Emily Kash & Nicole Heinrichs

Grade: Fifth Grade

Subject: Literacy and 21st Century Skills
Project: Public Service Announcement
Big Idea: What issue is your community faced with and how will you convince community
members to become a part of the solution?
Apply to Real World: This project has students analyze issues in their community and think of
and idea on how to solve it. Students will inform and convince the community on their issues to
influence them to join their fight. Students will be able to become better citizens connecting with
their community.

Curriculum Plan
Objectives:
Students will adapt their language to appropriately match the context of their public service
announcement.
Students will use appropriate multimedia to advertise their issue.
Students will use video editing tools to produce their video.
Standards (taken from the Iowa Core):
SL.5.6
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task
and situation. (See grade 5 Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)
SL.5.5
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when
appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
21.35.TL.2
Essential Concept and/or Skill: Use interactive technologies in a collaborative group to produce
digital presentations or products in a curricular area.

Project Description
Students will be creating a public service announcement that will inform and advocate for a
solution to a problem they see in their community. Students will be able to choose an issue that
they want to inform the public about, and after researching that issue, they will come up with a
solution that the community will be able to participate in. Each group will create a public service
announcement for their issue that will be shown to the city council. The city council will then vote

on the issue/announcement that they think is the most relevant, and then the class will take an
afternoon to go out into the community to implement their solution.

Unit Plan
Step 1:
Goal 1: Students will brainstorm on problems for which they will create a solution in the form of
a public service announcement.
Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher
Role:

Student Role:

City Council
Speaker
discusses
everyday issues
in the community.

The teacher will introduce the speaker and

the speaker will talk about themselves and
what issues are found within the
community to get the students
brainstorming on different everyday issues.
This can be either in person, or over Zoom
or Skype.

Teacher will Students will

introduce
listen to the
speaker.
speaker and
take notes.

Goal 2: Each team of students will come up with a couple of goals for what they want to
accomplish in the project and assign individual roles.
Activity

Description of Activity

Teacher Role

Assign
individual
roles.

Within each team there will be: The teacher will explain the
a facilitator, secretary, monitor, purpose and responsibilities
and a runner.
of each role in the team.
She will then supervise as
each team decides on what
each persons role will be.

Students will
discuss which
team member
will take which
role.

Brainstorm
Everyday
Problems

In small groups students will

brainstorm difficulties their
communities face. The
groups will report to the class
what they brainstormed. They
will also come up with goals
that they have for the project.

Students will
brainstorm
problems they
face everyday.

The teacher will facilitate

small group discussion.

Student Role

Step 2:
Goal: Students will create a Google form to gather data from their classmates and the
outside community members.

Activity

Description of Activity

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Students will use

Google Forms to
create a survey to
gather data about
community issues.

Using Google Forms, a

survey will be sent out to
community members.
The teacher will go over
appropriate questions to
go on the survey.

Teacher will
instruct students
how to create a
Google Form and
monitor students
as they create their
form.

Students will create

good questions to be
put on the Google
Form and distribute
the form to outside
community members.

Step 3:
Goal 1: In their small groups, students will decide on the issue they will be researching and
creating a public service announcement.
Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Decide on
an issue to
advocate
for.

As small groups, the

students will review their
previous brainstorming
ideas. They will consider
pros and cons of each idea.

The teacher will be

coming around to all of
the groups to check in
and help them facilitate
the brainstorming
process.

Students will be
collaborating with
their peers. They will
be listening to their
peers ideas for their
different issues.

Watch
examples
of PSAs.

Students will watch

example of PSA
announcements to give
them ideas about what
theirs can look like. They
will discuss possible ideas
for their own group.

The teacher will be

showing the following
videos to the class, and
will be explaining how
these are examples for
what theirs could
potentially look like.

Students will watch

the videos, then
discuss with their
groups some
possible ideas for
their PSA.

Littering PSA
Smoking PSA

Step 4:
Goal 1: Students will create a storyboard and script for their PSA.
Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Create a
storyboard
and script.

Each group will be

given a storyboard
template that they must
complete. They will
also be given a script
template to make sure
each member plays a
part.

Teacher will explain what a

storyboard is and its
purpose. The teacher will
oversee the students as
they work on their
storyboard, answer
questions, and provide
insight.

Students will use the

storyboard template to
create what their video
will look like and a
script of who will say
what.

Begin
recording of
the PSA

After the group has

completed their board
and script, they will
begin the recording of
their PSA.

Teacher will provide an

overview of proper video
etiquette with the use of an
ipad. Teacher will then
oversee students as they
begin their recordings.

Students will use the

ipad to record clips for
their announcement.

Step 5:
Goal 1: Students will finish the recording for their video, and begin putting it together.
Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Finish
recording for
the PSA.

Students will finish recording

their clips, and then begin to
edit their clips using WeVideo.

Teacher will supervise

as students finish their
recordings.

Students will
finish recording
their clips.

Goal 2: Each team will have a short conference with the teacher.

Activity

Activity Description

Teacher Role

Student Role

Start
video
editing.

After the students have finished

recording, they will start their
editing in WeVideo.
While they are working in their
groups, the teacher will have
short conferences with each
team to see how they are doing.

Teacher will review

how to use WeVideo
and supervise as
students work.

Students will use

WeVideo to start
editing their
advertisement.

Step 6:
Goal 1:Students will finish editing their PSA.

Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Use
WeVideo to
Edit

Students will use WeVideo

to finish editing their video
for production.

Teacher will supervise

students as they work
on their editing.

Students will finish

editing their video for
presentation.

Step 7:
Goal 1: Community members and students will decide on a PSA that they want to implement in
the community
Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Present PSA to
involved community
members and pick
service project..

The class and community

members will watch the PSAs
and vote on the video that will
be most likely to help out the
community.

Teacher will
supervise event
and conduct the
voting.

Students will
watch each
others PSAs will
take part in the
voting.

Examples:
Mayor
City Council
Business- Owners
Principal
Civil Servant (police
officer, firefighter)
etc.

Step 8:
Goal 1: Students will implement a service project in the community based on their PSAs.
Activity:

Description of Activity:

Teacher Role:

Student Role:

Students will take part

in one of the service
projects that their
classmates and
community members
have voted on.

The class will go out into the

community to implement the service
project that they voted on. This will
give them an opportunity to see
their work being used, as well as
giving them an opportunity to have
a say in what happens in their
community.

Teacher will
organize and
participate in
service
project.

Student will
participate in
the service
project.

Assessment Plan:

Before the project:

All of the students in their technology class will have experimented and had some
experience with video editing on Google Applications. This will help them with the process of
conducting research and making the video. However, the teacher will provide a short review of
the technology before the students begin filming. This will give the teacher an idea of students
that may need extra guidance If students need more help throughout the project the teacher will
be available to help them with the video editing.
During the project:
After the students have brainstormed ideas for the Public Service Announcement, they
will create a storyboard. This storyboard will serve as a map and checklist for students to keep
track of their progress with the video. The teacher will provide verbal and written feedback for
each groups storyboard before they begin the filming and editing process.
Each Group will also participate in a conference with the teacher. The students will discuss their
progress in their project and the teacher will have a checklist for each student. Prior to the
conference the class will decide on what will be accessed. Ideas for what students will come up
with are listed below.
-Listen to Other Ideas
-Asking Questions
-Offering Solutions to peers questions
A rubric is provided below to assess students understanding: