Media Literacy
link to recommended texts;
streaming videos
see also recommended periodicals, videos listed below
Background and articles for basic introduction and understanding
newly added links in red



In 2003, 2005 and 2006, I conducted "Best Practices" workshops for K-12 teachers on behalf of the
SC State Department of Education. As a starting point (for those who wish to begin implementing
media literacy into the English/Language Arts classroom) I recommend this web page, where
I've posted background, links to lesson plans and more. I  also welcome inquiries regarding my
professional development workshops for schools/districts/conferences.  Frank Baker





Media Literacy Definitions (see link below for more quotes)

 Available curricula online:

Ofcom is pleased to announce the publication of ‘Switch On!’, a learning resource designed to support education for media literacy, and aimed particularly at professionals teaching or caring for people with learning disabilities.

Teacher's Library For Media Literacy: This page is a resource for teachers to use in teaching media literacy. Featured here is curriculum from Boston teachers, teaching aids, and internet resources for further exploration.
Media Studies (Saskatchewan)  In this course, you will develop the knowledge, skills, and disposition necessary to understand and use mass media as informed and active students. You will discover the nature of mass media, the messages contained in mass media, the techniques used by them, and the impact of these media.

A Guide to Effective Instruction:
Media Literacy

The Ontario Ministry of Education has published a number of documents under the title Guides to Effective Instruction. Released in 2008, Volume 7 of the Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction (Gr 4-6) covers media literacy. It contains 8 detailed lessons for making and analysing a variety of media texts including PSA's, creating and reading a website, etc. You can download the whole document here.

Project SMARTart

The following activities were created by teachers and align to California state curriculum standards for ELD, VPA, ELA. Teachers were asked to come up with arts activities and integrate them with the Five Key Questions of Media Literacy and the state standards. Teachers came up with these activities very easily, demonstrating that the teachers had successfully internalized how to integrate media literacy and the arts into the state standards.

Project Look Sharp is a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College to provide materials, training and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all education levels. Link to its curriculum.

Finally, Assignment: Media Literacy, the comprehensive three-volume curriculum created by Renee Hobbs is available online.  This is the 18-unit curriculum developed for Maryland State Department of Education and Discovery Communications, Inc.  You can download the PDF files with lesson plans and reproducibles for each unit and use the videos to teach media literacy in conjunction with social studies, language arts and health education

Media Handbook

IFCs Media Project: Never before has so much media been available to so many people, on so many different platforms. And yet despite how much information we have access to, more and more of it is controlled by fewer and fewer corporations. That means it's our responsibility to make sure we understand how we consume, produce and share media - be it email, our favorite show or a Facebook page. After all, educated people are the backbone of a healthy democracy.

With this in mind, we've put together this handbook with three goals in mind. First, we want to introduce you to some of the key terms used in media. Second, we're giving you media literacy links and information so that you can be as informed as possible. Don't take our word for anything! See what others are saying about media literacy. And finally we've highlighted a few key milestones in media history that have brought us to where we are now. We hope this information is useful and we hope that you enjoy it.

Section One: Terms    Section Two: Resources     Section Three: Milestones  

Literacy for the 21st Century: An Overview & Orientation Guide to Media Literacy Education (Center for Media Literacy)

1st Edition: Construction
2nd Edition: Construction & Deconstruction

Think Literacy: Cross Curricular
Approaches, 7-12

An excellent backgrounder on the Core Concepts and Critical Thinking Questions; in addition guidance on teaching graphical texts, visual texts and advertisements.

Common Sense in the Classroom:
 A Media Literacy Guide

This toolkit includes six media literacy lesson plans designed for students in grades 4 through 8. The guide combines media literacy concepts with activities that encourage students to ask questions and think about the influence of media in their lives.

Mind over Media: Middle School
Media Literacy Lessons

This website examines media messages, fake pictures in the media, and how the media create or influence gender stereotypes.


UNESCO Media Education A kit for Teachers, Students, Parents and Professionals
 

A comprehensive 190 page UNESCO publication with excellent introduction to the all the elements and arguments of contemporary media literacy and media education. The document comprises; a proposal for a modular curriculum, a handbook for teachers, a handbook for students, a handbook for parents, a handbook for ethical relations with professionals and an internet literacy handbook.

Global Media Literacy:
a Curriculum as well as a Way of Life

This Global Media Literacy course is designed to help students and faculty appreciate distinctive international media models and agendas. The course focuses predominately on those media that transmit news and breaking information and uses cross-cultural and cross-regional analysis to assess, analyze and evaluate the stories the media tell.

Citizen Journalism Media Literacy
Study Guide: Learning to Evaluate
Media Consumption and Critical Thought
in Students


Using this curriculum, students will develop an understanding of a variety of media texts. They will learn to identify media forms as well as conventions and techniques used to create meaning in different media forms. Students will have opportunity to reflect on and identify their strengths as consumers and creators of media.

 

Media Moments
(media literacy & news curriculum)


In Media Moments you’ll find out about television news. Just as there are architects who draw blueprints and construction workers who create buildings, there are people who put the news together. A news program is carefully structured. All the people and things that go into the mix affect the final product.

 

University of Texas Health Science Center
at San Antonio

Analyzing Media Unit - Sequence of Five Activities  Topic: Media  Evaluation This sequence of activities is designed to develop media evaluation skills so that students can critically evaluate advertising about health-related topics such as sleep aids, diet, exercise, and prescription and over-the-counter medications.

Topic: Stereotype and Bias    This review has been designed to examine attitudes and sterotypes about aging. In the review, the word “older” or “old ” refers to one who is physically, verbally, and or occupationally described as elderly. “Character” refers to any story member who speaks one or more words or who clearly participates in the storyline, even if he/she does not speak.


 Recommended DVD/videos:
      Writing About Media
(Media Education Foundation, 2008)
     
      Media Literacy Toolbox
(New Mexico ML Project, 2008)

     
Understanding Media Literacy: Asking MORE Questions (Carmelina Films, 2008)

      Media Smart  Strategies for Analyzing Media
(McDougal Littel, 2007)

      Understanding Media Literacy
(2007)  Films Media Group

     Media Literacy For Teens (2007)
     produced in short segments--all designed to introduce the critical thinking questions
     to the high school audience ( "I like this one." Frank Baker)

     Teaching Media Literacy: Asking Questions (2006)
    
      Research Skills: Media Literacy
     (23 minutes) Grades 7-12
     Producer: Schlessinger Media  Distributor: LibraryVideo.com 

     Media Literacy: The Audience 
      Media Literacy: Creating Media   
      Media Literacy: Ethics
     (all of the above produced by First Light Video Publishing)

     Discovering Language Arts:    Beginning Media Literacy (3rd-5th) ISBN: 1-59527-792-7
     
Producer: Discovery Education   Intermediate Media Literacy (6th-8th) ISBN: 1-59527-694-7
                                                           
Analyzing Media Influences (9th-12th) ISBN: 1-59527-804-4

     
Assignment Media Literacy
      Elementary      Middle     High


      Scanning Television 2    
"I know of no other product as good as Scanning Television....
     Rich, relevant content, packaged in a way that makes it easy for classroom teachers
     to integrate into instruction. Two thumbs up...way up!"  (Frank Baker's original testimonial)

    
Media Literacy: TV- What You Don't See (In The Mix series)

      The New Normal: Get the News?
(In The Mix series)

      Tuning Into Media: Literacy For the Information Age

      Know TV
promotes analysis of non-fiction TV by students in grades 6-12

 

      Recommended texts; textbooks
      Recommended journals/periodicals: 
see also SAGE's Communications & Media Studies titles
     (related recommendations for K-12 here)
                JAAL cover 
      

 
Publication Cover
 
Cover of Media Magazine 18, featuring an image from 'This is England'


     

     

    


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