Sixth Graders Study Political Advertising as part of JPDS-NC Election Project
September 29, 2016 by
Sixth graders at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital have a special opportunity this year – we are the oldest children in the school and it’s an election year. We are in charge of coordinating a “voter’s guide” for students throughout the school, and even get to listen to guest speakers about the election. One such guest speaker was Mr. Kelner, who came to visit sixth grade on September 23. We learned about political ads on TV and how they evolved from 1952 to 2016. We watched some of the TV advertisements around elections over the years and learned how it came to be that no presidential candidate would ever win if he or she was not advertised on television. Sixth graders had an excellent time learning about influential decision makers and the strategies behind political advertising from Mr. Kelner, and we thank him for coming in to talk to us! We also went to the Newseum to learn about news, elections, and political advertisements. We participated in a workshop called “Press and the Presidency” and discussed how presidential candidates appear to the public in the news and in ads. Then we designed our own political issue ads using different photos and symbols. Some of the themes in our ads were equality, diversity, the right to vote, and how everyone should have a voice.