Make-a-Movie Lesson Plan: Produce a Public Service Announcement (PSA)

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, K-3

This lesson plan, adaptable for grades K-12, invites students to explore BrainPOP resources to learn about a health or safety topic and to present their findings in the form of a public service announcement using BrainPOP’s Make-a-Movie tool.

The lesson may be used with a range of topics in units including Diseases, Injuries, & Conditions; Nutrition; Personal Health; Psychology & Behavior, and more. After exploring the topic, students produce a BrainPOP-style public service announcement (PSA) using Make-a-Movie and plan their PSA using Make-a-Map.

 

 

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:

  1. Share what they know about the BrainPOP topic.
  2. Explore the resources related to that topic, including the movie, quiz, Challenge (if available), etc.
  3. Use Make-a-Map to plan their PSA.
  4. Produce a PSA about the featured topic.
  5. Present the PSA to peers.

Materials:

  • Internet access for BrainPOP
  • Interactive whiteboard

Preparation:

  • Preview the movie and features to plan for any adaptations.
  • Preview the suggested pause point discussion questions accessible on the the topic Lesson Idea Page.
  • Determine which of the topic’s features you plan on having students explore (e.g. Challenge, Creative Coding, Primary Source, etc.)
  • Use the Assignment Builder to assign features to students.

Lesson Procedure:

  1. Invite all students to take the topic’s Quiz (in Review mode) to assess what they know about the topic.
  2. Prompt a class discussion inviting students to share what they know about the topic, including what they may have learned from the Quiz.
  3. Show the movie on the whiteboard or other display to the whole class. Turn on the closed caption option to aid in comprehension.
  4. Pause as needed to discuss the movie.
  5. Watch the movie a second time either as a whole class, in small groups, or independently.
  6. Instruct students to open Assignments for the topic. Allow time for them to complete the assignments.
  7. Bring the class together. Ask students what they could do to raise awareness about the topic. Explain to the class that Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are messages, often in the form of TV commercials, that share a message about health or safety concerning the general public. Show some samples from teh Ad Council's PSA Central site. Discuss how making the public aware might change people’s attitudes and behavior.  
  8. Divide the class into pairs or small groups to produce a public service announcement, or PSA. Explain that are to use Make-a-Map to storyboard their PSA and then Make-a-Movie to produce it.
  9. Allow time for students to discuss what aspect of the topic they’d like to address in their PSA. For ideas, they may want to review the Quiz questions.
  10. Have pairs open Make-a-Map and select one of the storyboard templates to plan their PSA. Encourage students to use at least 3 vocabulary words when writing the text of the storyboard.
  11. Using notes from their storyboard, partners collaborate to produce a awareness campaign using Make-a-Movie. One student student may want to take the lead on the visual elements of the PSA, and the other the writing or they may choose to share both jobs.
  12. Students share their PSAs with the class. After everyone has presented, discuss how the PSAs were alike and different, what was most effective, and why.

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, 9-12, Addiction, Air Pollution, Alcohol, Allergies, Alzheimer's Disease, Asthma, Autism