Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills Frank Baker media educator fbaker1346@aol.com Media Literacy Clearinghouse www.frankwbaker.com March 12, 2007

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills With the advent and popularity of YouTube, Current TV, and similar venues, young people have become media producers. DIY (do it yourself)

Multitasking “digital natives”

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills “Our students are growing up in a world saturated with media messages…yet, they (and their teachers) receive little or no training in the skills of analyzing or re-evaluating these messages, many of which make use of language, moving images, music, sound effects.” Source: R.Hobbs, Journal Adult & Adolescent Literacy, February 2004

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills "With an ever-increasing range of media messages in so many forms, students need to understand the process by which authors convey meaning about socially constructed experience. The use of digital media and popular cultural texts not only stimulates young people's engagement, motivation, and interest in learning, but enables them to build a richer, more nuanced understanding of how texts of all kinds work within a culture." Source: “Reading The Media,” R.Hobbs

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills "Today's students need to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and effective communicators who are proficient in both core subjects and new 21st century skills. I urge educators, business and community leaders and policymakers to work together to create a 21st century skills initiative for every school district in America. We owe our school children nothing less."

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills “Students will be able to use technology tools (e.g. multimedia authoring, presentation, Web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.”

“It would be a breach of our duties as Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills “It would be a breach of our duties as teachers for us to ignore the rhetorical power of visual forms of media in combination with text and sound..the critical media literacy we need to teach must include evaluation of these media, lest our students fail to see, understand, and learn to harness the persuasive power of visual media.” NTCE Resolution on Visual Literacy

Alan November author: Empowering Students With Technology Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills “We are faced with the consequences of not teaching our children to decode the content. The persuasiveness of the Internet will lead to more and more students potentially being manipulated by the media” Alan November author: Empowering Students With Technology

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills Recommendation: Becoming smarter about new sources of information. “In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what's coming at them and distinguish between what‘s reliable and what isn't.” Dec. 10, 2006 December 10, 2006

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills "In school, we spend 13 years on reading and writing. That's great, but how many years do we spend on media literacy? It's virtually zero. It seems like a missed Dr. David Thornburg, Senior fellow of the Congressional Institute for the Future opportunity."

What is “media literacy?” Take a few minutes to draft a definition. Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills What is “media literacy?” Take a few minutes to draft a definition. Consider its relevance in your curriculum area.

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills "Media literacy is concerned with helping students develop an informed and critical understanding of the nature of mass media, the techniques used by them, and the impact of these techniques. More specifically, it is education that aims to increase the students' understanding and enjoyment of how the media work, how they produce meaning, how they are organized, and how they construct reality.  Media literacy also aims to provide students with the ability to create media products. " Media Literacy Resource Guide, Ministry of Education Ontario

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills “A growing body of research suggests that media literacy instruction improves student reading, viewing, and listening comprehension of print, audio, and videotexts; message analysis and interpretation; and writing skills. As students progress, they develop transferable analytical tools for learning and gain concrete connections between the curriculum and their experiences outside of school.” Media Matters, Access Learning, March 2005

Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills “Movies, advertisements, and all other visual media are tools teachers need to use and media we must master if we are to maintain our credibility in the coming years.” Jim Burke, from The English Teacher’s Companion video

Six Key Areas of Media literacy education 1. Who made this text and why? (Agency) 2. What sort of text is this? (Category) 3. How was this text produced? (Technology) 4. How do I make sense of this text? (Language) 5. Who is the intended audience of this text? (Audience) 6. What does this text say about its subject? (Representation)

Five core concepts (U.S.) All media are constructed Media are languages with their own set of rules Media convey values and points of view Different people experience the same media messages differently Media are concerned with power/profit Source: Center for Media Literacy

All media are constructions media construct/represent reality

Media use their own languages The Language of IM BRB Be Right Back PIR Parents In Room LOL Laughing out Loud The Language of Film Cameras Lights Audio (sound, music) Editing Set Design Costume Actors’ expressions Makeup

Cell phone language ROAMING (is this about deer and buffalo?) SMART PHONES (are there dumb phones?) DROPPED CALLS (is everybody dropping their telephones?)

Media: values and points-of-view

Audience negotiate meaning

Media= Power + Profit

The Big 6 News Corp (FOX) GE (NBC/Universal) CBS Disney (ABC) AOL/Time Warner (CNN) VIACOM

Purpose of TV? This program is brought to you by the sponsor.

Purpose of TV? You are brought to the sponsor by the program.

Revised ELA Standards Guiding Principle 8 Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills Revised ELA Standards Guiding Principle 8 An effective English language arts curriculum provides for literacy in all forms of media.

different viewpoints/treatment of a given situation or event Engaging Students With Critical Thinking & Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills Current ELA: Communication: Viewing Grades 9-12 Demonstrate the ability to make connections between nonprint sources and his/her prior knowledge, other sources and the world. Compare/contrast: different viewpoints/treatment of a given situation or event

Media literacy ideas for ELA Non-print texts (TV, film, music) Understanding bias & stereotypes Analyzing techniques of persuasion (for example– in advertising) The language of TV/film (camera work, lighting, music) Visual literacy (photography) Blogging; graphic novels

Media literacy: Social Studies Analyzing editorial cartoons Examining historical photographs Studying past/present propaganda Understanding bias/stereotypes History of American broadcasting Understanding US communications policy Analyzing political advertising

Editorial Cartoon

Media literacy: Health Ed Body Image Marketing/advertising of food Tobacco, alcohol advertising How media influences sex behaviors

Media literacy-critical inquiry Who created/produced the message? What was the producer’s purpose? For whose eyeballs is this intended? What techniques are used both to: a) attract attention b) increase believability Who or what might be omitted and why? Where can I go to verify the message?

Approaching media literacy Still images (visual literacy) Messages which incorporate images (e.g. advertising) Moving images (languages of TV, film)

Visual literacy Applying the critical thinking/viewing questions to historical and other images

Images in Advertising Who created it? For what purpose? For which audience? Using what techniques? What lifestyle is promoted? Where (what publication) might you find this; why? How does it make you feel? How might I change the message?

Moving images: TV & Film The languages of TV & film include: CAMERA LIGHTS SOUND EDITING SET DESIGN

Moving images: TV TV Commercial: Cell Phones (audio and video) Everyone listens (with their eyes closed) At the conclusion, open your eyes and write down everything you HEARD Script

Moving images: TV Critical analysis & deconstruction VISA commercial Critical analysis & deconstruction Setting; Time of day Role of music Facial expressions as customer meets cashier Implied message intended by VISA

Process of film making Would your students know the process of film making? Script or screenplay Storyboard Production Post production

Heidi Hayes Jacob Ed Consultant Film in the classroom "If video is how we are communicating and persuading in this new century, why aren't more students writing screenplays as part of their schoolwork?" Heidi Hayes Jacob Ed Consultant

Martin Scorsese Film director Film in the classroom “Movies are a door to knowledge — knowledge of society, knowledge of history, knowledge of art…..movies (taught to) students (makes them) think critically about film and it provides them with a deeper understanding of this uniquely influential art form.” Martin Scorsese Film director

Moving images: film Docu-drama Novel Adaptation Opening techniques Opening

Activity TKAM screenplay excerpt Read the opening to Because of Winn-Dixie In your group, storyboard this scene from your POV

Student media production Animaction: Anti tobacco PSA messages One camera video production: Vermont

Workshops Invite Frank Baker to be a part of your next professional development opportunity. fbaker1346@aol.com (803) 254-8987 Media Literacy Clearinghouse www.frankwbaker.com