"Teaching is an act of love, and it is also an act of courage." — bell hooks
CREATING ADVERTISEMENTS FOR AUTHOR'S PURPOSE
After students received an information session from JA Finance members to explore the world of financial literacy at I.S. 230Q, I was inspired to intersect New Generation ELA Standards and Authors purpose by having students create an advertisement. Students received a lesson on how to identify and analyze three kinds of authors purpose (inform, persuade, entertain) in order to create their very own advertisement for their invention.
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I integrate 7/8R1, 7/8R4 and 7/8R9 New Generation Standards and sever differentiation and scaffolding strategies. I incorporate a Frayer Model for "Author's Purpose" as a scaffold in understanding different elements of this concept.
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Activity: You are going to make an advertisement for your own business, invention or a product of your choice. You have to create the advertisement, and explain how you informed, persuaded and entertained your audience to buy your product.
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After students completed their mini advertisement projects, we created a catalog across all three of my classes: 701, 702 and 703. We can see students utilize their creativity and thinking in order to craft excellent ads that use all three elements of authors purpose. Please scroll to see student inventions on the top right.
ICEBERG ANALOGY PROJECT
Slide 1 introduces the Iceberg Analogy Project, where students selected meaningful quotes from Refugee by Alan Gratz and analyzed them using a three-layer iceberg model. The top layer reflects the surface or literal meaning of the quote, the middle layer explores emotional or social meaning, and the bottom layer uncovers deeper themes such as symbolism, irony, or universal truths. This project is designed to help students think critically about character perspective, emotional depth, and the author’s message. Each project was evaluated using a rubric aligned with New York State ELA standards, focusing on textual analysis, interpretation, and written expression (Slide 2).
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Slides 3 through 11 feature anonymous student projects. Each slide includes a visual of the student's iceberg along with individualized glow and grow comments. These comments highlight what the student did well and offer suggestions for improvement, all based on the standards-aligned rubric. This section showcases the students’ ability to connect with literature on a deeper level and demonstrate insight into both the story and the broader human experience.