3-22-12 New Literacy Project Reflection

After completing this project I have a better understanding of what goes into teaching a new literacy and a new technology.  As far as the new literacy goes, I think just teaching it is step one.  So many of the literacies I learned about I really hadn’t heard before.  Teaching strategies to understand them and their importance has been shown through all the projects to also be very important.  For the new technology, I think this has to be done, slow and at the learners pace.  There is a lot of anxiety for some people attached to learning a new technology.  It takes time to learn the program, learn the interface, learn what tools to use, learn shortcuts.  It is a lot of information that can’t be learned on day one.  Allowing students the time to experiment, and openly play with the technology, I believe is one of the best ways to teach it.  It is often something they have no prior knowledge about so it helps to simple play.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:

I think I have a much broader idea of what literacy is.  Before, it mainly consisted of reading and writing.  With this new literacy, (mine was media literacy) I realize that it is very complex.  I think making it accessible to students is the key.  The same would apply to “traditional” book literacy, so it only makes sense then that it applies to these “new” literacies.  Media literacy is really complex.  It builds off a lot of knowledge of how the world works and how social identities interact in the world and with each other.  Just as “traditional” literacy is really complex and can’t be learned overnight, neither can media literacy.  The more you learn, the more you understand, but it is a continuous growing process.  Language Arts certainly encompasses much more than what I thought it did at the beginning of all this.  I had heard of a few of these literacies, but “math literate” or “political literate” I hadn’t so it makes me think now that there must be even more out there.

The main article I used for my project was “What is Media Literacy” by Robert Kubey.  It is a really interesting article full of great information to understand media literacy.  He talks about why it is so important for students to know because todays child is exposed to three hours of TV a day – and that is just one form of media and an average.  So students are bombarded with images that they can’t read or fully understand every day.  The article made a lot of sense to me, but I knew I couldn’t just give it to my students to read and expect them to understand it.  So I tried to think how I could make this accessible to students.  I believe that any topic can be taught or discussed as long as it is made appropriate and accessible to the student. So I took the big ideas in the article of “analyze” and “think critically” and turned them into more age appropriate ideas like “stop” “who is missing” “how did they get your attention?”

EFFECTIVE LITERACY INSTRUCTION:

Just like any other concept or idea that is taught to students scaffolding during a literacy lesson is important.  I student can’t have a strong grasp of political literacy if they aren’t informed about politics.  A student can’t have a strong grasp of media literacy if they aren’t informed about social constructions that are in the media.  After having gone through the process of learning a new literacy and a new digital literacy, I have a much better understanding of what factors can make the process successful and which can make the process frustrating.  Having a guided expert would certainly have helped.  I am at the point where I can research on my own, finding articles and learning the information.  For my younger students I will not only be teaching the content, but the process as well. 

If I was to do a similar project with my students, I would spread this out over a period of time.  Schoology lends itself to being applicable all year, so this would be something I would introduce right at the beginning of the year.  I would allow them to first set up their profile, explore the different features.  Then as time progressed add new assignments (adding a photo, posting a discussion, taking a quiz, etc.)  Doing it piece by piece helps to make it less overwhelming an focus can be placed on each part so that the student understands it better. 

For the media literacy part, this would be more of a summation assignment.  To be able to “SMAC UP” the media, the student needs some background information on other literacies like cultural, political, social, etc.  They need to know about different social identities and how they operate in the world.  Only then can they use that information to understand the images being portrayed in the media.  Maybe one way to do this would be to focus on a specific idea in the media – like the portrayal of young people, or how are women represented.  Narrowing the scope of what is a huge topic would provide clarity for the student. 

I talked earlier about how I believe anything can be discussed in a class as long as it is made accessible an appropriate for the age group.  Studying media literacy has the potential to bring up issues that might be considered taboo for a classroom, like sexuality or race.  In one of my favorite articles titled “Affirmation, Solidarity an Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Education” by Soni Nieto, in a classroom “nothing is taboo as a topic of discussion as long as it is approached with respect and in a climate of caring ” (Nieto, 1994).  By setting a respectful tone for discussion, the conversation could be very effective and show the students how that identity is represented in the media.  By looking at the media and its messages, this would teach complexity and that “there are many sides to every story and that in order to make informed decisions they need as much information as they can get ” (Nieto, 1994).  Having students learn the acronym “SMAC UP” would serve as a tool to recognize social issues and agendas set by the creators of that particular piece of media.  This shows tudents that media cannot be taken at face value, but that it reflects and prescribes social beliefs and how different socio-cultural identities, including their own, work in the systems of power. 

 LESSON PLAN:

Using www.schoology.com  to teach media literacy.  To summarize,  I created a class page where students had 6 assignments to complete which would be an extension of work done in school. 

a.       Discussion: What do you know about "Media Literacy?"

b.      Assignment: Your Turn To Teach: Media Literacy

c.       Quiz: SMAC UP

d.      Assignment: SMAC UP Your Own Piece of Media

e.      Album: Media Literacy

f.        Discussion: What do you know about "Media Literacy" now?

They would interact with each other in an online format exploring the tools that www.schoology.com  offers, and at the same time learning about media literacy.

Target Area and Rationale:

Media literacy revolves around media.  An online format allows students to easily share pictures, links, videos, etc. Using www.schoology.com  allows students to accomplish all these goals and easily communicate with me as the teacher and with one another in an open online format.  It is important for students to learn media literacy because it helps students better understand and breakdown the stereotypes they see every day in visual images.  When a student is able to do this, they become in control of the media images instead of the other way around – they control how they view the image and recognize any bias or slant. 

Objectives

Students will be able to…

   - define that media literacy is understanding the message behind examples of media (TV 

     commercial, movies, magazine covers, etc.)  (expanded definition: critically analyzing media 

     messages, evaluating sources of information for bias and credibility, raising awareness about 

     how media messages influence people’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviors and producing 

     messages using different forms of media.) 

   - write what each letter in “SMAC UP” stands for.

   - ask questions about the media using the framework of SMAC UP. (Connecting individual  SMAC 

     UP letters to pre-proposed questions)

   - apply the SMAC UP process and deconstruct media images

Materials and Supplies Needed

   - Computers

   - Internet access

   - www.schoology.com  account

Key Events

   -  www.schoology.com  has been used since the beginning of the school year.  Students are 

     familiar with the website.

   - Over the course of a week, this unit helps students learn one strategy that can be used to help 

     approach breaking down a piece of media to better understand it.

   - Before the lesson begins, student post their answer on the discussion wall to the question: Have 

     you ever heard the term "Medial Literacy?" What do you think it means?

   - In class, the lesson begins with an introduction to the term “media literacy.”  Media is explained 

     and students learn the different types of media.  The acronym of SMAC UP is also taught and 

     each letter is explained as a step/question to be answered to break down the messages in a 

     piece of media.

o   Stop - Stop and think about what you are looking at.

o   Missing - What/Who do you think is missing?

o   Attention -How do they get your attention?

o   Created -Who made it?

o   Understand it -Do you understand the message they are sending? What helps you to understand what they are saying?

o   Point of View - Who is in it and what are they like?

   - As a class, model these steps and questions and SMAC UP a piece of media.
   - Online students “get to be the teacher” and explain what they learned during the lesson to
     whoever is at home with them or at an afterschool program.  They can use the PowerPoint to
     help them explain what they learned.   They then post on the discussion board what they talked
     about with the person they taught to. 
   - In class, review SMAC UP and spend more time on each letter reviewing how to answer the
     questions that each letter poses.   - Online, take the SMAC UP quiz as an assessment of if they are able to explain what the
     acronym stands for and what the corresponding questions are.
   - In class, explain the “SMAC UP” project and that they will be choosing a piece of media to break
     down and then reconstruct.
   - Online

o   1. Select a piece of media: 

§  It can be a video game, music video, print ad, TV commercial, movie commercial, wiki, blog, virtual life (e.g. second life), movie, TV, song, product packaging, newspaper, lyrics, comedic sketches, printed text, mass media photographic exhibit (e.g. BBC photos of the week), etc.

o   2. Explain why you chose that text. 

§  Q: What is this?

§  Q: What didn’t you like about the ad?

§  Q: How did it make you feel?

§  Q: What did you learn from it?

§  Q: What does this piece say about you? 

§  Q: Do you often read this text? Do your friends? 

§  Q: Did you look at them differently prior to this class and now you are amazed by the way you read this text now after learning about Media Literacy?

o   3. SMAC UP the piece of media you chose.

(S) Stop
• Q:What is the first thing we do?
• Q: How does this help us?
(M) Missing
• Q: What is left out of the ad?
• Q: Who is left out of the ad?
• Q: What kind of message is that telling us?
(A) Attention
• Q: How did they get our attention?
• Q: What things did they get us to pay attention to it?
• Q: Why were in interested in it?
(C) Created
• Q: Who made the clip?
• Q: Does that influence our interpretation of it?
• Q: Are they trying to influence us in a certain way?
(U) Understand it
• Q: How do you understand the message?
• Q: How might others understand the message?
• Q: What was the intended message?
(P) Point of View
• Q: Who is in it or how is represented?
• Q: How are they represented?
• Q: Who can best relate to it?
• Q: What are your questions?

o   4. Make it your Own.
• Re-create this text so that you tell the media message from a new perspective. Rewrite the lyrics. Re-tell the story. Write a letter. Make the media your own.

o   5. Post your picture into the "Media Literacy" album and post a comment that summarizes your SMAC UP

   -  In class, allow for work time on their SMAC UP project and provide guidance and answer any
     questions. 
   - Online, have students view other classmates projects and comment.  
   - Online, have students re post their new answer to the beginning question: Have you ever heard
     the term "Medial Literacy?" What do you think it means?

Closing Summary

Media literacy is hard.  Being able to recognize bias in media is not a simple task.  However, using a memorable acronym and creating easy to understand questions that students can answer makes the topic appropriate and accessible to students.  Using the online format is engaging students outside of class, and getting whoever is at home or at an after school program involved for part of the assignment provide more opportunity for discussion about appropriate online behavior.

Ongoing Assessment

www.schoology.com  allows me as the teacher to continually monitor the online activity of each student and assess the work that they are posting.  I can directly comment and keep numerical/statistical data of their assignments.