Welcome to the unit优质公开课教案

Welcome to the unit

Advertising plays an important role in our daily lives. In this section, students will be asked to talk about four different advertisements, including two commercial advertisements, which promote an airline service and a shampoo, as well as two public service advertisements, separately for Earth Day and an anti-drugs campaign. Students are required to discuss each advertisement, and to get some ideas of the two main types of advertisements and their respective purposes. Students are expected to get involved in the discussion, practise their spoken English and participate in all the activities designed.

Brainstorming

1 In preparation for the class, ask students to collect some popular advertisements. This activity can be conducted like this:

The topics we are going to talk abouttadvertising and advertisements-are part of our daily lives. Please collect several English advertisements from different sources and present them in class. You need to state the reason why you chose each advertisement.

2 Begin the class by discussing the advertisements students have collected.

·Play a guessing game. Arouse students' interest by showing them some ads of products or services they are not so familiar with. Ask students to guess what kind of product or service is being advertised.

·Divide the class into groups of four. Have them present the ads they have collected to the class or to their group. Get the whole class or the group members to guess what products or services the ads are about.

·Choose a few ads from the ones that students have collected and ask the following questions:

Where do we see these ads?

(On the Internet, in newspapers, on TV, in magazines, or in leaflets given out in the streets.)

Why are these good advertisements? (Because they use exciting images, concise language and creative ideas.)

3 Read the instructions and focus on the four posters. Then encourage students to form pairs and discuss the content of each poster.

What image(s) can you see on each poster? What can you read on each poster?

What does each advertisement try to tell us? Encourage students to focus on the functions of the commercial advertisements and the public service advertisements. Ask students questions about each poster and provide them with useful information. Here are some sample questions:

Poster of Oxlin Airlines

What does the advertisement try to sell, a product or service?

What impression do the words have on you? Would you like to fly with Oxlin Airlines? Why or why not?

Poster of Earth Day

Why does this advertisement use the image of a bird's nest?

What problem is the poster trying to highlight?

Do you think this advertisement helps to make people aware of environmental problems?

From this advertisement, what do you think Earth Day is all about?

Poster of the anti-drugs campaign After reading the poster, do you think drugs are harmful?

If someone takes drugs, what could happen to him or her?

Does the advertisement teach you about the bad effects of taking drugs? What are they?

Poster of the shampoo ad

What kind of people do you think this advertisement is targeting? Why? (Young people, especially girls, because they pay more attention to their appearance.)

Do you think this advertisement will successfully persuade people to buy this shampoo? Why?

4 If time allows, after students get the idea of each advertisement, organize them into groups and ask each group to talk about one of the advertisements in front of the class. Each group should choose one student to present their ideas to the class.

Sharing information

1 Organize studentS into groups of four or allow them to form their own groups. Have them discuss the three questions under the

advertisements.

2 Have students exchange their opinions and make sure that all of them have a chance to 'speak.

3 Have some groups report their answers to the class. Any possible answers are welcome.

Sample answers

1 The two ads that separately promote an airline service and a shampoo make me want to buy a product or service. In my opinion, the advertisement for the shampoo is more persuasive not only because of the picture on the shampoo bottle, but also because it says that this shampoo will keep my hair shiny for days. Although I don't believe that this ad tells the complete truth, I want to try it anyway.

2 The other two ads separately for Earth Day and an anti-drugs campaign make me think about social problems. People's health and the environment are common social concerns. Nobody can ignore the problems around us. In addition, the persuasive words and the striking pictures used in these ads impress me a lot. Of the two ads, the ad about Earth Day strikes me more. The ad shows us a bird's nest built in the sky. The poster is trying to show us, that there is nowhere else to put the bird's nest because all the trees have been' cut down. It sends us a serious warning and tells us that we should protect the environment from now on.

3 No. Public service advertisements are intended to educate people about health, social problems and public welfare. Public service advertisements are usually free and they are usually true. Commercial advertisements, on the other hand, are intended to encourage people to buy a product or service so that companies can make more money. Thus, they try their best to make people believe they are telling the truth, sometimes by tricking us. For example, ads which sell cosmetics often use famous pop stars who tell us how effective the product is and how it keeps them young and good-looking. It is up to us, the consumers, to decide whether to believe commercial advertisements or not.

Reasources Earth Day

Earth Day aims to increase environmental awareness and encourage people to take care of the Earth and its people. The first Earth Day was celebrated on 21 March 1970. It was celebrated on that day because night and day are equally long throughout the Earth on that day. Today, Earth Day is celebrated annually by many countries throughout the world. For more information, you may check the following websites:

http://www.earthsite.org/day.htm

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