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4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 13

Media and Sources

Target audiences, techniques and good sources

What your child practices

Children practice naming the target audience and purpose of a message, spotting techniques like close-ups and “hurry” words, telling facts from opinions, searching with keywords and judging whether a source is reliable.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Writing 1; Reading 11 · searching, judging sources and reading the purpose of media messages

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Ask who a message is for (the audience) and why it was made (the purpose).
  2. Ads use tricks like close-ups and “hurry” words to make you act fast.
  3. Check that a source is reliable and up to date, and compare it with another source.

Example: An ad says “Hurry! Only three left!” What technique is this? “Hurry” and “only three” push you to act now. It makes you feel you must act fast. Answer: making you feel you must act fast

Media and Sources in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 11 of 13 in 4th grade English Language Arts, after Grammar Gears and before Spelling Rules.

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: Maine Department of Education

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

    Why might a news website and a store website describe the same new bike differently?

    • they have different purposes
    • they are the same website
    • bikes change every day
    • one is always lying

  2. Question 2

    Why should you write the title and author of the sources you use?

    • because it looks nice
    • to give credit and let others check
    • to show off
    • to make the report longer

  3. Question 3

    A video game ad shows only the best graphics. What could it be leaving out?

    • the name of the game
    • that it is a game
    • how long the game takes to load
    • the pictures

  4. Question 4

    An ad says “Hurry! Only three left!” What technique is this?

    • giving expert advice
    • showing a fair comparison
    • making you feel you must act fast
    • telling a funny story

  5. Question 5

    Which sentence from a review is an opinion?

    • The book came out last year.
    • The main character is named Zoe.
    • The book has 120 pages.
    • This book is the funniest one ever.

  6. Question 6

    A photo in an ad has been edited to make a toy look bigger. Why is this a problem?

    • it saves money
    • it can trick buyers
    • it makes the toy safer
    • it is a fact

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