Subjects

• Language Arts
  
• Team Sports
  

Grade

• 3-5
  
• 6-8
  
• 9-12

Brief Description

Students choose a sport and promote a real or imaginary team by creating press releases, business cards, and ads or commercials.

Objectives

• learn how to create positive publicity.
• learn more about team sports.
• develop oral and written language skills and share a finished product with peers.
• follow a template to create business cards.
• learn about the different purposes in advertising: to entertain, inform or persuade.
• use technology to create a short ad or commercial.

Keywords

commercial, ad, acting, team, sports, marketing, advertise, video, script

Materials Needed

• video camera, television and VCR
• blank business cards
• computers with drawing and word processing program and business card assistants or wizards/templates (optional)

The Lesson

In this lesson, students create an advertising campaign for a new sports team. They might use techniques they have seen in ads and commercials, but they should not copy any they have seen.

Before the Lesson
Demonstrate for students -- if the do not already know -- how to copy and paste graphics from the Internet into a document such as Appleworks or MS Word, and how to scan those documents for later use. (Be sure students also know how to keep a record of sources for citation purposes.)

The Lesson
Discuss what a press release is and share one or two with the group. (You might use the Web site of a local sports franchise as a source of press releases.)

Provide or have students provide print ads for sports franchises in their area. Students might also research advertisement on the Web.

Discuss print ads and commercials students have seen. Why are some advertisements more memorable than others? What techniques did the successful commercials use to promote a sport? Have students place each ad or commercial discussed into one of the following categories:

• Ads created to entertain
• Ads created to persuade
• Ads created to inform

Tell students they are going to create an imaginary team for any sport. Talk about some more unusual sports they might select -- such as skateboarding, rock climbing, tumbling, and so on. You might even have them brainstorm a list of possible sports. Students will

• name their team.
• create business cards for themselves in their role of public relations person for the team. (Students might use a computer program and scanned images for this activity.) Print a page of students' business cards and let them trade.
• use a word processing program to create a press release for the team. That release might answer some of these questions: Where and when will the team play? Who are some of the key players? What are the team's strengths? Why should the public come to watch them? Students should use spellcheckers and then print their press releases. Share students' releases by posting them on a board and reading them aloud. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the releases.
• Arrange students into teams of 2 or 3; have each team create a commercial or ad promoting a team. Ads will be created in print (perhaps using a computer drawing program) or on poster paper. Commercials will be limited to one minute in length and can be videotaped and shared via television or VCR or created electronically using iMovie, PowerPoint, or Appleworks Presentation. All script writing should be done ahead of time and rehearsed. Students might bring or create needed props. View the commercials and discuss the strengths and weaknesses in each.

Assessment

Students will be evaluated on their participation in group activities and discussion; use of time; ability to follow oral and written directions; and the originality of their business cards, press releases, and commercials or ads. Students also will be assessed on their spelling, grammar, teamwork, and presentation.

Submitted By

VaReane Heese, Springfield Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska