This lesson plan is one that should be quite enjoyable for your students. Why would they enjoy this lesson plan? Because they have developing personalities that are screaming to express themselves. This lesson plan not only offers students a chance to voice their opinion, but requires them to be creative in how they try to convince their peers that they have the right opinion!
Discuss the various forms of propaganda with your students. Make sure that your students have a thorough knowledge of propaganda and its various forms. Request that students list on a piece of paper 3 general topics that they hold strong opinions about. When you have all the topics in hand, condense the list into an amount that will be manageable if your class was divided into groups of four. For example, if you have 28 students and 15 topics, condense the list into 7 different topics that seem the most popular. If 16 of the students listed that dress codes were important to them and only 2 listed that cheese was important to them, use the dress code topic.
List all the categories on the board. Have students express their opinions on the topic through votes. For example, if one of the topics is dress code, have students vote on whether or not they believe in the dress code. Do this for each topic. Write the results of each vote.
Have students break into groups of four. Each group will focus on a different topic. Now divide those groups into groups of two. Each topic should now have two groups of students. Instruct each group to come up with propaganda that conveys their opinion, but each topic should have opposing opinions. Using the dress code topic as an example, there should now be 2 groups of students. One should be in favor of the dress code. One should be against the dress code. Give students about a week to develop their propaganda. Encourage variety. Students can use any form of propaganda except for debating. There should be no interaction when the propaganda is presented. In this way the propaganda can stand on its own.
Have students present their propaganda at the end of the week. Once the propaganda is presented, ask the class again to vote on their opinions of the topics at hand. Compare the previous votes to the current votes. Discuss any differences in amounts. Discuss the effect of the students' propaganda on their current opinions.
