Lesson Plan

Title: Rhetorical Analysis of Commercials

Materials and agenda for the day included in the lesson plan below.

Time Name of Activity Procedure Materials/

(min.) Methods
5 Watch Commercial -Watch Gatorade commercial; include Projection
(5) subtitles and/or provide transcript. screen
10 Key Terms -Review key terms needed to conduct a PowerPoint
(15) rhetorical analysis: audience, speaker,
message, context, covert messages, overt
messages, purpose.
20 Practicing with -Individually, students conduct a mini Personal
(35) Rhetorical rhetorical analysis, using the key terms above. computer or
Analysis Answer these questions: Who are the notebooks
audiences for this ad (primary and
secondary)? What is the message of this ad?
What is the context for this ad? What clues in
the ad help identify the context? What might
some covert messages in this ad be? What
cultural values are being addressed/
challenged? What is the ad’s purpose?
20 Pair Work -Students get into pairs, and compare answers Face-to-face
(55) to the rhetorical analysis questions: What was
similar in their answers? What was different?
10 Watch Coke -Watch video; include subtitles and/or provide Projection
(65) Commercial transcript. screen;
Rhetorical -This video is a rhetorical analysis in action, YouTube
Analysis spoken over a Coke commercial.
10 Discuss Coke -What’s the main argument/thesis of the Open group
(75) Commercial speaker? discussion;
Rhetorical -What terms did you notice in the analysis textbook
Analysis that we’ve used in our class?
Pedagogical Goals of Assignment
Context of lesson: The lesson plan above is for a 75-minute class of ENG 102 (Research

Writing). This particular lesson engages students in practicing how to rhetorically analyze

commercials (an assignment they will have to complete themselves in an essay). Students will

already have been exposed to the key terms used in the lesson plan; this is their opportunity to

practice rhetorical analysis alone, in pairs, and as a whole class.

Learning Objectives: This lesson plan targets one of the main goals of first year composition:

“Goal 1: Rhetorical Awareness. Learn strategies for analyzing texts’ audiences, purposes, and

contexts as a means of developing facility in reading and writing.” Specifically, this lesson plan

targets these student learning outcomes: “identify the purposes of, intended audiences for, and

arguments in a text, as situated within particular cultural, economic, and political contexts;

analyze the ways a text’s purposes, audiences, and contexts influence rhetorical options; respond

to a variety of writing contexts calling for purposeful shifts in structure, medium, design, level of

formality, tone, and/or voice.”

Pedagogical Goals, Further Contextual Explanation, and Influences: It’s difficult to predict

who my students will be each semester; however, based on university statistics, the majority of

students in a basic composition class will be Millennials or Generation Zs. Therefore, as I create

lesson plans, I do so with the interests of this age bracket in mind. That being said, it’s never

wise to generalize about an entire group of people, and so my approaches may shift to

accommodate the specific students I find before me.

In my lesson plan, I am mindful that some students may have hearing disabilities and/or

reading challenges, which is why I offer the commercial with subtitles or transcript for those
with hearing disabilities, and I offer something visual to analyze (the commercial) for those with

reading challenges. I allow students to write their answers in a notebook or computer, knowing

that students sort through information in different ways. I incorporate quiet reflection time, visual

stimulation, and group work, all in the hopes that as many different intelligences (a la Howard

Gardner) and learning preferences will be targeted and engaged. When students engage in pair

work, I would allow them to move around the room, or even go elsewhere if they wanted—this

movement allows for a physical reboot and hopefully inspires a mental refresh, as well. I would

allow students to manipulate the physical space of the classroom by letting them move chairs and

tables around to suit their needs.

What I have tried to do in the lesson above is utilize many different pedagogical

approaches, so as to target as many learning preferences/styles as possible: video/audio, private

writing, collaborative work, group discussions, and lecture. The main influences on this lesson

plan include David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Learning Styles Model, which was

strongly influential in how I sequenced the activities for this lesson plan. Students engage in a

concrete experience (watching the Gatorade commercial). Next, they have time for reflective

observation (privately reflecting on the commercial by answering some specific questions). My

hope is that through pair work, comparing and contrasting each other’s answers, and discussing

their rhetorical analyses, these tasks get at the abstract conceptualization aspect of Kolb’s model.

Finally, the active experimentation phase is enacted by having students watch a rhetorical

analysis in action of a different commercial, and then analyze how the speaker in the video

rhetorically analyzed the commercial. Students draw from their previously-practiced knowledge

about rhetorical analysis, use key terms, and actively critique.

 By including video in this lesson plan, I am hoping to target 21st century learners, and

their affinity for learning in ways beyond lecture. In mind as I crafted this lesson plan were some

of the insights offered in Diana Oblinger’s text, Educating the Net Generation, about

Millennials: “they are intuitive visual communicators” (section 2.5), “Most Net Gen learners

prefer to learn by doing rather by being told what to do” (section 2.6), and “The Net Gen is more

comfortable in image-rich environments than with text” (section 2.7). Also, because Millennials

prefer immediacy and rapidity, my lesson plan includes many different activities no longer than

20 minutes each, so that students are motivated and engaged.

Also in mind as I crafted this lesson plan, was Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman’s

engagement theory, and specifically their focus on “creating successful collaborative teams” as a

means of engaging students. After allowing students to work on their own to answer questions

about rhetorical analysis, I then give them the opportunity to work in pairs to work through their

answers. Having students rhetorically analyze commercials (a type of media in the “real world”

that, ostensibly, they have seen outside of the classroom) attempts to get at Kearsley and

Schneiderman’s idea of “outside (authentic) focus.”

Works Cited
Kearsley, Greg, and Ben Shneiderman. "Engagement Theory: A Framework for Technology-
based Teaching and Learning." C3.ort.org.il. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
Mobbs, Richard. "David Kolb." Sj88. University of Leicester, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
Oblinger, Diana, and James L. Oblinger. "Is It Age or IT: First Steps Toward Understanding
the Net Generation." Educating the Net Generation. Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE., 2005.
N. pag. PDF.