Ads, whether they are in print, on the radio or on the TV, are a great way to bring in an informational text for analysis. The Common Core Content Standards emphasize the analysis of non-fiction primary source documents of all kinds. You can address ACTFL's 5 C's as well as the CCCS by having students analyze and interpret ads.
French McDonald's ads became a fascinating topic that students wanted to discuss with me both during and after class. This ad incorporates the theme of teenage homosexuality while promoting burgers and fries. This delicate subject matter is unheard of in American TV ads, and the fact that such a mainstream company treats it so matter-of-factly really blew my students away.
Some ideas for how you might use ads such as this one in a mini-unit for your course:
-Have students compare and contrast menu offerings in McDonald's chains in the U.S. and France.
-Have them write and present dialogues with partners about the menus in order to get them using the grammatical funtions you are teaching (imagine ordering, discussing which menu they prefer and why, what they would try if they were in France, etc.)
-Do a little pre-planning with an English or Journalism teacher in your school to teach about the role of advertising and what makes an advertisement powerful.
-View the commercial. Depending on the level fluency of your students, spend a class focusing primarily on the language or on the themes in the commercial.
-Students write a draft of an essay summarizing their thoughts.
-Organize a Socratic Seminar in order to promote analysis of the commercial and comparing and contrasting it to American commercials for the same product.
-Students revise their essays following the Socratic Seminar. Perhaps their thoughts and opinions changed when they heard others' commenting on it!
For my part, since I had a strictly one year language course for juniors, I found this kind of work to be most useful when conducted in English and used to support my goal of cross cultural understanding and comparisons while also supporting the non-fiction interpretation goals of my peers in the English and Social Studies departments. The beauty of the 21st century is that these kinds of ads are so accessible and you can get a lot of value out of one 30 second resource.
