1. Music works (10 week PSA production)
Brainstorming initial PSA ideas; reviewing project requirements ;
planning out individual PSA concepts
Week 1
Overview/Purpose:
Students have started to define the elements of a PSA, identifying what PSAs must and might include.
This lesson provides them with a structure to plan out a concept to share with their team.
Specifically, students will be provided with clear expectations and requirements for their PSAs. They‟ll also
be given time to share their initial ideas with one another. As members of collaborative campaign teams,
each student will be asked to individually develop and contribute their own concepts for a PSA, where they
will plan out what viewers will see and hear throughout their PSA.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What makes a PSA compelling?
How can we develop a concept plan to create a compelling PSA?
Time Requirement:
60
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Create a concept plan for their group‟s PSA
Student Skills:
 Create new and worthwhile ideas
 Elaborate, refine, and evaluate their own ideas

2. Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing are incorporated into this lesson, as
follows:
Production and Distribution of Writing
1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.
2. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new
approach.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening are incorporated into
this lesson, as follows:
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse
partners, building on others‟ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Materials:
PSA Task sheet.
Lesson Design:
 Distribute and review PSA task sheet.
 In groups, students brainstorm initial ideas for persuasive techniques to use in their PSA.
 Regroup the class, and explain that sharing ideas is essential for crafting a powerful PSA. As
individual members of a group, it will be the responsibility of every student to generate ideas and
share these with others.
 Explain that students will each be creating an individual concept plan for their group‟s PSA. Since
their ideas are still in the „initial concept phase‟, they should by now have a sense of how the PSA
will work as a whole, but they may not have answers to every question. For example, they might
know they want to include music, but not know what song. Or they might know they need a
powerful statistic, but not know which one to use.
 Share with students an example “concept plan” for a PSA. The concept plan envisions what the
viewer will see and hear throughout the PSA.
 Point out that while this example plan is clear, there are still some questions unanswered. The
point is to plan out ideas as clearly as possible, even if some questions remain.
 Students work independently, developing and planning out their own concept for a PSA, creating a
t-chart modeled after the example plan provided.
 Students should be prepared to share their concept plan with their group the following day.

3. Note: A possible challenge presents itself when students create concepts that require acting. You may
want to put some parameters around this, perhaps allowing students to take on roles that are realistic for
them.
Sharing PSA concepts and developing a group concept
Week 2
Overview/Purpose:
Students collaborate to develop one PSA concept for the group to pursue.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What makes a PSA compelling?
How can we create a concept for a compelling PSA?
Time Requirement:
60 minutes
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Pitch their individual concept plan to their group
 Come to a consensus on one concept plan for the group PSA
Student Skills:
 Communicate new ideas effectively
 Collaboration
 Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives

4. Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing:
Production and Distribution of Writing
1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.
2. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new
approach.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening are incorporated into
this lesson, as follows:
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse
partners, building on others‟ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Lesson Design:
 Post the following quote and ask students to write a 3-5 minute response to it. “The strength of the team is
each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson
 Have students turn and talk with a partner about their responses.
 Explain to students that they have exercised their strengths as individuals by developing a concept for a
PSA. Today, they will exercise their strength as a team by coming together, sharing ideas, and
collaborating on the PSA concept they will pursue.
 Groups convene and each member shares his/her concept plan. As they share ideas and collaborate on a
group concept, groups should consider the following:
1. Are there connections that can be made between the concepts offered by various individuals of the
group?
2. Are any of the concepts unique?
3. Is it realistic to film each of the concepts?
4. Are the concepts going to have a lasting impact – will they be memorable?
5. What grabs us/inspires us the most?
 By the end of class, groups should have reached consensus on or developed a group concept and be
prepared to work on a storyboard tomorrow.

5. Writing and developing storyboards
Week 3 - 4
Overview/Purpose:
A storyboard is a graphic organizer used by filmmakers to plan how their film will look and sound, shot by
shot. In this lesson, students learn how to plan out their PSA using a storyboard.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What is a storyboard?
How does a storyboard help plan for a PSA?
Time Requirement:
120 minutes
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Collaborate on creating an original storyboard for their PSA
Student Skills:
 Communicate new ideas effectively
 Collaboration
 Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives
Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing:
Production and Distribution of Writing
1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.
2. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new
approach.

6. College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening:
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse
partners, building on others‟ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Materials:
Copies of blank storyboards
Lesson Design:
 Model for students how to complete a storyboard.
 In groups, students work on completing a storyboard for their PSA.
Students will turn in a completed storyboard at the end of the day. Teacher will collect storyboards and
provide feedback, approving storyboards that are now ready for production.

7. Preproduction: preparing for filming
Week 5
Overview/Purpose:
Students are introduced to the work of pre-production to ensure that they are prepared to film their PSAs.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What is preproduction and why is it important?
What do we need to accomplish in this part of the PSA process?
Time Requirement:
60 minutes
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Collaborate to develop a plan for filming
Student Skills:
 Creative thinking
 Problem solving
 Group discussion and decision making
Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening:
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse
partners, building on others‟ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

8. Materials:
Preproduction Planning handout
Lesson Design:
 Distribute and review the Preproduction Planning handout.
 Groups whose storyboards have been approved by the teacher begin preproduction planning, using the
handout as a guide and checklist.
 Groups who need to revise their storyboards confer with the teacher and work on revision first.
 Students should assign within their groups any appropriate work needed for preproduction. (For example,
bringing in a prop or making a sign.)

9. Production: Filming
Week 6 - 7
Overview/Purpose:
In this lesson about production, students are given filming tips and taught the basics of uploading footage.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What happens during production?
How can we prepare for an effective production?
Time Requirement: At least two class periods (2 hours)
You can structure filming in various ways depending on the access you and your students have to video
recording equipment.
If you have limited access, you might assign groups a filming date and time during which all filming must
take place. You may also limit their filming to a designated room or “studio” where you set up a neutral
background.
If cameras are readily available, you might set up a day or days to film, where groups have access to their
own camera.
Lastly, if students have access to cameras outside of school, you will need to decide if you will permit
outside filming or not. If you do, make sure students check that they can successfully film and upload
footage to school computers during preproduction.
How you decide to film will determine how many days it will take.
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Put ideas into place
 Collaborate on filming for their PSA

10. Student Skills:
 Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts
Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening:
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations, and collaborations with diverse
partners, building on others‟ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually,
quantitatively, and orally.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
1. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance
understanding of presentations.
2. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Materials:
Production Tips handout
Technology Required:
Computers with video editing software
Video cameras
Boom Microphone with recording device. (depending on camera)
Lesson Design:
 Distribute and review Production Tips handout.
 Consider modeling for students how you would put some of the production tips into place.
 If necessary, model for students how to upload footage onto computers.
 Groups work on filming and uploading footage.

11. Post-production basics: preparing for video editing
Week 8
Overview/Purpose:
In this lesson, students are introduced to the first parts of post-production and video editing – viewing,
naming, selecting and trimming clips.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What role does post-production have in creating our PSAs?
How can we use video editing tools to refine the message of our PSAs?
Time Requirement:
60 minutes
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Rename, organize, select, and trim clips for use in their PSAs
Student Skills:
 Collaborating and decision making
 Comparing and contrasting
 Organizing information
Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing:
Production and Distribution of Writing
1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.

12. 2. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new
approach.
3. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with
others.
Materials:
Welcome to Post-production handout
Technology Required:
Computers with video editing software
Lesson Design:
 Distribute and review Welcome to Post-production handout.
 Demonstrate how to rename and organize raw footage.
 Demonstrate how to trim clips and move selected clips into a timeline/project.
 Students work on renaming, organizing, selecting clips, and trimming using the handout to guide their work.

13. Video editing 101:
Adding text, transitions, effects, voiceovers and music
Week 9 -10
Overview/Purpose:
In this lesson, students learn how to use text, transitions, effects, voiceovers and music to their films for
desired impact.
Lesson Grade Level:
5-12
Guiding Questions:
What role does post-production have in creating our PSAs?
How can we use video editing tools to craft effective PSAs?
Time Requirement:
90 -120 minutes
Depending on how sophisticated your students‟ use of video editing already is and the time you have
available, you can break this lesson up in a number of ways. You may go over all the tips in one class or
break them up as you see fit.
Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
 Edit their PSAs for maximum effect using video editing tools
 Record using studio recording equipment with supervision.
Student Skills:
 Collaboration and decision making
 Application of the writing process

14. Common Core State Standards:
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing:
Production and Distribution of Writing
1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.
2. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new
approach.
3. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with
others.
Materials:
Video Editing 101 handout
Technology Required:
Computers with video-editing software
Basic audio recording equipment
Lesson Design:
 Distribute and review Video Editing 101 handout with students, stopping to model each editing technique.
 Record any voice over dialog they may need for their PSA.
 Students use the remaining time to edit their PSAs.
 As they prepare to finish their PSAs, students view their projects, making any final changes.