Thinking about Ways of Including & Promoting Media Literacy
Frank Baker, media literacy consultant

Happy New Year! A new year means thinking about changing old ways and making plans to implement new things. Perhaps 2007 will be your year to do more with “media literacy?”

School Library Media Specialists: Critical in Implementing Media Literacy
In November, Cable in the Classroom released the results of a major survey of school attitudes about media literacy. “Media Literacy: A Vital and Underserved Need in Schools” contains some important information as well as cable resources for you, your teachers, students and parents. You can find the entire report here:  
http://i.ciconline.org/docs/CICmedialitreport11-2006.pdf

Revised ELA Standards include Media
The State Department of Education released the revised ELA standards in January. School library media specialists should be aware of
Guiding Principle #8:  An effective English language arts curriculum provides for literacy in all forms of media.
As a member of the ELA curriculum revision team, I was able to provide input and suggestions into how teachers can and should include “media” in their teaching. I also emphasized the important role the school library media specialist plays in helping teachers get “up to speed” in media literacy. One suggestion for SLMS: consider acquiring both student and teacher texts for your collections. If you need some recommendations, please check out my website:

http://www.frankwbaker.com/resource.htm

SDE “Best Practice” Workshop Followup
In December, I conducted two day-long educational workshops in Columbia for the State Department of Education. I was pleased to see many school library media specialists in the audience. As a result of these workshops, I have posted all of my handouts and other resources on a special web page: http://www.frankwbaker.com/2006_ml_best_practice.htm

Get Ready for Super Bowl 2007
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Sunday February 4 (CBS) is the date.
Leading up to the game, the news media will be filled with stories about who is purchasing ad time. (Last year, 30-second spots went for as much as $2.5 million). This is a perfect time to help teachers learn how to integrate TV commercials into the classroom. These spots
are perfect for study of their unique “techniques of persuasion.” I have created a special web page with readings and more. Take a look and
consider recommending it to a teacher or student:
http://www.frankwbaker.com/super_bowl.htm

Introduce Film Literacy and don’t forget the Oscars
Mark your calendar for Sunday night February 25 (ABC) when the annual Oscar telecast occurs. Everyone has their favorite film from 2006 and millions of people will be watching to see who wins and who loses. As you already know, film is a very popular medium for young people. Many new initiatives are designed to help teachers (and students) better appreciate the language of film and how to better teach film in the classroom.  Want to know more?  Check out an essay I co-authored last Fall in “Middle Ground” magazine and reprinted in the recent Journal of Media Literacy:
http://www.frankwbaker.com/JMLFilm.pdf

or see the resources on my Film resource website:
http://www.frankwbaker.com/motion_pictures.htm

SC Book Festival: Coming February 23-25

If you plan to attend the SC Book Festival, I hope to see you there.

I have been invited to talk about media literacy and the new Capstone Press series aimed at students in grades 3-5. Details about the series can be found here:
http://www.frankwbaker.com/capstone_media_literacy.htm