Instruct your students to find three political ads on the Internet the night before the lesson, so that they understand what a political ad is. Instruct them to go to Google, Bing or a similar search engine to seek out these political ads individually. Tell them to write the links down and bring them to class.
Show the class four to five political ads in a row. Ask the class to interpret them, and lead them in a discussion by asking them what the main idea of each ad is and what the commercial director is attempting to get them to believe. If any students have differing opinions, ask them why, and discuss which opinions are stronger.
Hand out the video equipment. As a homework assignment, instruct the students to work in groups of four and shoot their own political ad over the next week. Assign them to the groups, so that there is no confusion about who works with whom. Let them know that it does not have to be fancy but needs to convey the point they are trying to make.
Prepare a storyboard for one of the commercials you have already taught. A storyboard should be a large visual representation of the main ideas of the commercial you chose. Show it to the class after they show their commercials to the class. Allow the students to vote on which student-made video they would like to storyboard as a class.
Allow the students to work together to storyboard their chosen commercial the next day. Then discuss why they chose what they did for the storyboard. All of these activities should give them the tools they need to understand political ads at their level.