INTERLINK Curriculum Guide
Course Details CS3
At this level, the focus of this class shifts towards understanding formal discourse and developing academic skills such as research, note-taking and presentation techniques. Students listen to English spoken at normal speed by a variety of speakers on a variety of topics and learn to distinguish main ideas from supporting details and examples. Through exposure to more challenging and demanding language samples, students begin to recognize rhetorical clues and understand utterances even when there are words or phrases with which they are not familiar. Their knowledge of what is culturally appropriate in language, behavior and attitude is further developed and refined.
Benchmarks of Completion of Level 3:
Demonstrate ability
to:
a. understand everyday conversations
b.
speak with reasonable clarity and accuracy in a variety of situations
Core
Projects for CS 3
CS 3 Team project: Ad Campaign
Project Summary: An ad campaign may at first seem too limited as a project, of interest only to business or communication majors. In fact, this project is very flexible and can accommodate many different interests. Teams can choose products or services pertinent to their own fields of study (science, engineering, law, medicine, aviation etc.) and while doing research can increase their knowledge in their own special area. In doing this project, students are immersed in the world of media and the use of words and images to sell products and services. They explore advertisements of all kinds (TV commercials, print ads, jingles, mail and billboard promotions etc.) and think and talk about their efficacy, as well as cultural appropriateness, ethical implications, financial costs, psychological underpinnings, government regulation issues, technology and any other areas the teacher can stimulate them to investigate. Students use the information gathered in their research to create their own ad campaigns for existing or invented products. The campaign includes production of a TV commercial and print ad and a presentation to sell them to the company that produces the product or service.
Activity Ideas: This project is likely to consist of dozens of separate in-class and out-of-class activities including viewing TV commercials, guest speakers, reading books and magazines and reporting on them, viewing movies, field trips, research, interviewing people, group and class discussions, taping a commercial, role plays and simulations.
Language Use: TV commercials, guest speakers, group and class discussions, interviews, videos, tapes provide ample listening practice while group and class discussions, interviews and conversations with team members provide speaking opportunities. Students read print ads and perhaps books and articles about advertising and write ad copy.
Cultural Elements: This project also offers many opportunities to discuss and analyze cultural differences and similarities. Interesting questions to explore are: Would the products/services offered be feasible in all the countries represented and would the best method of promoting them be the same in all countries? Which ads do you remember well? Can you remember an ad that made you buy a product? What kinds of ads are most effective? How are ads in the U.S. different from those in your country? What are some techniques of effective advertising? Should advertising be allowed in schools? Are men or women more susceptible to advertising?
Academic Elements: Gathering information, organizing ideas, cooperation, presentation, use of computers and AV equipment, note-taking, and research are all academic endeavors. In addition, students get used to working independently and managing their time efficiently to meet deadlines.
Materials: Presented below are just a few examples of materials related to advertising. While they are provided as an aid to teachers, it would be better to have students themselves do research to find such materials.
Movies with advertising themes: Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Kramer vs. Kramer; Lost in America; Putney Swope; Nothing in Common; Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House; Good Neighbor Sam; What Women Want; Madison Avenue; Every Home Should Have One; Network; How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying; I'll Never Forget What's 'Is Name; Beer; Wayne's World; Even Cowgirls Get The Blues; Suits; Ad And The Ego (documentary)
Books about advertising: Hey Whipple, Squeeze This; Cutting Edge Advertising; Truth, Lies and Advertising; Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign; Advertising Today; Five Giants Of Advertising
Advertising magazines: Advertising Age,
Adweek, Marketing Magazine, Selling Power, PROMO Magazine
CS 3 Presentation Project: Community Exploration
Project Summary: This project takes a step beyond the Peer Reports Project of the preceding level in that it takes students out of the more protected atmosphere of the school and thrusts them into the wider community. Furthermore, because it includes the exploration of places as well as people, students can invest their presentations with a sense of history and use photos and videos as part of their presentations. There is scope for cultural comparisons and the information shared can help students attain a deeper appreciation of the community in which they live. Students can also begin to deal with using multiple sources effectively, such as different people's recollections or opinions of an event. Students may make several presentations in the course of the term, but because more research and preparation is needed than for the presentations of lower levels, they probably won't take place every week.
CS 3 Independent Listening Project
The specific activities and materials for this project are determined by teacher and students, but the description of the parameters and goals of the project should be carefully reviewed.