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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.

Alaska content standards learning standard: RI.7.6; SL.7.2 · 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 Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, 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: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

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

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

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

  2. Question 2

    A satirical news story is shared as if it were real. What can happen?

    • it is deleted automatically
    • people may believe something false
    • nothing
    • it becomes true

  3. Question 3

    A reporter interviews only people who were happy about a new law. What is missing?

    • quotations
    • the views of people who disagreed
    • a headline
    • a date

  4. Question 4

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

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

  5. Question 5

    What is framing in media?

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

  6. Question 6

    Which question best uncovers a media message's purpose?

    • Who benefits if I believe this?
    • Is it on my phone?
    • Is it long?
    • What color is the logo?

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