This lesson is for students in 7^th grade Communications. Four years ago, all of Loudoun County’s 7^th graders were given the opportunity to enroll in a high school credit foreign language class. Prior to this, foreign language could only begin in 8^th grade.  As an alternative to foreign language, the communications course was established as a 7^th grade elective. With college and high school expectations growing more demanding, parents and administrators are encouraging more and more students to attempt foreign language in 7^th grade, knowing that if the experience does not go well the grade can be expunged.

        This particular communications class is in a middle school, located in the Lansdowne section of Loudoun County. Parents of students in this area are often college educated and have income in the middle to upper brackets. Test scores are consistently high, and high expectations are the norm for both students and staff. The school is annually growing more crowded as each grade level is larger than the last. With no new middle school slated to break ground soon, this trend is expected to continue. In the next school year, this school will have the largest student population of any middle school in Loudoun County.

        Students in communications usually fall into two categories: those that are interested in the content and those that did not want to attempt foreign language. The brief description in the student catalogue does not do the class justice as to what is actually learned and accomplished. As class size throughout the school has increased, the same is true with communications. This year has seen the largest number of students in each class with the current numbers standing at 25-27 per class. This will continue to rise as foreign language students begin to rethink their decision to take a high school course and new 7^th grade students are enrolled in the school. Currently, population of the two classes consists of 19 males and 31 females. The breakdown between the two classes is (M-10, F-14) (M-9, F-17).

The overall goal for both groups is to broaden students’ thinking skills about all media messages and help them become more media literate. At the end of the course, students will be more educated and discriminating regarding their understanding of the media that seeks to influence them. This overall goal is accomplished by allowing students to see how media messages are crafted and experience creating their own media messages. In this process, students can see how messages can be manipulated. After seeing how messages are crafted, the lesson shifts to awareness of what the media message says and what it does not say. The message’s purpose is examined.

        This class does not have an SOL but has curricular goals in the categories of Communication Model, Public Speaking, Drama, Radio, Television, Film, Advertising, Newspaper Writing, and Publishing.