Sell It!

           Students in 5^th grade are still developing their writing skills. They are not disciplined at this point. Nay, I would say that they are in the infancy of their writing skills as they still try to open their work with “I’m going to tell you about…” Howard Gardner points out that “students are drawing on common sense, common experiences, or common technology and examples. If no single discipline is being applied, then clearly interdisciplinary thinking cannot be at work.”(p55, 2008) This media–infused presentation draws their attention to not just persuasive writing that is around them, but other elements that are working together to send one message. The message they need to send is, “You Want to Buy This!” This presentation gives them “a taste- a “threshold experience” …. of what it is like to think in a disciplined manner.” (Gardner, 2008, p. 58)The students are being given a taste of what it is like to market their idea to others. The whole learning experience that this presentation is just part of includes building a model, writing to persuade, and then putting it together in a brochure, is modeling synthesize that goes on in a business to bring an idea to buyers.

To be successful persuasive readers and writers, students need to see persuasive efforts around them. The Prezi has two images that are the focus of the presentation. The presentation moves around the images to focus on different parts. Throughout this, there is text to explain what elements they should focus on in different parts, short movies that go into deeper depths about elements, and voiceovers to draw attention to elements that they might miss otherwise. These devices that highlight elements of brochures are examples of how disciplined thinkers look at the parts.  For example, white space is very important. It is even present every day in a student’s life as the margin of a paper. But, do they think about this white space as it relates to aiding a reader’s ability to understand what is there? My experience is that they do not respect this area. They would rather fill it with doddles. The video shows how a lack of white space makes you feel.

Making a brochure not only needs the students to write persuasively, but they also need to be able to match images to the feeling or image they want buys to have. This is a complex thought that involves art and understanding others. Follow this link to look at how highly paid marketers can miss the mark some times. My students will need to think as a scientist, a writer, a company, and a consumer. In discussing this with other teachers, they are surprised that even though we are surrounded by this type of selling constantly, students do not naturally have good examples pop into their minds. This presentation will draw their attention to the details, so they can be more successful in their selling attempts. The brochure and goal of selling to pretend buyers at the mini convention will give them “a motivating goal” to focus their synthesis. (Gardner, 2008, p. 58)

Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future (Pbk. ed.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Grieser, S. (n.d.). 15 Legendary Marketing Fails. Unbounce Latest Posts RSS. Retrieved July 9, 2014, from http://unbounce.com/funny/legendary-marketing-fails/