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Lesson [5]: [Perspective Detective]
Lesson Background: Exploring and identifying perspectives in civic issues and current events
Lesson Goals & Essential Questions
T1: Transfer Goal(s):
 Recognize different perspectives exist
 Differentiate between objective information and opinion
 Identify bias in any situations to obtain truth
U1: Corresponding Meaning Goal(s)
 Understand others have a perspective
 Learn about their ability to cultivate their own perspective
 Understand the importance and impact of their perspective
Q1: Corresponding Essential Question(s)
 Who has a perspective?
 Can I have a perspective?
 Why should I have a perspective?
 What can I do with my perspective?
Lesson Rationale
The Lesson Rationale of Lesson 5 is to address the student’s Prior Knowledge. In How
Learning Works, Mayer states that student’s prior knowledge can either help or hinder
learning. Many students will have heard of bias, satire, conservative, and liberal
perspectives. In addition, many students probably watch the popular Stephen Colbert.
Therefore this lesson is to make sure that the student’s prior knowledge is not “inactive,
insufficient, inappropriate, or inaccurate” (p.14). Since the students are surrounded by
media and undoubtedly have prior knowledge, this lesson is centered around shifting that
knowledge from hindering to helpful through making it “activated, sufficient, appropriate,
and accurate”. (p. 14)
Lesson Fit
Once the students have practiced scanning the news environment for articles related to
their topics, this lesson increases student’s media literacy skills by teaching them key
concepts related to perspective in media.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will:
S1: Skill(s)
Lesson [#]: [Lesson Title]
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 Understand the difference between NEWS and OPINION
 Understand the relationship of perspective, bias, and satire
D1: Disposition(s)
 Motivated to identify perspectives in media
 Inspired differentiate between NEWS and OPINION
 Able to recognize and understand satire
Key Messages
By the end of the lesson, students will know:
K1: Students will know key terms that encourage media literacy
K2: Students will know the difference between news and opinion
K3: Students will acknowledge bias in the media
K4: Students will understand the use of satire in media
K5: Students will recognize the presence of liberal and conservative perspectives
Key Terms
TERM
DEFINITION
Perspective
News
Opinion
Bias
One’s side of a story
Current Information about what is happening in the world
What someone thinks of a situation or person
prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group
compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
Using humor to show something is foolish, weak, or bad. Using
humor to critique something, often politics
A perspective of the Republican Party
A perspective of the Democrat Party
Satire
Conservative
Liberal
Materials
• Computer with projecting capabilities
• Ten articles on a relevant topic
Teacher Preparation
Describe how the teacher should prepare for the lesson, if needed. This will help to describe
this:
• The teacher should pull up the videos prior to the lesson for convenience.
• For Map the Buzz, the teacher should find 10 articles on a certain subject that explore a
variety of perspectives.
90-Minute Lesson Breakdown
TIME
(MINS)
ACTIVITY/
STEP
EXPECTED STUDENT
RESPONSE
EXPECTED TEACHER
RESPONSE
EVALUATION
Lesson [#]: [Lesson Title]
3
5
Student
Introduction
Students introduce
themselves
Teacher facilitates
5
Lesson
Introduction
Introduce the topic
5
Perspective
Understand the
lesson is on
perspective
Learn the difference
between audience
and author
5
Brainstorm
Students
brainstorm
definition of
perspective
Teacher lists
students
responses on
board
10
Example
Students watch two
videos and discuss
differences
Teacher shows
video of “News”,
teacher shows
video of “opinion”
10
Bias
Students will hear
an example of bias
and generate other
examples of bias in
their lives
Teacher will
explain concept of
bias and ask for
any examples
students can think
of
15
Satire
What Stephen
Colbert clip
Facilitate
discussion on
Stephen Colbert
clip
10
Common
Perspectives in
Media
Watch two videos
and discuss the
differences
Show the students
the two videos and
facilitate a
discussion
Teacher could give
an example of an
author and an
audience (like this
lesson)
Were the
students and
teacher
introduced?
Was the topic
introduced?
Do the students
understand the
relationship
between
audience and
author?
Do the students
understand the
difference
between news
and opinion?
Do students
understand how
the videos
represent
examples of
news and
opinion?
Do students
understand what
bias is? Do
students
understand
intentional bias
(opinion) vs.
unintentional
bias?
Do students
understand
satire and how it
relates to
opinion?
Do the students
understand two
common
perspectives in
media:
conservative and
liberal?
Lesson [#]: [Lesson Title]
Any
Map the Buzz
Remaining
Time
4
Apply the concepts
of Perspective,
News, and Opinion
to articles
Facilitate the
discussion by
asking the
students the listed
questions
Can the students
accurately apply
the learned
concepts to
articles
Lesson [#]: [Lesson Title]
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Lesson Body
I. Lesson Introduction
 Now that you all have your articles from Research Day, we are going to explore the
concept of “perspective” in media.
 Remember when we explored the different ways news is presented? Now we are
going to explore different “sides” in the media.
II. Perspective
 For each piece of news, there is someone presenting the information and someone
(you) reading the news: the audience.
 Therefore there is an audience and an author.
III. Brainstorm
 Ask the class: What does perspective mean?
o Listen for: opinion, side, what someone thinks
 Everyone presenting the news has a perspective. However, they might hide it a little
or a lot.
 There is a difference between NEWS and OPINION. While someone presenting the
news is trying to be objective and fair, they might let their prejudice unfairly affect
what they are saying. This is bias.
 When someone is stating their perspective on something using facts it is called
OPINION.
 Both NEWS and OPINION use perspective in different ways.
IV. Example
 Here is an example of News:
o



http://www.hulu.com/watch/707148?playlist_id=2719&asset_scope=
all
Ask the class: Do you think the person presenting this let their perspective influence
what they were saying?
Here is an example of Opinion:
o
http://www.hulu.com/watch/706339#i1,p25,d1
Ask the class: Do you think the person presenting this let their perspective influence
what they were saying?
V. Bias
 When someone is trying to be objective, but lets their perspective on something
influence the story they are telling, that is called BIAS.
 For example, if you got in a fight with your sibling and were telling your parent about
the fight, but you were only telling them the bad things your sibling did, and not the
bad things you did, this would be bias. You are not telling your parents certain
information for your benefit or interest. You were not telling the whole story in an
objective way, and were therefore bias.
 Ask the class: Can you all think of other examples of bias?
Lesson [#]: [Lesson Title]
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VI. Satire
 Ask the Class: Does everyone know who Stephen Colbert is? We are going to explore
why Stephen Colbert is funny.
 Stephen Colbert is an actor, producer, and writer who hosts a show on Comedy
Central called The Colbert Report.
 We’re going to watch a clip on Ebola.


o
http://www.hulu.com/watch/705590#i1,p15,d1
Ask the class: Is this news or something else?
This is called satire.
o Even though people aren’t always using satire, people often take facts and
use them to make and share an opinion about something. Satire is used to
make something look bad, or critique it. This is what Stephen Colbert is doing,
but he is also adding humor. Stephen Colbert is showing that he thinks
something is wrong (his opinion) using actual facts and adding humor.
VII. Common Perspectives in Media
 There are common perspectives in media.
 Two main perspectives are CONSERVATIVE and LIBERAL.
 There are two main groups of people in the United States that have similar beliefs
and ideas on how the country should be run.
o Republicans and Democrats
 A lot of times these perspectives influence the news. We are going to watch two clips.
One conservative (Republican View) on Ebola and one liberal (Democrat view) on
Ebola. Keep in mind the differences and we will discuss these different perspectives.
 The issue is potential travel bans to block people from West Africa traveling to the
United States.
o Conservative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Pk4xkqvAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLBxNUh5ytQ
o Liberal
Ask the Class:
o What is different about these videos?
o What values are represented in these clips?
o How does perspective play a role in these videos?
o What perspectives are missing?
o How does bias play a role in these videos?
VIII. Map the Buzz
 We are going to take these 10 articles and “map the buzz” on the selected topic.
 This means we are going to organize what other people are saying about this topic.
 Here is a list of questions we are going to address for each article:
o Who is the author?
o What is the source?
o Is this NEWS or OPINION?
 If NEWS, is it objective or is there BIAS?
 If OPINION, what is the author’s opinion?

Lesson [#]: [Lesson Title]
o
o
o
o
o
Is there satire in this piece?
What is this article saying about the issue?
Is the article covering one perspective or two perspectives?
What is my perspective on this issue?
Why is what I think important?
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