2/9/10 Project Alert, Project Alert!!!!!!

Advertisements or commercials inform the public about products they can buy (like cars, shoes or
fireplaces) or services they can pay for (like lawyers, music concerts or cinemas). Public service
announcements (PSAs) instead inform the public about a message or an idea. Some of the most
famous PSAs that might be familiar to students involve campaigns encouraging people to stop
smoking, or to vote for a certain political party. Public service announcements can be effective
because they use traditional advertising techniques in a familiar format.

Are they Controversial? Not necessarily! Some public service announcements express a strong
opinion, or try to encourage people to change their mind about an idea (eg messages about
government policy). Other announcements try to raise awareness (eg environmental issues), raise
money for a charity (eg an AIDS campaign) or encourage better health (eg healthy eating, stopping
smoking or drinking and driving).


I am going to take advantage of your interest—and practice important critical thinking and literacy skills—by having you make and edit your own videos that deal with important social, economic, and political topics in Africa.

First, students will watch examples of online public service announcements (PSAs) and probe the multiple meanings of these video texts by asking challenging, open-ended questions.

You will research your topic in-depth, identifying the causes and effects.

Students use their research and a Persuasion Map tool as a basis for writing scripts for their own PSAs.

You will then create a PSA and use Windows Movie Maker to edit their videos.

Persuasion Map Tool:http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/persuasion_map/

2/9/10 Educational Game

Take a look at this site http://www.freepoverty.com/

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME ON FREEPOVERTY.COM

How far would you go to end poverty? Your mission here is to locate the place given to you [e.g. Rome, Italy] and how many cups of water we donate on your behalf depends on how accurate your answer is. Once you have located one city or landmark, another location will be shown to you. You may play the game however many times you wish. Of course, the more you play and the more you are correct, the greater difference you will make with your donation. If your answer is correct, 10 cups of water will be donated. The further away you are from the location, the number of cups will decrease. If your answer is nowhere near the exact location, no cups of water will be donated. Therefore by playing this game, not only are you doing a good deed for others, but you are also gaining knowledge for yourself.

Give this game a try and tell me what you thought!

2/8/10 Water, water, everywhere but they can't use it.

Why Water? Get the story.

* Nearly 1 billion people don't have safe water to drink.
* A child dies every 15 seconds from a lack of clean water.
* 1 in 4 children who die before age 5 worldwide, die of a water related disease.
* Children often walk miles every day to collect dirty water to drink.

Did you also know?

* Most people without access to clean water live right above it.
* In many cases the only thing preventing access to clean water is money.

For extra credit, visit this site and complete the questions, print off and turn in to me by Tuesday, the 16th.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sq3.html

2/8/10 Darfur

Today we used the following website to create a magazine cover that would summarize the crisis in Darfur. www.bighugelabs.com