This lesson plan is designed around an interesting video that tells the amazing story of the Keep Calm poster and mainly promotes listening and speaking practice at Upper-intermediate and Advanced levels.
1.- Show students this slideshow of propaganda posters and ask them about the kind of poster, their message and purpose, i.e. what the poster encouraged, whether it was positive or negative persuasion and who they were addressed to. We have from office propaganda posters in a soviet union-fashion layout and other preventive health campaigns, Obama’s memorable electoral campaign posters, to II World War Propaganda Posters (including the original Uncle Sam poster used to recruit soldiers during both World War I and II, the We Can Do it and the Keep Calm wartime propaganda posters)
2.- Focus their attention on this last nowadays-ubiquitous poster that has become a notable meme –the same as the other two- and ask them to tell you where they have seen it, which versions of the posters they have enjoyed most and whether they know about the origin and the secret story behind the poster
3.- Tell them we are going to watch the video below about the story of these Keep Calm posters while they try to answer the following comprehension questions
1.- Show students this slideshow of propaganda posters and ask them about the kind of poster, their message and purpose, i.e. what the poster encouraged, whether it was positive or negative persuasion and who they were addressed to. We have from office propaganda posters in a soviet union-fashion layout and other preventive health campaigns, Obama’s memorable electoral campaign posters, to II World War Propaganda Posters (including the original Uncle Sam poster used to recruit soldiers during both World War I and II, the We Can Do it and the Keep Calm wartime propaganda posters)
2.- Focus their attention on this last nowadays-ubiquitous poster that has become a notable meme –the same as the other two- and ask them to tell you where they have seen it, which versions of the posters they have enjoyed most and whether they know about the origin and the secret story behind the poster
3.- Tell them we are going to watch the video below about the story of these Keep Calm posters while they try to answer the following comprehension questions
4.- As the popularity of the poster in various media has grown, innumerable parodies, imitations and co-optations have also appeared with messages that range from the cute to the overtly political, typically with references to other aspects of popular culture turning it into an iconic image of the 21st century. Here are some other versions that may work as inspirational examples
5.- Let them now use Poster generator apps both for IOS and Android or any of these merchandising websites offering poster generators and personalized products (Keepcalm-o-matic, Keepcalmstudio and Keepcalmandcarryon) for personalizing their own Keep Calm posters to remind class rules or just for fun.
Hope you enjoy the lesson!
E.
