Public Service Announcements

Students in a St. Paul middle school learned about the principles of effective communication and persuasion in both English and Spanish Immersion Language Arts classes. They made commercials in Spanish about their experiences at an environmental learning center. They also made commercials in English class using persuasive speech techniques. We discussed the guiding question, "What are the characteristics of an effective public service announcement?" We analyzed many PSAs as well. Students explored areas of community need in the Latino community. After all this background work, students brainstormed topic ideas and worked in small groups to write and produce their own PSAs. They created and edited over 30 different PSAs on a wide range of topics from where to get help for an eating disorder to the importance of reading to young children. Students have explored different venues to publicize their work via the Internet, TV, radio and print.