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=//WE-TV COMMERCIAL WEBQUEST//=

My proposal for a WebQuest is to teach the lesson for my fourth quarter video production project in Commercials and Advertising. I plan on using wikispaces.com to create the WebQuest since it is free, something my district has been encouraging us to use, and since the kids are familiar with this site and can access it both from home and school. I’ve already set up the site and started adding the details for this WebQuest.

Students will first be given the Introduction. This will include statements about how advertising surrounds us, probably will include some humor and reference to something students will recognize ( a current ad or slogan) to engage them and hook them into the lesson (American Idol and it’s shameless product placement promotion of Coca Cola and itunes).

The Task will ask the students to be the “advertising agency” who must create an ad for the “clients” (myself and my co-teacher) which sells a certain aspect of the school. Ads can be created for a department (Foreign Language, Art), a sport (Soccer, Field Hockey), an extra-curricular activity or club (Drama, Youth Opposed to Using) or any other school-related arena which needs publicity. Students will work in groups and create an outline, storyboard, and pitch for their commercial, which they will propose to the clients. The winning group’s idea is the commercial which gets made, so the stakes are high. After the winner is chosen, the group re-organizes and completes the commercial through the production and post-production process, with the winning group taking the lead in assigning the roles. Before the students begin with creating their own commercials they must learn a little about commercials, the history of advertising, the purpose of commercials, and how ads are created. To do this they will complete the WebQuest for an in-depth analysis of this facet of our class.

The Process will involve several steps.

Step 1: Read about the history of commercials, product placement, and keys to creating “winning” ad campaigns. Take notes and keep an individual blog about what you’ve learned and found as these sites are viewed. Step 2: View some existing commercials and examples of Product Placement in television and movies. These will be on the websites, YouTube, or other video upload site where I can upload any examples I may have. Step 3: View some existing exemplars of “winning” commercials from years past on YouTube or other video site. Complete group worksheets evaluating what “works” and “does not work” in these examples from previous years. Step 4: View exemplars of outline, treatment, and storyboards from previous years. Step 5: Begin to prepare your goup’s outline, treatment, and storyboard from online templates. The storyboard may be completed offline if necessary. Step 6: Pitch outline, treatment, and storyboards to “clients.” Step 7: Winning teams will then help re-organize and assign roles of actors, directors, camerapersons, audio, technical directors, script supervisors, and editors. Each student will have a given role on a given day to make sure that all students are equally involved in the project. Step 8: Students will carry out all production and post-production tasks (shooting and editing). Step 9: Final commercials will be made into files which can be uploaded to the internet for use as exemplars for next year. Step 10: Students will complete their blogs as a reflection on the process of creating a commercial.

Resources will include websites dedicated to Product Placement, the history of Advertising, the changes in Commericals from the “golden age” to today, Subliminal Ads, and the ubiquitous presence of advertising in our lives.

For the Evaluation the students will be assessed using a rubric with the four column approach (Advanced/Proficient/Needs Improvement/Failing) with specific criteria that should be easily understood by the students.

The Conclusion will include some closing statements and a summary of commercials, product placement, and advertising. I will link to some of the places where interested students can learn more about this topic.