In a previous
post I discussed the importance of including media literacy studies as part
of the school curriculum. For educators, however, this can be a daunting task.
How can you start to include media literacy as part of your overall curriculum?
Instead of reinventing the wheel, there are many online resources that can help
educators with this task. One of these is the ‘readwritethink’ website, which was
developed to provide educators with free high quality materials that aid
instruction in reading and language arts studies.
Whilst not exclusively containing media literacy resources, a
quick search of this website reveals a
large number of lesson plans directly related to media literacy study in
the classroom. These lessons cover a range of media types, including film and
television. Each lesson plan includes comprehensive plans and resources for
support, including links to relevant literature for educators to read. Links to
standards are also provided, however, as this is not an Australian website, the
links do not directly correlate with Australian curriculum standards. Nonetheless,
it would be possible to find links to the Australian Curriculum requirements
using these as a basis.
The best thing about a website such as this is that it gives
educators a starting point for teaching media literacy. There is no requirement
to follow the lesson plans religiously. They can be easily adapted to suit your
own situation. As an example, I was looking at a lesson plan titled ‘Critical
Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising’ and as I read through it I was considering
what elements I could change to make the activity more engaging for the
students. The culminating activity could easily be changed from a written
assignment to a digital production, where students create a video that
documents the effects of advertising on their culture. This would tie in nicely
with the element of media literacy that encourages students to be producers of
media (Grace, 2005).
Overall, this website is a great place for educators who want
to introduce the concept of media literacy into their classroom but do not know
where to start.
References
Grace, D.J. (2005). Media literacy: what, why and how? Educational
Perspectives, 38(2), 5-8.
No comments:
Post a Comment