Ode to Advertising
In this unit, pupils are encouraged to think about the importance of endings. They will trace the ways in which a text is structured to prepare the reader/viewer for the ending and will have opportunity to explore the use of humour.
Key Questions
- What makes an ending?
- How can I get the right shot?
- How can I create the right tone?
Ode to Advertising: Lesson 1
Key Question:
What makes an ending?
Pupils are learning to:
- to infer and deduce meanings, using evidence in the text;
- to trace the ways in which a text is structured to prepare the reader/viewer for the ending, and to comment on the effectiveness of the ending.
Pupils offer definitions of a “punchline”. In pairs, pupils prepare the presentation of a joke which contains a punchline. Share pupil work.
Write definition of an Ode on the board.
“Odes are poems of praise or glorification”.
Check pupils understand key words.
Distribute copies of William Blake’s To Morning and read to class.
Discuss the type of language which the poem uses. In pairs, pupils suggest one way in which To Morning could be said to be glorifying or praising morning.
Show class the first ten seconds of the silent version of the advert Ode to a Pea. Pupils write a first line for an ode which might be in praise or glorification of a pea. Share best examples while the silent opening is played.
Pairs discuss how Ode might end. Encourage pupils to think in terms of an appropriate punchline ending. Pupils justify their decision. Share pupil work.
Plenary
Pupils view the advert which includes the soundtrack. Pupils discuss the way the humour is generated by the actual ending.
Ode to Advertising: Lesson 2
Key Question:
How can I get the right shot?
How can I create the right tone?
Pupils are learning to:
- to adopt active reading approaches to develop their understanding of how sound and moving images combine to create meaning.
Display the following shot types in their abbreviated form:
ELS - Establishing long shot
LS – Long shot
MLS – Medium long shot
MS – Medium shot
MCU – Medium close up
CU – Close up
BCU – Big close up.
If these terms are unfamiliar explain that they are ways of describing what appears on the screen. Pupils work in pairs to decide what the abbreviation stands for. Pupils sketch what they would expect to see on the screen in each case.
If this is revision, pupils indicate what the abbreviation stands for and describe what they would see on the screen in each case from a camera positioned at the back of the classroom facing the teacher at the front.
Remind pupils of the definition of an Ode. Pupils write an Ode to a contemporary consumer product, which will be the subject of a 30 second television advertisement using a maximum of 80 words. This will leave time for a slight introductory time at the beginning and a short after the ode ends.
After 10 minutes, discuss two or three examples of good use of language to build up praise or glorification of products. Give pupils a further 10 minutes to complete Ode.
Provide pupils with a Storyboardsheet and explain its use. Pupils transform their written advertising ode into a visual presentation using the storyboard.
Extension work
If time and resources allow, encourage pupils to produce their 30 second advertising odes.
To Morning
O Holy virgin! Clad in purest white,
Unlock heav’n’s golden gates, and issue forth;
Awake the dawn that sleeps in heaven; let light
rise from the chambers of the east, and bring
The honied dew that cometh on waking day.
O radiant morning, salute the sun,
Rouz’d like a huntsman to the chace; and, with
Thy buskin’d feet, appear upon our hills.
William Blake