For educators · Lesson plan

The seven techniques of 1937

Grades 6–12 Duration Two 50-minute periods Standards DE, NJ, TX, CA, IL
Objectives
  1. Name the seven propaganda devices identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1937
  2. Identify each device in a historical poster and in a current advertisement
  3. Explain, for each device, what it offers the audience in place of an argument
  4. Rewrite a propaganda message as a plain claim and judge the claim on its own
Procedure

Before class

Read What is propaganda?, in particular the section on the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. Print the seven technique pages (Name Calling, Glittering Generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking, Bandwagon) or have them open on student devices. Choose three posters from the archive that between them show at least five of the seven; the First World War recruitment posters work well.

Period one: the seven devices (50 minutes)

  1. Hook (5 min). Show one poster without comment. Ask: what does this want you to do, and what reason does it give? Students will find that it gives none. Write "no reason" on the board; the lesson is about what fills that gap.
  2. The list (15 min). Introduce the Institute and its 1937 bulletin in two minutes: radio, dictators, a priest in Detroit, a group of teachers who wanted children to recognize what they were hearing. Present the seven devices one at a time, each with its one-line definition from the technique page and one modern example from advertising. Students write the name and a four-word version of each in their own words.
  3. Spot it (20 min). In pairs, students take the three posters and mark every device they can find, with a pin number and a one-line reading, as the archive pages do. Circulate; the common error is to find one device per poster, so push for the second and third.
  4. Share (10 min). Each pair reports one pin. Keep a tally of devices on the board. Ask which were easiest to find and which were hidden, and why.

Period two: the devices today (50 minutes)

  1. Warm-up (5 min). Quiz: show five short example texts from the technique pages' quizzes and have students name the device by show of hands.
  2. Advertising hunt (20 min). Students bring, or find on a device, one current advertisement (print, video, or social post). Each identifies the devices in it, pins and readings as before, on a worksheet.
  3. Translation (15 min). Each student rewrites the advertisement's message as a plain claim with the devices removed. "Join the millions who trust…" becomes "This product is good because…", and the student must finish the sentence from what the advertisement actually says. Discuss what is left when the devices are gone.
  4. Exit ticket (10 min). Three example texts, name the device, one sentence on what it offers in place of an argument.

Differentiation

Younger students can work with four devices (name-calling, glittering generalities, testimonial, bandwagon) and the poster activity only. Older students can be asked why the Institute's list is incomplete and what they would add; the index by era gives them the material.

Assessment

Exit ticket of three example texts, each matched to a device with a one-sentence explanation of what the device offers instead of an argument. Pin worksheet on a current advertisement with at least three devices identified and read. Optional: a paragraph rewriting one advertisement as a plain claim.