As we are beginning to teach our children the new common core strategy of close reading, we began with having them view commercials of Furby! They were totally engaged and at the end of the video and print ads, hands shot up with, "It talks", "You can name it", "You can feed it", "You can pull its tail and it laughs", "You can get an app for it and it works with a tablet." As soon as we got over the "I want one!" phase, the children began to analyze the ads a little more critically comparing one with another. Then we talked about how expensive a Furby is and some of the children that have one talked about them not working! They need batteries to continue to operate and the some of the children tired of them quickly. Others talked about talking to their Furby and caring for it every single day So...are they worth the cost? Some children took the side that they are worth the cost and others decided they were not. No matter which side they took, the children are beginning to think about what they hear and see and to analyze more critically. This is the same skill we want them to develop as readers.
Maybe next time we will encourage them to put on the lens of their parents... Would your parents think they are worth the price? Why or why not?
I love that students could name so much about the ad after they watched the advertisement. What a great launch way to analyze the author's perspective when you are reading. I'd be really interested to know if you changed the lens what the kids would really think of their parent's viewpoint! :)
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