Lesson Overview
Rockwell Marketing
GRADES 4-6 ELA AND ART
Engage students in a discussion about what makes something persuasive. Provide students with a variety of media (print, audio (radio) or video commercial) and ask them to work in teams to find commonalities (language/tone/color/font/use of space). Create a working list through a Glogster board.
Provide students with a selection of Norman Rockwell print covers from The Saturday Evening Post, Life, and The Literary Digest. Explore the commonalities among these images. Add this to the Glogster board and add lines to observations that connect with their previous activity. Discuss these purpose of these critical links for both the author/artist and the reader/audience.
Lesson Process:
Step 1: Ask each student team to choose one Norman Rockwell print and examine it closely for one Art Element of their choice. Students will use this element to determine the artist’s purpose and how the element was being used persuasively. Students will then use this information to write a 1-page article that will persuade an audience to act based on the image chosen. IE: In the Post Cover “Missing Tooth” students could write a persuasive article about the advantages of visiting the dentist. Students must use at least two items they identified in their Glogster board for persuasive writing.
Time Required:
30-45 minutes
Materials List:
- Computer, Internet, Glogster website
- projector and screen
- blank paper, markers
- A basic design program (if doing the artwork digitally)
- Selection of Norman Rockwell work
- Background information for the teacher: Norman Rockwell Marketing Article
Assessment:
Writing through Art.
Students can choose a product or event they would like to advertise.
As a student design/advertising team, they can create a print ad using their new knowledge from this lesson, as well as write and share a 60 second marketing pitch for their idea. The class will be the marketing test group.
Students will be graded on a rubric for persuasiveness and use of the elements of art, as well as scores from their peers.
