Lesson summary
This lesson is designed to be completed independently by students, but they will benefit from having someone to discuss their findings with.
Students will consider the ethical dilemmas inherent in advertising during a pandemic. After reading an article about current advertising and COVID-19, students will classify vocabulary used to express ethical judgement. They will make connections between their own ethical beliefs and those of the author, to evaluate a range of real-world advertisements. Finally, they will share their conclusions with someone else and consider areas of agreement and disagreement.
Learning intentions:
Students will...
- learn language for expressing ethical judgement
- connect with your own ethical principles (with regards to advertising)
- evaluate the ethics of a variety of advertisements.
Success criteria:
Students can...
- classify vocabulary into categories based on strength of judgement
- apply your own ethics to advertising
- use your ethical principles to judge texts
- share your opinion and identify areas of agreement/disagreement with others.
Lesson guides and printables
Lesson details
Curriculum mapping
Australian curriculum content descriptions:
Year 9 English:
- Analyse text structures and language features of literary texts, and make relevant comparisons with other texts (ACELT1772)
Year 10 English:
- Identify and analyse implicit or explicit values, beliefs and assumptions in texts and how these are influenced by purposes and likely audiences (ACELY1752)
General capabilities: Literacy, Ethical Understanding, Critical and Creative Thinking.
Background information:
We are living through unprecedented times and our lives have been forced to change almost overnight as a result of COVID-19. How to move forward, when a vaccine is to be developed (or may never be) is now the focus of many governments.
Resources required
- Article – Pivot to pandemic: how advertisers are using (and abusing) the coronavirus to sell
- Friend or peer to chat with
- Device/pen and paper
Tips for parents and carers
Students can feel a range of emotional responses when researching and discussing COVID-19. If you need further support for students please refer to: https://coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au/.
Additional info
This lesson has been developed in partnership with The Conversation. The Conversation’s mission is to be known as a prominent and trusted publisher of new thinking and evidence-based research, editorially independent and free of commercial or political bias. The Conversation hopes teachers will use their content as a source of truthful information, and that teachers can show their students the importance of trusted, evidence-based information in understanding the world around them and making informed decisions about their actions. Please follow the republishing guidelines when using The Conversation’s articles.
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