Visual Literacy Lesson

Propaganda

In this activity, students will practice their visual literacy skills, while learning course content. Students will be guided by questions and the graphic organizer in order to make observations on the composition of each propaganda poster.  By paying attention to the visual syntax of the posters, students will be able to make connections to wartime themes.  After the activity, students will have the opportunity to create their own World War II propaganda posters.  

This activity achieves criterion 4.1 because I will guide students to look at the propaganda posters through the eyes of a historian by thinking about the context of the posters and the audience that they target. This activity also achieves criterion 4.2 because the graphic organizer provided will make the lesson accessible by providing a place for students to organize their observations.  By then giving students an opportunity to create their own propaganda posters, their learning can become more meaningful. Finally, the lesson meets criterion 5.2 because the activity requires critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.  Students need to analyze a poster (critical thinking), design their own (creativity) with a partner (collaboration) and then present and explain their poster to the class (communication).  We can connect the activity to local or global issues by thinking about what messages we see everyday, as forms of "propaganda." For example, we can think about what we see in advertisements and who those advertisements are targeting and why.