making Room for Multiple Perspectives

Core Concept #4 Media have embedded values and points of view

Unit 5: Why is this message being sent?

Why we communicate: Three basic tasks: Inform, persuade, and entertain

The business of Media: Who is renting my eyeballs?

Hidden messages: The growth of product placement

Power persuasion, and propaganda: Exploring multiple motives

Core Concept #5 Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power.


Unit 6: Propaganda

Definitions

Forms and types of propaganda

WWII propaganda discussion

Create propaganda posters


Unit 7: The Holocaust

Video clips, United streaming

Pioneer Press introduction article

Holocaust information survey

Read stories from “The Holocaust”, a historical reader

“All But My Life”, by Gerda Weissmann Klein

“Commanding a Concentration Camp” by Rudolph Hoss

“Liberation” by Lucille Eichengreen

Most Important Word excercises

Vocabulary quiz on each reading

Study guide for each reading

Discussion and critical thinking skills

Minnesota State Common Assessment implemented with these Readings

Computer lab, exploration, Holocaust victim testimony and related websites

Documentary, One Survivor remembers

Documentary, Paper Clips


Here's a quick line from Lucille Eichengreen;


"There was a man who had a knife in his hand, he must have weighed almost seventy pounds. And he was slicing away at a corpse and eating the raw flesh. It was unreal."


There was an additional WTF moment when I read the privacy policy. While going to great lengths to explain how carefully they guard any academic info, the following raised an eyebrow:


a. One exception which permits disclosure WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT (caps mine) is disclosure to school officials who have legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the school District as an administrator, supervisor, instructor, or support staff member (including health or medical staff and law enforcement personnel); a person serving on the School Board; a person or company with whom the School District has contracted to perform a special task (such as an attorney, auditor, medical consultant, or therapist); or a parent or student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or greivance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks.


That's the academic info. Surely PERSONAL info is kept closely under wraps, right?


From the privacy pages;


5. "Directory Information" concerning students is public information and may be disclosed by the School District without prior consent.


a. "Directory Information" includes the following information relating to a student: the student's name; address; telephone number; date of birth; sex; major field of study; dates enrolled in the Mounds View Public Schools; height and weight of members of athletic teams; extra-curricular activities, special acievements and honors. "Directory Information" does not include identifying information on a student's religion, race, color, social position or nationality.


A parent can opt to make the above information "private" simply by sending a letter to the building prinicipal within 30 days of the last publication of the notice. How one determines that time frame is unknown as it is not dated anywhere.


I wont go into the privacy policy regarding military recruiters, but they get access to your kids and their info unless you specifically tell them "no".


Anyone care speculate on what is going on here? I can't wrap my brain around it, but admittedly I'm seeing BS and agendas in many things these days. School sure isn't what it was when I was in 7th grade. I'm looking forward to hitting the road and giving my kids a different perspective and more honest educational tools. My head hurts.


Z


Comments

  1. No doubt your head hurts! That was a whole lot of beating around the bush and saying a lot that said absolutely nothing! Wow, you need a lawyer just to understand what it is the school board is trying to tell you :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. Does it really matter if points are deducted from your child's "grade"?

    2. What is your seventh grader's opinion on taking this class? Is she interested or not?

    3. Your choices are: home school, ignore the downgrade and stay with the system or go with what your daughter wants for herself knowing what she knows about life already. There is a possible choice you can offer the principal - which is to have her take a test now proving she could pass the course without taking the class.

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  3. Nina, I am happy to say my daughter is well on her way to being completely capable of taking whatever is placed in front of her as "fact" or "truth" and questioning it, but when she informed me that they would be once again "studying" the holocaust she was visibly upset. She has already been exposed to this material and it made her very uncomfortable (as any account of man's savage side should), so I took the time to give her my perspective and to encourage her to consider how fragile any study of history is due to being removed from events by time and lack of personal experience. "Trust but verify" is tough in many cases. She is a good student, but is not looking forward to being confronted with these dark stories and the feelings they produce.

    The points deducted don't matter, as we are likely to be uprooted and on the road by the time this class even gets around to the studies mentioned - we are heading out in less than 60 days. We just have to finish pulling the plug and gearing up.

    Our choice, if I understand correctly, most closely resembles home schooling and allowing both my kids to explore their interests independently. I have gotten a lot of flack for stating that I will no longer participate in this system due to the fact that I am also choosing this for my 2 minor children. I contend I am doing this for their benefit, that is, showing them the ALTERNATIVE to the "stay in school, study hard, go to college so you can get a good job". They are kind, compassionate, fiercely brilliant girls and will be recognized for these qualities rather than held to a standard that no longer has any relevance in the world.

    I am terrified and elated all at once, but this is something that we will be doing, and very soon, regardless of what the "officials" in any capacity have to say.

    Skye, that is indeed a lot of words to say what could have easily been "we will divulge personal info to no one, except anyone who asks, whether you approve or not". It says to me "We control your kids, not you, because we have words that make it so and laws to back it up".

    It will not be so any longer.

    Z

    ReplyDelete
  4. How is "social position" determined exactly? Does that refer to income level? I find it odd that they protect the race, religion, etc. of a child but not the address and phone number? I could care less if people know what race or religion my kids are but I don't want anyone to have information on where we live. Not with all the sickos out there.

    The idea of the class SEEMS okay -- I mean, who wouldn't want their kids to be able to recognize propaganda? But, since most of the Holocaust education is nothing but pure propaganda these days, you can reasonably infer that they aren't really going to be teaching useful things. It is just one more excuse to beat kids over the head with the poor, pitiful Jewish victims song and dance so that kids will be brainwashed into unconditionally supporting Israel (and have no objections when their elected leaders do so). As an American, if I'm going to be made to feel guilty over genocide that happened a long time ago, shouldn't I be feeling guilty over slavery or the genocide of the Native Americans? My ancestors were responsible for those at least. My distant German ancestors came over before the US was founded ... and I have relatives who fought in WWII -- so I'm less guilty by association for those crimes.

    I had a similar WTF moment with my daughter's school over racial classifications. They wanted me to log into a website and update her race info. Okay, not that big a deal until I read that if I didn't do, they would HAVE SOMEONE LOOK AT HER AND DETERMINE IT. I was furious. If a person declines to answer, they should just count them in the "unknown" category. You can't tell a person's race just by looking at them. It was horrifying to think of an adult calling in a child to physically assess them to see which race they look most like. Ugh ... Maybe if everyone stopped making you classify yourself all the time, race wouldn't be such a big issue after a while.

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