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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 13

Framing the Message

Framing, loaded words and sponsored posts

What your child practices

Children look at how headlines, graphs, camera angles, loaded words and sponsored posts shape a message, and how a reader's community and feelings affect their reaction.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.10; 7.12 · how headlines, images and word choice frame a message

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Framing is how a message is shaped: headlines, camera angles, graphs and loaded words.
  2. Sponsored posts are ads, and apps show more of what you like to keep you watching.
  3. Ask what is left out, and why some people react differently.

Example: Why might a documentary interview only people who agree with the filmmaker? Leaving out the other side makes one view look stronger. That shapes the viewer’s opinion. Answer: to make the argument seem stronger

Framing the Message in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 12 of 13 in 7th grade English Language Arts, after Research Skills and before Spelling: Prefixes and Patterns.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is framing in media?

    • printing a story twice
    • choosing what to emphasize so the audience sees a story a certain way
    • putting a picture in a frame
    • writing the date

  2. Question 2

    Which is a technique used in video to make a person seem powerful?

    • silent background
    • tiny text
    • filming from a low angle
    • blurry focus

  3. Question 3

    What is sponsored content?

    • free news
    • paid content made to look like regular articles or posts
    • a dictionary
    • a school assignment

  4. Question 4

    Two headlines: “Students Raise $500” and “Students Fall Short of $1,000 Goal.” What does this show?

    • the same facts can be framed differently
    • headlines have no effect
    • one is lying
    • the numbers are wrong

  5. Question 5

    What is the goal of a political campaign ad?

    • to report sports
    • to teach grammar
    • to sell toys
    • to persuade people to vote for a candidate or idea

  6. Question 6

    Why is “Studies prove it!” a weak claim on its own?

    • it has an exclamation mark
    • it names no study, so you can't check it
    • studies are never right
    • it is too short

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