Promote a Place

Overview

Students examine how travel advertisements persuade an audience, then design a one-page advertisement promoting a chosen country. They will make informed, respectful choices about representation, research and verify facts, and apply persuasive language and visual features.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify how travel advertisements use language, images and design to influence an audience.
• WALT select and verify accurate information about a country.
• WALT use persuasive techniques for a clear purpose and audience.
• WALT create and review an advertisement that represents a country respectfully and accurately.

Success criteria

• I can identify the audience, purpose and persuasive techniques in an advertisement.
• I can include at least three accurate, verified facts about my chosen country.
• I can use emotive language, a rhetorical question, an imperative, a slogan and a clear call to action.
• I can represent people, places and cultures respectfully, avoiding stereotypes and exaggerated claims.

Curriculum links

• Narrative and wider English learning: making meaning from increasingly complex texts and creating purposeful texts for an audience.
• Working with texts: exploring New Zealand, Pacific and international texts and responding to different places, cultures and worldviews.
• English capabilities: communicating clearly, selecting evidence, thinking critically about representation, and creating and presenting texts.
• Te Mātaiaho principles: manaakitanga, inclusion, cultural capability, and responsible participation in local and global communities.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Hook: notice and wonder. Teacher displays two contrasting travel-ad examples in the hook comparison slides and asks, “What makes you want to visit—and whose viewpoint is missing?” Students silently notice words, images and design choices, then share one effective feature and one question about accuracy or representation.

2. 7–17 min · Explicit teaching: how persuasion works. Teacher uses the persuasive techniques slides to model audience, purpose, emotive language, rhetorical questions, imperatives, facts/statistics, slogans, imagery and call to action. Students annotate a sample advertisement on the advertisement analysis and planning sheet, labelling at least four techniques and explaining their intended effect.

3. 17–24 min · Respectful representation and research planning. Teacher explains that a country is not one single experience: avoid clichés, token images and claims such as “everyone here…”; use specific, balanced information and acknowledge living cultures respectfully. Model checking a fact against two reliable sources, including the source name in planning notes. Students choose a country, audience and purpose, then complete the fact-check prompts on the advertisement analysis and planning sheet: three accurate facts, where each fact was found, what makes the source trustworthy, and one respectful image or idea.

4. 24–42 min · Design task: draft the advertisement. Teacher gives the success criteria and reminds students that they may work individually or with one partner. Students create a one-page print or digital advertisement using the advertisement analysis and planning sheet as a plan. Their advertisement must include a country name, target audience, slogan, three verified facts, emotive language, a rhetorical question, an imperative, suitable imagery, and a clear call to action such as “Plan your journey today.” Students select images carefully and avoid presenting cultural practices as costumes, curiosities or entertainment.

5. 42–52 min · Peer feedback and revision. Teacher models kind, specific feedback: “The strongest persuasive choice is…”, “A reader may need…”, and “Check this fact or image because…”. Students exchange drafts with another individual or pair and use the checklist on the advertisement analysis and planning sheet to give two strengths and one actionable suggestion. Creators clarify feedback, correct unsupported claims, and make at least one revision.

6. 52–60 min · Share, exit ticket and next steps. Teacher invites three students or pairs to share one persuasive choice and one research decision, then displays the reflection and next-steps slide. Students complete an exit ticket on the worksheet: “My most effective technique is… because…”, “One fact or image I still need to verify is…”, and “My next step is…”. Collect drafts and exit responses to plan the next session.

Resources

• the Journey Across the Globe advertisement deck
• the advertisement analysis and planning sheet
• Projector or interactive display
• Devices with supervised access to reliable reference sources
• Printed paper, coloured pencils, rulers and glue
• Copyright-appropriate images or student-created illustrations
• Timer and peer-feedback checklist

Assessment

• During the hook and explicit teaching, listen for students correctly identifying audience, purpose and persuasive techniques; address misconceptions immediately.
• Check planning sheets for three facts, source-checking notes, and respectful representation before students begin designing.
• Use peer feedback and the exit ticket to assess technique, accuracy, ethical choices and next steps. In the following lesson, conference with students whose facts, sources or representations need further checking.

Differentiation

• Provide a preselected set of accessible, reliable sources, a country choice bank, model sentences and a word bank for students needing literacy or EAL support. Allow speech-to-text, oral planning or teacher scribing where appropriate.
• Chunk the worksheet into one section at a time; pair students strategically and offer a partially completed model advertisement for students who need a stronger scaffold.
• Invite students to use bilingual dictionaries, translated key terms and visual examples. Explicitly teach unfamiliar words such as audience, purpose, verify, stereotype and representation.
• Extend confident students by asking them to target two distinct audiences, compare competing viewpoints, include a carefully contextualised statistic, or explain how design choices influence different readers.