Media Literacy for the 21st Century Learner

What is Media Literacy?

Literacy refers to the ability to read, write and comprehend while Media Literacy specifically is understanding the language behind not just words, but also images, sounds, and graphics. ^[1] As students in the 21^st century continue to evolve, so should the way we communicate information.

Why teach Media Literacy?

Pedagogy requires teachers to use a variety of techniques to teach, making it imperative that students are literate in this strand of language arts. Being literate in this strand of language arts means they are able to deconstruct and understand the message that is being conveyed both overtly and covertly through media. Student’s acquired competency in this area allows them to then construct and display their own ideas using various forms of media.

 Credit: retrived from flickr (2009) https://goo.gl/tRjSfW [2]

Advertisements may be used to teach
 how to decipher meaning behind the image      

An example of media literacy used in classrooms is teaching the language of advertisements and what makes them so effective. Once students generate an understanding on what makes a good advertisement, they are assigned to create a product and make an advertisement for their brand. I speak from personal experience when my partner and I had to create a product in grade 12 and make a sales pitch to the entire class. We created a spa theme basket which included essential oils, a set of instructions of how to use the oils and a CD. The CD also had its own label and cover designed by us with music burnt onto the CD. Since this was a grade 12 project, assigning it to my grade 6 students is probably not age appropriate. If I used it for my junior/intermediate classes, I would have to modify the assessment according to the Ontario curriculum requirements for the appropriate grade levels.

Ontario Curriculum Requirements: Grade 6

I chose to explore grade 6 as I will be interacting with students in this age group at my placement. By the end of the students at this grade level should:

• ·         Have the ability to comprehend a variety of media forms
• ·         Be able to extract meaning and context
• ·         Have the ablity to translate the meaning into their own creations
• ·         Reflecting, identifying and strategizing ways to creating an understanding of the language of media

Within the overall set expectations there are various other specific expectations that are explored without having to cover all of them, such as: ^[3]

• ·         What is the purpose and who is the audience
• ·         Organizing thoughts and ideas
• ·         Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation

The project mentioned above would tackle the overall, and would take into consideration specific expectations such as why was the product created and who is buying the product.

Digital Citizenship:

Just as in the real world citizenship comes with boundaries and rules, there are rights and responsibilities students MUST be made aware of at the beginning of the year, making them “digitally literate”.^[2]  Edutopia is a highly effective blogging website where educators and individuals of varying expertise gather and share their experiences, thoughts and ideas. I personally think the layout is easy to follow and navigate and there is an abundance of information in many subject areas, including tackling the concept of digital citizenship. Although Edutopia is an American website, there is a lot of relevant information for me to explore and incorporate into my lesson plans.

Here are a few helpful links I have explored:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf

http://www.edutopia.org/

http://www.edutopia.org/article/digital-citizenship-resources#graph4

http://www.edutopia.org/global-education-canada-media-literacy

http://www.readwritethink.org/

Citation:

[1]Ministry Of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8, Language [revised]. Ontario.

[2]Flickr. (2009) Retrived from Flickr: https://goo.gl/tRjSfW
[3]Hertz, M. B. (2012, December 3). Digital Native vs Digital Citizen? Examining a Dangerous Stereotype. Retrieved from Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-native-digitial-citizen-stereotype-mary-beth-hertz