What's the Meaning ? ... Building students’ vocabulary + Discussion:

What's the Meaning ?

Aim : Building students’ vocabulary
Organisaton : whole class

Time: 50 minutes


Procedure : You , the teacher, may need a dictionary do this activity.
• Choose a word which is long, difficult, and unknown to the students, a
good word to begin with is : warmonger.
• Without using a dictionary, your students write down a definition. (They
can work out the definition in groups of three). Allow them a few minutes
to think and write.
• Collect the definitions and read them aloud.
• When you have finished reading, they will have to vote which of those is
the correct one. (It doesn't matter if none of them is the correct one)
• After they have voted and none of the groups guessed the meaning you
read the correct one aloud.

The idea of this game is to let students be creative and practice writing skills.

Then you can have the students to discuss their writings.

Advertisement

Why do we buy the things we do? Are we influenced by the
product’s packaging or advertising? What is the impact of
advertising on our lives and consumer habits ?

Aim : Discussion: Recognize techniques used by advertisers to sell toys and snack
foods. Increase awareness of consumer habits and media influences.
Differentiate between information and selling.

Materials : Packaging for snack food and/or toy products
Paper, scissors, glue, coloured pens or crayons

Time: 60 minutes

Procedure : Have students examine the product packages. And ask them to
analyze .
the messages on the package and techniques used to
attract their attention.

Discuss the following:

- What item(s) are pictured on the package ?
-What item(s) are actually in the package ?
-What item(s) (if any) are pictured on the package that aren’t in the box ?
-Are there extra food items? Extra toys ?
-How does the size of the package compare to the size of what is inside
the package? What message does the size of the package send ?
-Who is this item targeted to ? What evidence from the package lets you
know who the target audience is (e.g. colour, font, cartoon characters or
gender of people shown using the product) ?
-What words and images are used to attract your attention?
-Do you think you would like or dislike this product ? Why or why not ?
-If it is a food product, do you think it’s nutritious ? Why or why not? How
would you find out for sure whether it is or isn’t nutritious?


After the class discussion, have students engage in one of the two following
activities.

Truth in package design : If students have discovered a product with
misleading information on it , have them redesign the package with complete and
truthful information about the product. Compare and contrast the original
package with the students’ designs.

Target Audience : After determining the target audience for a particular
product, have students redesign the product packaging aimed at a different
target audience (i.e. kids versus adults). Have them compare and contrast the
original box and new design. What elements did the students keep ? What
elements are different ?