8th Grade IML
What do we learn?
Companies and BrandsThe first week of IML we learn all about companies and brands. Students get to look at the connection between major corporations as well as how and why they create their slogans and logos. One of the exciting ways we practice slogans is by video calling the IML class at Stratford to play a slogan recognition game (we call it Stump The Stallions). This is always a big hit with the students and it helps us practice video calling etiquette for our big presentation at the end of the rotation.
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Persuasive Advertising TechniquesAfter we learn about companies and brands, we learn all about how the media tries to persuade you to buy products from those companies. There are certain techniques they use in advertising and I teach my students how to identify those techniques and why they are so persuasive! We explore this by analyzing magazine ads as well as commercials.
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Product MarketingThe last several weeks of the IML rotation we spend on our "Shark Tank" projects. I put students into groups, which then become a company. Each company is responsible for coming up with a new product and a marketing campaign for it. This lets us tie everything we have been learning in IML together in a really fun, innovative way! It's always really awesome to see the creative products and commercials that the students come up with! We finish out the last few days of the rotation by video calling Stratford again and presenting our products to them. They then get to "invest" money in their favorites and we have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. We also do the same for them! It is similar to the Shark Tank TV show, hence the name for the project :)
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What are students graded on?
CreativityCreativity is exactly what it sounds like! I grade students on how well they use creative thinking in their work. We want students to be able to use their own thoughts and ideas to create something that is all their own. By exploring their creative side, students build their knowledge base while also expressing themselves.
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CollaborationCollaboration is much more than just "cooperation." I strive to teach my students true collaboration, not just how to work side by side with peers. True collaboration is about the sharing of ideas as well as splitting up the work load. My IML students are graded on how well they can collaborate with their peers, so we do a lot of group projects. I grade each student individually on how well they contributed to the success of the group.
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Critical Thinking & CommunicationCritical thinking and communication are the two standards that are linked together in the online grade book. In IML, I help build students' critical thinking skills by giving them the chance to problem solve independently as well as with peers. The communication part of this standard is not about how they work with others, but how they communicate information or a message to other people. It's similar to speaking and listening grades that they receive in other classes, but with a technology twist to it.
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These learning standards come from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). To read more about them, click the button below to be taken to the ISTE website.