Activities

1. Identify the use of propaganda techniques in a visual nonfiction text and a written nonfiction text.
   
   
2. Summarize an author’s implicit or explicit bias in a visual or written nonfiction text.
   
   
3. Explain what conclusion a visual piece of propaganda (poster, commercial, video, speech) is supposed to lead a viewer to.
   
   
4. Interpret how an author frames information in a visual or written nonfiction text in order to present a biased viewpoint.
   
   
5. Evaluate how well a visual or written nonfiction text uses common propaganda techniques. Identify and analyze what makes the text so effective in influencing the reader.
   
   
6. Formulate a conclusion about why people believe and fall for propaganda techniques in nonfiction writing.

Answer Key/Rubric

1. Students correctly identify the use of common propaganda techniques (ad hominem, appeals to authority, red herring, false dichotomy, appeals to fear, scapegoating and straw man) in both visual and written nonfiction texts. Students recognize when information and ideas are being misrepresented.
   
   
2. Students identify and summarize an author’s bias in either visual (poster, commercial, speech) or written (speech, article, essay). Students recognize both implicit and explicit bias in nonfiction.
   
   
3. Students interpret the use of propaganda in nonfiction and explain what message the audience is supposed to receive. Students do not need to critique propaganda at this point, but merely summarize the conclusion of the text itself.
   
   
4. Students look for the specific ways in which an author frames, explains and interprets information in order to bias the audience towards his or her opinion. Students recognize how prejudice can influence interpretation and can see this underpinning in biased nonfiction texts.
   
   
5. Students recognize and evaluate what makes propaganda so effective in both visual and written texts. Students analyze the role of the audience as being merely receivers of propaganda texts, as opposed to readers (readers construct meaning, receivers follow the author’s message). Students begin to question aspects of human nature that make people prone to believing propaganda.
   
   
6. Students formulate a hypothesis and draw a conclusion about the aspects of human nature and human experience that make us receptive to propaganda techniques—even when we can recognize their use in nonfiction texts.

Suggested Rubric:  This rubric may be used to assess a student’s overall mastery of the standard or eligible content.