Activity Lesson students show their work with narrative writing

1. Persuasive Writing/Commercial
Project
By CallieJo Schilling

2. Summary: The students will learn to
create a narrative project (commercial)
creating their own juice drink and then
creating a persuasive commercial to
sell the product. Then students will
practice the commercial, record the
commercial and upload it on the
computer which will then be
presented to the class.

3. Primary Core Objectives:
5.W.1.1 Students can compose narrative, and descriptive text of
one paragraph.
5.W.1.2 Students can express ideas; reflect on personal
thoughts, opinions, and observations; and respond to literature
through writing.
5.W.2.1 Students can punctuate and capitalize text including
dialogue.
1.a. Create original works as a means of personal
or group expression
2.a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers,
experts, or others employing a variety of digital
environments and media
2.d. Contribute to project teams to produce original
works or solve problems

4. Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to write a narrative
text expressing their ideas and personal
thoughts. Students will be able to
punctuate and capitalize text including
dialogue. Students will be able to then
perform and record their narrative text (as
a commercial) to persuade people to buy
their juice drink that will be presented to
the class.

5. What will students complete at
the end of the project?
Students will turn in word
document of their narrative writing
plus a video copy of their
commercial to be presented to the
class.

6. Why/how is the project
authentic?
Students become creators and a
worker at an advertising agency.
They have to create a commercial
and record it to be presented to
the class and parents trying to
persuade them to drink the drink
they created.

7. Materials Needed
• Materials Used by the • Materials Used by the
Teacher: Students:
• Computer/promethean • Video camera
board • Paper/pencil
• Grading rubric • Computer to type narrative
text in Word Document
• Juice drinks students can
use to make their own drink
• Note cards
• Cups
• Spoons

8. Technology Used
Technologies Used by the Technologies Used by the
Teacher: Students:
• Computer • Computer
• Promethean board • Word Document
• www.wallwisher.com • Video Camera
• www.wallwisher.com

9. How will students be grouped?
Students will work in groups of 4. I will create the
groups by placing four students together who have
opposite strengths and weaknesses so they will counter
balance each other. For example, I will place a student
who is confident talking in front of the class with a
student who is not confident talking in front of the
class. This will allow the student s to help each other
and become more confident in their projects. I will
place a student who is more technology knowledgeable
with a student who is not technology knowledgeable so
they have an equal chance to be more confident in
their projects.

10. Instructional Procedures:
This is a lesson that will be taught when the students
are reading the book “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”
by Judy Blume. After the students have read chapters 1
and 2 I would begin my process of teaching this lesson.
Then using the promethean board, we would begin
talking about how Peter’s dad works at an advertising
agency. One of his clients, Mr. Yarby, it the president of
the Juicy-O company. Working with a team of four
people develop your own special juice drink.
Experiment with different juices until you have created
a great-tasting drink! When you are satisfied that even
Peter will love the taste, devise a name for your new
drink.

11. Then split the students into groups of four. Explain and
display the rest of the rules on the promethean board
for all the students to see. First determine team roles
(gopher, recorder, pourer, mixer). As a team create at
least four different drinks. The recorder needs to write
down the ingredients and proportions of each on the
note card. Team member will then sample each drink
and determine which is the best tasting, and which one
will be their “Official Team Drink.” Write down the
name of your new drink on the index card.

12. Then bring the groups back together as a large group. Explain
that at the advertising agency where Peter’s dad works, he
helps to create TV and radio commercials for different
products. A commercial is designed to get people to buy a
certain item instead of buying another company’s item.
Commercials use persuasion to get their point across.
Persuasion means to influence people in a way so they will
believe what you are telling them. Some methods that
commercials use are (Display on promethean board):
Bandwagon: “Everybody is drinking Juicy-O!” or “Don’t get left
out!”
Celebrity Status: “Even the President of the United States
drinks Juicy-O!”
“Don’t be a Fool!”: “I used to be a nerd, but now I’m totally
cool – thanks to Juicy-O!”
Factoids: “Statistics show that 9 out of 10 parents prefer Juicy-
O over other juices.”

13. Your team needs to create a commercial for your drink.
Work together in creating a persuasive advertisement
that will make the audience want to buy your drink
more than any other beverage! You can utilize one of
the strategies listed above or a combination of these
and your own ideas. Compose a “jingle” for your drink.
Take the tune to a well-known or popular song, and
change words to tell your drink! Make a poster or do a
dance. Be serious, be silly, be outrageous, be
sophisticated – but above all, be persuasive.

14. You must create a written example of what will all be
said and done during the commercial. This must be a
typed word document that you will turn in at the end
when you present your commercial to the class. You
will be given class time to work on this project. The
commercials will be videotaped and the class and your
parents will view the commercials during our class
Viewing Day.

15. The students will be given one half hour session to create
their drinks, taste them and decide on the best one to be their
official team drink, and create a name for their drink. The
students will be given four to five half hour sessions to create
their commercials, writing the narratives down on a piece of
scratch paper and then type their narrative. The students will
need to decide on their props and whatever else they will
need to create their commercial.
Groups will take turns videotaping their commercials, this will
take approximately one to two 45 minute sessions depending
on how many groups you have (you may need to be more
flexible). While other groups are taping, students should be
practicing their commercials and creating invitations for their
parents to come to the Viewing Day.
Last, hold the Viewing Day for all the parents to come watch
the commercials. This will be the first time the students will
see each other’s commercials.

16. Assessment Plan:
The assessment will be using a rubric, students’
questionnaires, and teachers own observations during
the entire project. The students will be assessed
independently using teacher’s observations and
students’ questionnaires. The students will be assessed
as a group using the rubric on their presentation and
project. These grades will be put together for one
overall grade for each student.

17. Group Questionnaire
Rate your partner from 1 to 10 on his/her involvement in the
project. (1 being the least and 10 being the most)
Amount of work completed on project __________
Assisted with creation of project __________
Assisted with creation of presentation ______________
Effort put forward on this project ______________
Rate your group members in order of who put the most effort
into the project and who put in the least amount of effort into
the project. 4 being the most effort and 1 being the least
effort
Name: __________
Name: __________
Name: __________
Name: __________

18. Narrative project Grading Rubric
Rough Draft of Narrative Essay turned in (5 points for each source) ____________
Narrative writing Final Draft is free of Grammar Errors (10 points) ___________
Narrative writing Final Draft students punctuate and capitalize text including dialogue
correctly (10 points) ___________
Students used one authentic way of creating a commercial-bandwagon, celebrity
status, factoids, “Don’t be a Fool”, jingle (5 points) ___________
Students have a list of the ingredients and name of their drink on note card (5 points)
___________
Videotape commercial follows script writing (10 points) ___________
All group members participate in the commercial (2 points) ___________
Total (47 points) ___________