Teacher’s Manual to the CAPI Student Reader

Unit IV: Advertising

Theme: Advertising

Organizational Focus: Analysis

Sentence Level: Verbal phrases and adjective clauses

Essay Assignment

Choose one of the following essay assignments.

1. Examine two or three related ads—they may advertise the same product, come from the same magazine, appeal to the same need or appeal to one target audience.

• Analyze how the ads appeal to some of the needs described in “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals.”

2. Examine a selection of advertisements from the same magazine.

• Point out which of Fowles’ fifteen appeals are working in each ad
• Suggest the target audience the magazine is directed towards.

Please complete the Essay Self-Check questions and submit them with your essay.

Please use the Peer Edit Guide while reviewing your peer’s essay.

Essay Rubric

The Essay Rubric provides a framework for evaluating students’ success with the assignment.

Activating Schema

1. Handout or post the following list of advertisements. Ask students to predict which ads would appear during Monday Night Football and which ones would appear during As the World Turns. Class discusses the lists and speculates why there is such a high level of agreement, leading to the idea of target audience or target viewer. Begin adjective clause sentence level work by modeling on the board: “The ads that appear during Monday Night Football target people who…”

• Miller’s High Life Beer
• Huggies’ diapers
• Apple Power Book laptop computer
• Toyota pick-up
• Cover Girl liquid make-up
• Bud, King of Beers
• Merksamer Jewelers’ diamond solitaire
• Clairol Ultimate Blond
• Virginia Slims
• Nike running shoes
• Wall Street Journal
• Avon Perfecting Lotion
• Oil of Olay
• Wild Musk Oil
• Secret Wide Solid
• Navy College Fund
• Calvin Klein Escape Perfume
• Comfort clothes’ softener

2. Hand out the Calvin & Hobbs cartoon and ask students to brainstorm in pairs how the advertiser is selling his or her product and who the target audience of the product is. What characteristics of Calvin make him part of that audience? Teacher models adjective clauses by posting, “The Hyperbubble ad is designed to appeal to people who.”
   
   
3. Values Clarification Sheet. Students determine whether statements are true or false in pairs or individually.
• The purpose of a print ad is to explain the use of a particular product.
  
  
• Most advertisements are based on facts.
  
  
• Advertisers have a moral responsibility to appeal to be truthful.
  
  
• Many ads use sexual images to appeal to the audience.
  
  
• Some companies use ads that specifically target teenagers.
  
  
• The use of famous people in advertisements give the message that if you buy that product, you will be like the famous person.
  
  
• When you see an advertisement that you like, you are more likely to buy that product.

Readings

“Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”

Pre-Reading

1. Journal: Ask students to write about the emotional appeal of advertising. Prompt: Think of an advertisement you have seen recently. Using details from the ad, explain the feelings you had as you viewed the ad.
   
   
2. Teacher brings in a sample ad or hands out a few ad to groups and asks students how they think the ad is selling it’s product. Brainstorm techniques they see the advertiser using.
   
   
3. Ask students to respond to key sentences from the reading. What does the author mean when he writes, “By giving form to people’s deep-lying desires, and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for, advertisers have the best chance of arresting attention and affecting communication.” (paragraph 2)

During-Reading

1. Employ think-aloud protocol, modeling questioning, clarifying, summarizing, predicting. This is effective for the introductory paragraphs 1–7.
   
   
2. Group work—Finding main ideas
• Divide class into groups of 3–4 students.
  
  
• Assign each one of the paragraphs to read together—or a need since the author separates the article based on the needs described.
  
  
• Groups will find the main idea of the paragraph and write it on the board so that when everyone is done there is a rough outline of all the main ideas on the board.
  
  
• Teacher goes over the list, leading a discussion for clarification.
  
  
• Students write summaries for homework.
  

3. Group work—Definitions
• Each group should define the need, give an example from the reading and bring an ad that appeals to the need
  
  
• Groups present on overhead

4. For homework ask students to highlight the definition of the need in one color and examples of how ads appeal to that need in another color. They should also take notes about questions or important information in the margin.

Post-Reading

1. Students bring in an ad.
• Each student brings in a favorite ad or one that catches their attention.
  
  
• In groups or pairs, students explain the appeals of the ad, making connections to the text, explaining which needs the ad appeals to and how.
  
  
• Ads are displayed around the room and the class does a gallery walk, using post-its to indicate the prominent appeals of each ad.
  
  
• Class discusses select ads.

Sentence Work

1. Adjective Clauses: Use several ads brought in by students to model construction of adjective clauses. Take an ad for Cover Girl make-up and begin, “The ad for Cover Girl make-up appeals to ______ (whom).” Ask students to complete the sentence in two ways. Then ask for volunteers to share one sentence. Record these sentences on the board as models (correct if necessary).
   
   
2. Hand out chart with examples of adjective clauses and how they are used. Debrief the handout. See supplementary materials.
   
   
3. As an introduction to creating adjective clauses ask students to complete the following activity.

Adjective Clause Worksheet

Examples

1. Joining two independent clauses into one sentence using as adjective clause.
• The man is practicing ballet.
• He looks like a sumo wrestler.
• The man who looks like a sumo wrestler is practicing ballet.

2. Transforming the adjective clause back into an independent clause/sentence.
• The room, which is filled with golden sunlight, is his studio.
• The room is his studio.
• It is filled with golden sunlight.

3. In this Gameshark advertisement, the advertiser chooses to show two women who are wearing tight leather uniforms. This ad takes up two pages and so do the words “Play with us.” They are in big bold letters. Underneath those words, it says “Someone’s about to get lucky,” urging people to buy their Gameshark CDX and their Performance Tremor Pack to register for a chance to win a trip for two to the ESPN’s Summer X Games. The target audience is people that have and play with the Sega Dreamcast counsel console. Three appeals this article uses are the need for sex, the need to dominate, and the need to feel safe.
• Look for and mark sentences that use adjective clauses to join clauses.
• What subordinator is used to transform a sentence into an adjective clause?
• Is it placed in the right position, next to the noun it modifies?
• Transform the sentences with adjective clauses into two independent clauses.
• Are there any sentences that could be combined with an adjective clause?
• Combine the sentences by transforming one of them into a subordinating adj. clause.

4. After students have begun writing teacher takes student samples of adjective clauses and reviews them with the class. The teacher can ask students in the peer edit to choose the other person’s best adjective clause to write on the board. Then the teacher can assign different students to dissect the sentence, naming its parts and how they relate to one another.
• Verbal phrases: To introduce the topic look at the two sentences below and ask students what is different about each example? Which example is more effective? Why?

5. Advertisers try to get their readers’ attention and communicate with them. And they show them interesting images. The reader stops turning the page.

6. Giving form to people’s deep-lying desires, and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for, advertisers try to get their readers’ attention and communicate with them. And they show them interesting images, to slow them down long enough to notice whatever is being sold. Fascinated by the colorful art work and desirable situations, the reader stops turning the page, enjoying the visual and emotional experience the advertiser has created.

7. Then look at a series of models. After explaining the purpose of verbs and how to differentiate between the verbal and the main clause, the teacher could ask students to circle the subject of the main clause, to underline the verbal phrase, to identify who is doing the action of the verbal (it should be the subject of the main clause) and to ask a how or why question that can be explained by the main clause.
• To catch the reader’s eye, the advertiser uses a variety of strategies in the Liz Claiborne ad.
  
  
• Wanting to attract the reader’s attention, the advertiser has placed the Liz Claiborne ad in the center of a blank white page.
  
  
• Accustomed to full page ads crammed with colorful details, the reader finds the black and white Liz Claiborne ad unusual.
  
  
• Smiling and leaning over to look at the baby’s face, the father shows in his body language the love and devotion he feels for his baby.
  
  
• Smiling as she sits in the bath, the mother completes the happy family group.
  
  
• The baby is at the center of the ad, holding on to the edge of the bath.
  
  
• To appeal to the need to nurture, the advertiser has carefully photographed the family group, putting the baby at the center, and showing the parents gazing lovingly at him, and making us wish we were in their happy family situation.

8. Ask students to write their own verbals in pairs, using the prompt given to help them.
• To appeal to the need for (to) __________________, the advertiser ________________.
  
  
• Wanting to appeal to the reader’s need to (for) ___________________, the advertiser __________________.
  
  
• Directing his ad towards people who want ____________________, the advertiser shows ________________.

9. Ask students to review some verbal phrases that may not be used correctly (dangling modifiers). Ask them to identify which sentences work or do not, to correct or change the sentence that do not work so they do, and to name what is wrong in the incorrect sentences.
• Looking carefully, the ad was examined by the reader.
  
  
• To get the reader’s attention, the advertiser used expensive day glow ink.
  
  
• Attracted by the handsome model, the magazine was looked at carefully by the readers.
  
  
• Sitting on the park bench together, gazing into each other’s eyes, the reader looks enviously at the lovers.
  
  
• Turning the pages quickly, the advertisement was noticed by the reader.
  
  
• Dripping and oozing a rich creamy sauce, the reader stared at the spaghetti ad.

10. After students begin drafting ask students to then write verbals about an ad they are working on. Again use student samples to review during the drafting process.

Vocabulary Work

1. Divide class into groups, each group defines and gives examples of 2–3 vocabulary words (which are in bold and footnoted in the article) with emphasis on explaining how the author is using the word in context. (Variation: students draw graphic representations of words (pictures or diagrams).

Paragraph Work

1. Ask students to write a paragraph describing the appeals of their favorite ad.

Writing

Pre-Writing

1. On the board teacher uses a ladder image to show how a writer of an expository paragraph moves between different levels of specificity, in a logical movement of thought. Then teacher demonstrates how to cluster the movement of thought in a paragraph using the terms, topic sentence, background, example #1, specific detail, example #2, specific detail, commentary. Cluster model paragraph using ad assignment items.
   
   
2. Re-read paragraphs 12 and 19 of Fowles’ article as models of movement from general to specific.
   
   
3. Re-read paragraph’s 54 and 55 to define aesthetic sensations and look at examples. Use think-aloud protocol to discuss and clarify this need. Reinforce movement from general to specific through directed questioning.
   
   
4. Show an ad which appeals to aesthetic sensations.
   
   
5. Give out a list of items that characterize the ad (general and specific) and ask student to arrange the list in logical order from general to specific in pairs.
   
   
6. Ask students to write lists on board and discuss logical versions.
   
   
7. Help students convert list into clusters that function as a plan for the paragraph. Students begin writing paragraph in class and finish for homework.
   
   
8. For homework students write up a paragraph about the ad.

Drafting

1. For next class meeting students are required to bring a magazine and choose one ad.
   
   
2. Students brainstorm gen/spec points about own ad in pairs, identify a need the ad is appealing to and find details that support that need. It may help to have stickies to use on the ad.
   
   
3. Students cluster movement of thought in that paragraph.
   
   
4. Students write the paragraph as homework.
   
   
5. Students peer-edit paragraphs checking for logical movement of thought, appropriateness of need, supporting details and commentary.
   
   
6. Students repeat brainstorm/cluster/write/peer edit for all remaining body paragraphs.
   
   
7. When finished with body paragraphs students have conference with teacher where they determine the unifying principal or idea. Teacher should have warned them about this when they debriefed the writing assignment and reminded them when they are choosing ads. After thinking about what the ads have in common students could brainstorm how the ads target a certain audience or why they are appealing to certain needs. This information should be the basis of their introduction.

Editing

1. Students complete a final peer-revision after they have brought their paragraphs together, worked on transitions between them and written rough drafts of introduction and conclusion. See supplementary materials.
   
   
2. Ask students to revise their own essays after the essays have been revised by a peer.

Self-check: Answer questions while rereading your essay. Make necessary changes in your essay to improve it. See supplementary materials.

Supplementary Materials

1. Read “Victoria’s Secret” poem to help explain the process of a viewer being manipulated to interact with ads and catalogues. Ask students to mark each place the writer refers to interacting with an ad. Look at the adjectives to see what kind of attitude is transmitted.