Super Bowl & Writing!

Yes, an unlikely yet fun partnership. As one of the country's largest social/cultural spectacles - let alone a championship football game - it always provides many things to talk/think/write about during the following days.

We are embracing this spirit in Language Arts, and doing a 2-part digital writing exercise of 'favorite' Super Bowl commercials. Part 1 will be this week, featuring students' favorites up through 2011, and next week will will focus on this year's commercials.

So what's the angle? Social commentary, and how much advertising influences our choices. The kids are very excited about the prospect - shocker - and my hope is while we continue to develop our writing skills - developing topic sentences, establishing main ideas, providing supporting details, reflecting on cause-effect relationship - students will also develop a keener eye for media and advertising.

Of course, I had to eliminate 1/3 to 1/2 of potential Super Bowl commercials by saying "no beer commercials," but I know they will still have plenty of good things to choose from. What can I say? After all, this is a school-related assignment, and we need to keep things appropriate. Here's one from last year that the students have laughed at as we've done some research:



What's a favorite of yours from over the years?