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The fun part of the lesson worked. Students
had no problem working on creative ideas or funny jingles. They
took prior learning from their photography unit to select
graphics. For the most part, groups were engaged in the
task and successful.
As mentioned in the Quantitative Evidence section, the
grades of the creative projects demonstrate that it is apparent
that students were able to meet and exceed the objectives of the
assignment.
As for the letter to the client, a majority
of students composed well-written letters that detailed their
reasoning behind the advertising campaign and why it would be
successful. This part of the assessment was presented as an
authentic letter to the owners of Lawn and Leaf Landscaping. In
reality, an advertising team would "pitch" the campaign to the
client in person. I chose not to go this way because of the
added components of public speaking and presentation skills that
would need to be addressed. The class will work on these skills
later in the year, and I did not want to throw too many things in
the mix.
Although the yellow
pages ad and the radio ad were accomplished as a group, the
letter to the client was required by each individual student.
The letter allowed me to assess each student's thinking
behind their advertsing strategy. In addition, students were
able to articulate these ideas to the client and explain why
they were important. For example, one student mentioned that
they included an award ribbon in the ad to focus on the awards
and certifications the company had received. Another student
mentioned the age of the models in the photograph were similar
to the target demographics.
New this year to this lesson was using the
authentic ad contest idea. It was extremely helpful to have a
client profile that was provided by the Yellow Pages Association
advertisment competition. This gave students the task of not
just coming up with a funny jingle or slogan, but actually
basing their creativity on a strategy to meet the client's needs.
The volunteer efforts of a local advertising agency owner to
judge the entries and prizes being subsidized by the 7th grade
dean gave the assignment a realistic and exciting feature.
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