Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 11

This session has 2 parts. The first is general Media Literacy.

It gives you an introduction this topic and things to use in your teaching. (1 hour including a short posting.) For the. second part, you will use what you learned in the first part to work with 2 topics--current events and advertising. (30 minutes each, plus 10 minutes posting each.)

Media Literacy

[60 minutes for this section. Watch your time and go to the posting assignment at the end of this section when you hit 45 minutes, even if you havent finished.]

Enduring Understanding for this session: Media sources influence our view of our society, our world, and ourselves. Essential Questions for this section: 1. Why is media literacy a critical set of skills that should be taught in social studies? 2. Why is it necessary to teach students to think critically about media sources and issues? 3. How might addressing media literacy help students connect social studies issues to popular culture and relevant aspects of their lives?
[10 minutes for this section] Your first stop is the Center for Media Literacy web site: Center for Media Literacy (CML) is an educational organization. CML works to help citizens, especially the young, develop critical thinking and media production skills needed to live fully in the 21st century media culture. The ultimate goal is to make wise choices possible. Go to: http://www.medialit.org/ As you look around this site, consider these key pedagogical questions related to things you imagine doing with your students: 1. Am I trying to tell the students what the message is? Or am I giving students the skills to determine what they think the message(s) might be? 2. Have I let students know that I am open to accepting their interpretations, as long as they are well substantiated, or have I conveyed the message that my interpretation is the only correct view?

3. At the end of the lesson, are students likely to be more analytical? Or more cynical? Also pay attention to the five key questions and five core concepts on this site: Five Key Questions: 1. Who created this message? 2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention? 3. How might different people understand this message differently than me? 4. What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? 5. Why is this message being sent? Five Core Concepts: 1. All media messages are constructed. 2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. 3. Different people experience the same media message differently. 4. Media have embedded values and points of view. 5. Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power. [Suggestion: you might want to print these out to have them available as you look at other sites.] Check out: http://www.medialit.org Five Key Questions That Can Change the World, and then go to: http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/rr4_lessonplan.php and look through the lesson plans for things that would be useful.

Media Consolidation You probably use the internet quite a bit to get information, news, and entertainment. How is media consolation influencing your access? To look at this question, well first be using resources from Free Press.org:
Side note: Professor Bob McChesney, is a faculty member in Communications on campus and is a co-founder of The Free Press. This organization supports

media literacy education as a framework for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating and participating with media content. For info on media consolidation, go to: http://www.freepress.net/media_issues/consolidation How is media consolidation affecting different groups and places? http://www.freepress.net/stopbigmedia/diversity-crisis http://www.freepress.net/node/35198 Of course Free Press has a point of view. How do you think media companies would respond?

Internet Access Do you understand the concept of net neutrality and how net neutrality is related to free access to the internet?
First, check out this video that supports net neutrality. You can stop in the middle unless youre interested in the grassroots work related to this perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE&NR=1 Here are some opposing viewpoints, which argue against regulation of the internet in order to promote development and innovation: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/pressroom/pressreleases/WPCOpposesNet NeutralReg.html http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/fcc-neutrality-mistake/ http://www.internetfreedomcoalition.org/ And Glenn Beck also has an opinion about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W7EWJTmTEM Thinking question: How would you help students understand these different positions? Which of these arguments do you think are supported by the major media companies? Why? What are the advantages and disadvantages of internet neutrality?

Posting: [two paragraphs15 minutes]. Pick one thing from your browsing that you think would be particularly good to use with students (describe briefly and indicate source). Think about this material in light of the 5 key questions and 5 key concepts listed above (medialit.org). Do any of these

questions help you to think about this material differently? Do you see any problems/challenges with using your chosen material with students? What else could you include to extend or further use this material? Making wise choices is part of my everyday fourth grade instruction. I love that the framework for media literacy develops critical thinking. I will definitely use many of the ideas Ive found today with my fourth graders. One, in particular, is the discussion about the owners of the media:
Media owners influence: What news and information communities receive What voices are heard or silenced Whether important issues get covered accurately or covered at all Who gets hired to report and produce the news What music and which artists get airplay How women and people of color are portrayed in the media So who owns your media? Is it someone from your community delivering your news? Or even someone who shares your issues and concerns? Probably not.

The following questions help me to think about this material differently: 4. What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? 5. Why is this message being sent?

Current Events

[30 minutes]

An important part of teaching history in social studies is connecting history to students lives and current events. If you dont listen to the news or want to expand what you know about accessing the new, this section will be useful. This section provides wide exposure to multiple media sources and ways to work with current events with students. You cant possibly check them out

in the 20 minutes allotted for this section. Just do a sampling and then the resources will be available later if you want to work with current events in your classroom.

Big Idea for this section: Informed citizens make for informed teachers. Essential Questions for this section: 1. Why is it important for citizens to be informed about local, national and global current events? 2. What are the challenges to a democratic society if citizens are not informed? 3. Why is it important to be aware of multiple perspectives on current events? 4. What skills do students need in order to become critical consumers of current events? 5. What are developmentally appropriate ways to discuss current events with younger students?
As you have already learned, 5 or 6 major corporations own the vast majority of our news and information sources. It takes know-how and extra effort to find multiple perspectives and wide coverage of local, national, and global events.

TIME: Most of the work for this topic is listening to some news and its hard to specify an exact time because you can multi-task with this, e.g., listening to a podcast while exercising or walking to class, or have a newspaper pop-up on your home page for easy, quick viewing. It should be equivalent to 20 minutes of class time. Youll need 10 minutes for posting. The GOAL is to compare at least two NEW [to you] news sources and see how they differ in presenting the news, and to learn to be more critical about what and how the news is presented to citizens. For example, the beginning news summary on Democracy Now often has news that is not often reported elsewhere. You could check the first 3 or 4 minutes of a weeks worth of broadcasts and compare to what you hear on other sites. Global sources give you news from another countrys perspective, although some of

the English language versions in foreign countries are produced and managed from the US or UK. Thinking Questions for listening/reading the news: How does each source approach the news? Is the approach more investigative (facts, information, sources, different perspectives); or is there a more accusatory, shouting, name-calling, and/or slanderous attitude? How much time do they spend with sensational human-interest stories that grab at the emotions, but dont provide substantive news? Which source has the broadest coverage, the most international coverage, the most and least sensationalizing of the news, etc.? Which source(s) have the most credibility, in your opinion? Why? Are you drawn to one source rather than another because of your own perspectives? Can you look/listen openly to sources with other perspectives? Which of these sources give you multiple perspectives? Do any of these news sources raise questions about social justice? Following are some SUGGESTED SITES that can be accessed on the web, TV, radio, and/or download podcasts. Feel free to use other resources as long as they are NEW to you: 1. Fox News www.foxnews.org for podcast, or channel 60 cable (conservative perspective) 2. Democracy Now www.democracynow.org for podcast or watch on line (progressive perspective) 3. The Conservative Voice http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ 4. BBC. written text: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ WILL radio 580am: 11:00 pm (balanced global perspective) 5. The Lehrer News Hour, at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ or seen on TV from 6-7:00 PBS local TV or 10-11:00 on WILL 580 AM radio station from 9-10:00. (balanced perspectivehave contrasting views on an

issue.) Can also podcast the weekly debate from this show between commentators, Shields (liberal) and Brooks (conservative): http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rss/podcast_sb.xml 6. SUNDAY NEWS SHOWS: Meet the Press, cable TV channel 8, 9-10:00 Sundays, or online at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608 or This Week online http://abcnews.go.com/Thisweek/ or cable channel 7, Sunday, 10-11:00 (balanced perspective) 7. The Jakarta Post (Indonesian English language newspaper) http://www.thejakartapost.com/ (European perspective) 8. Aljazeera news: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/ The original Al Jazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, including call-in shows, created controversies in Persian Gulf States. T he station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast video statements by Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders. Check out daily bulletin video in upper right corner. 9. The City Press (South African newspaper read mostly by township citizens) and general liberal newspaper, Mail and Guardian, www.mg.co.za 10. Friday evening discussion of the weeks events, PBS, Week in Review with Gwen Ifill, 7:00-7:30. (multiple perspectives and good analysis) 11. New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times (others of your choice) online. 12. Indymedia independent, worldwide set of web sites where people can post their own news, video, etc. These sites often have video, pictures, and personal stories that dont make it to regular news sources. These are left-leaning sites. The Chicago site is: www.chicago.indymedia.org.

POST: (10 minutes) List the news sources that you sampled and then choose 2 contrasting ones for this post. 1. Use the thinking questions at the beginning to help you compare your two news sources. Choose the questions that you want to use and discuss your web sites. 2. Describe your attitudes toward and goals related to including current events in your classroom? What have you learned that will help you?

PBSNewsHour Presentsmultipleglobalperspectives.Thereisanemphasisonteachingand education,whichmakesmethinkthattheirgoalistoinform,ratherthan persuade.Newsisinmultipleformats:video,articles,surveys,maps,photos.The inputofpeopleseemstobeimportant.Reportsandanalysesarepostedwiththe news,showingthattheysupportfeedbackandcriticism. ABCNews Thisentirepageisfilledwithpolitics,Americanpolitics.Thereisanemphasison male,andnomentionofeducation.ThisnewsfocusesontheeventsintheU.S. politics,whichoccurredthispastweek.Thestoriesarespecific,butclearlyshow aonesidedperspective. Ifeelitisjustasimportanttoincorporatecurrenteventsasitistousetextbook curriculum.Teachingthroughactivismrequiresstudentstobefamiliarwith what'sgoingon,enoughtotakeaninformedstance.Idon'texpectmystudents toconnecthistorytotodaywithoutbeingabletogiveadetaileddescriptionof "today."Iwanttobeabletomodelhowadultsparticipateinaglobalsociety.I wanttoshowIcareaboutwhat'shappeningnearandfar.

ADVERTISING
The focus of this section is helping students to be critical consumer of advertising. Students (actually all of us) are barraged by advertising. Mostly we pay little attention to the ways in which this advertising influences our perceptions, values, and behavior. Helping students to become critical consumers is a worthwhile curricular area in the social studies and is part of media literacy.

The following are questions you and students could have in mind as you critically analyze advertising media: Who paid for the media? Why? Who is being targeted? What text, images or sounds lead you to this conclusion? What is the text (literal meaning) of the message? What is the subtext (unstated or underlying message)? What kind of lifestyle is presented? Is it glamorized? How? What values are expressed? What tools or techniques of persuasion are used? What story is not being told? In what ways is this a healthy and/or unhealthy media message? [20 minutes] GO TO an anti-advertising campaign and watch the first part of this video: http://antiadvertisingagency.com/category/projects/light-criticism/ Heres a site to check that addresses advertising for childrens toys, it includes videos, lesson plan, and analysis sheet http://www.frankwbaker.com/toys.htm Check the first part of this critical video about the use of images of women in advertising: Killing us softly - Advertising image of women part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXDCMSlv_I Now find a couple advertisements of your own (any format: print, TV, Internet) or use a couple from the websites above. Look at the two analysis questions in the two sites below. Think critically about your ads and also think about how you might discuss these ads with your students. Questions to carefully and think critically about advertisements. http://www.litnotes.co.uk/readingads.htm How to evaluate print advertising: http://www.frankwbaker.com/deconstructing_print_ads.htm

POST: [10 minutes] Using your analysis from the activity above, respond to the questions below for your post: 1. What are the 2 most important things you learned from this session? 2. Write a short paragraph of something you could do with students at your target grade level(s) pulling from the analyses that you did. First, I learned how to apply my critical perspective of advertising to my teaching practice. It is important to teach students how to think critically about media and its influence. Second, I became more familiar with evaluating the layout aspect of an ad. For example, considering the significance of the words in relation to the photograph. Overall, I learned to look more closely and think more critically. 1. First,Ilearnedhowtoapplymycriticalperspectiveofadvertisingtomyteaching practice.Itisimportanttoteachstudentshowtothinkcriticallyaboutmediaandits influence.Second,Ibecamemorefamiliarwithevaluatingthelayoutaspectofanad. Forexample,consideringthesignificanceofthewordsinrelationtothephotograph. Overall,Ilearnedtolookmorecloselyandthinkmorecritically.Also,somethingthatI didntknowbefore:fairuseofcopyrightlawsincludesrecordingacopyofacommercial tobringintoschoolforeducationalpurposes. 2. WithmyfourthgradersIcouldpresentaseriesoftoycommercials,similartothe lessonfor3rdgrade.Icouldmodifyittoincludethetoysthatpeaktheirinterest,like cellphones.ThenIdusethequestionssuggestedonthesiteandthroughoutthis lesson: Somequestionsyoumightposewithyourstudentstogetthemstarted: howarecommercialsmade? whomakesthem? wherearetheyseen? whatdothepeoplewhomaketoycommercialshopeyou(theaudience)willdo? docommercialsalwaystellyoueverythingyouneedtoknow;ordotheyleave somethingout? Asaproject,Icouldhavethefourthgradersmakeavideoofacommercial,givena specificagenda.Wecouldhavingaviewingofthecommercialsandevaluatethem,to extracttheirmessage.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi