Cereal+Killers

 Peer Review Questions

 - If this is what they are doing in Grade 1…WOW!
Students were easily taught how to type and change font in a Word document. My students displayed their prior knowledge of how they have seen font used, as they had names for various fonts of their own (e.g., race car letters, medieval style). It is interesting to note how much information young students already have gained from the media! Val

 - Did you consider comparing different cereal boxes?
We did consider the concept of comparing various cereal boxes, including the adult vs. kid-type cereals, and more nutritious vs. less-nutritious kinds. There are so many tie-ins to this lesson, that is could be continued and re-done using different products (food or otherwise). My class has transferred the skills they learned from the cereal box lesson to Social Studies, and they produced their own versions of signs in the community, and another form of a media message. Val

- What about looking at the Nutrition information?
We did discuss various types of cereal, and surveyed the students in different ways (i.e., community circle, I asked their 3 favourite cereals as homework, taste tests) about the cereals they eat and like. Content of cereal was discussed, including the amount of sugar, colour and nutritional value (Health connection). Val

 - There are lots of Cross-curricular connections (health, 3d Geometry, etc.)
Lots of tie-ins to Health, Art, Math (shapes or surveys), Computers, Science (using 5 senses), self-evaluation, persuasive writing (gimmicks or tags) and Music (jingles)... Val

 - What about creating a self-assessment checklist for the students to use?
See the attachment that Cheryl added to this page, below these reflective questions.

 - Did you consider looking at healthier cereals than Fruit Loops?
Yes, and some kids did prefer healthier cereals. We also discussed why these cereals use gimmicks and colour appeal, etc. to sell their products. My students commented that the ads were great, but you wouldn't know how good it tasted until after you got the product home to try. Val

 - How does this lesson apply across schools with different socio-economic statuses?
The thing that I noted, was that the different classes used various characters to advertise their cereals (animals to Hannah Montanna). I specified that my students' characters needed to be original characters, and not transferred from other cartoons or shows (as per advertising rules for kids). Generally, the mass media has got the message out to kids loud and clear. They could tell you the names of the characters, sing some jingles, and quickly tell you the names of the various cereals. Even though the variety of cereals represented in our lesson may __not__ be the cereals they __always__ eat, they relate to cereals that have been geared (in the media) at them. Val

STUDENT SELF EVALUATION
 [|Cereal design self eval'n.pdf] Here's the copy of the student evaluation I did that you saw at the meeting on Friday. Since I only have gr. 1's and this type of thing is new - I read it to them question by question and they filled in the blanks as we went along. Cheryl

Resource/book from my school's library: Eyewitness books: Media and Communication by Clive Gifford...Val

Took a look at the files - really liked the use of the pull tabs......Devon

I love the changes Mette. The pull tabs with the characters are great! Cheryl Okay... I made a few changes just to reflect language we've used in this class. I still have to add the creating the cereal box slides, I may do that in a separate file. I added pull tabs as well. Mette

I was able to insert clearer graphics - so I redid your file. Cheryl the brands that are included are ... Fruit Loops, Captain Crunch, Trix, Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms. These all have recognizable characters (at least I recognize them...) Interesting -- Trix apparently has reverted back to a previous cereal shape - just your basic sphere. For many years they were shapes - fruit, flowers etc. Wondering what their reasoning was...

__April 5, 2009 at 1:25pm__ -Here is a basic feature match with cereal boxes that I came up with. The images are from the web so the quality distorted a bit when I made them larger. This was the actual lesson part to tape. How can we add some links to previous lessons, as well as other details. Feel free to download the file and modify and add. I did this really quick! Ideas anyone? Val

Here is the notebook file. I'm still not finished but I'm getting there! My thoughts are to provide a few examples of each of the features and have the students vote on which ones they find more appealing. With the characters page I want to have them match the cereal to the spokes characters.

Names: Alison Negrave - Grade 1/2 at Ottawa Crescent PS Cheryl Wallace - Grade 1 at Laurine Avenue PS Valorie Giles - Grade 1 at Maryborough PS Devon Moore - Grade 2 at Ken Danby Mette Millar - Grade 1/2 at June Ave

We met on Wed. Feb 25th and came up with our idea and lesson outline. We will be doing a lesson for Media Literacy. More info to follow. Posting made March 24, 2009 Some notes from our meeting are below -feel free to add details I have left out. minor details added in purple - Cheryl Val We initially discussed the prior knowledge needed regarding media literacy, including: -audience (child vs. adult) -covert/implied messages -text features -the overall concept of media literacy. involves communication of a message __Notes/steps to follow, as a series of lessons, are as follows:__

1) Examining 3 cereal boxes and their features to discuss: a)who the boxes are attracting b)what techniques or features are being used (by the marketers) c)are they (the marketers) using tricks? d)why are the boxes attractive? (reasoning)

2) Examine cereal boxes matching the features (or drag and drop?) with a list, to include title, use of colour, logo, character, colour and perspective. slogans, picture, proportion of elements We also discussed having a cereal box and blocking out parts, taking features away or having parts missing. **I believe this was the actual lesson part.

3) Model making cereal boxes, including features (see list above).

4) Have students create their own cereal boxes.

5) Send boxes' pictures to other classes to vote and decide which boxes are most attractive to actual Grade 1 and 2 children. Tabulate results or share through web conferencing, sharing results, using sentios, etc.

Resources: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/media_lit/related_sites.html [] [|http://resources.elearningontario.ca] (media sort) cereal box front visuals - Moving Up: Gr 4 Literacy Place (Nelson) unit on "evaluating" []