This paper gives instructors of Introduction to American Politics a template for teaching about media bias, using the case of President Trump and his administration. I present material for a combination lecture/discussion, including (1) a framework for evaluating partisan bias in news content, (2) discussion questions that move sequentially from…

Summarization. Just when we thought we knew everything about it, the doors to divergent thinking open and summarization--no longer something that students must endure until you get to the "cool" stuff--takes on an exciting new role in student success! In this second edition of "Summarization in Any Subject," Dedra Stafford…

Course: Media Theory and Methods. Objectives: (1) To understand and apply social justice perspectives and pedagogical strategies to the study of content analysis. (2) To recognize and transform how social scientific practices in content analysis contribute to the marginalization of specific gender and sexuality portrayals on television.

The semester-long activity described herein uses an integrated instructional approach to media studies to introduce students to the research method of qualitative content analysis and help them become more critically vigilant media consumers. The goal is to increase students' media literacy by guiding them in the design of an exploratory…

Teaching students to understand the importance of audience analysis can be challenging. In fact, many public-speaking texts suggest methods for engaging audience analysis that is not always practical or possible (e.g., polling audiences before you speak to them). One practical way of understanding audience analysis is to see it at work in the text…

The activity described by the authors here is a thematic analysis of published articles in a broad area of study. Students search for articles relating to the topic of study in different academic journals that fall in a specific date range. Students record details about the topics covered and theories/methods used. The class then assembles to…

Reports on an analysis of more than 200 high school newspapers which showed that only nine papers included humor on a regular basis. Uses excerpts from those nine newspapers to illustrate how humor can be used. (FL)

Describes a technique for teaching poetry in which the poem is revealed one line at a time, with the students speculating on the content, rhyme, and meter of each successive line. (HTH)

Uses the film version of Bernard Malamud's "The Natural" to show how archetypes and irony make their appeal to a serious audience without in any way making the film less entertaining. (EL)

Suggests how college history teachers can help students understand the French aristocracy and its role in medieval society by using a twelfth century epic. "Raol de Cambrai" gives students a sense that the poem's action could have happened to real people. A content analysis of the poem's action and characters is included. (DB)

Offers suggestions for putting S. Plath's poem "Daddy" together with its context, canon, and composition to effectively introduce students to Plath's intelligence and aesthetic energy. (AEA)

Literature that deals with both sociological analyses of mass media and teaching techniques that utilize mass media products is discussed. Methods of using the mass media in college-level sociology courses are outlined, and examples of each are provided. (RM)

Refutes some of the arguments often given by students majoring in technical fields to explain why they supposedly do not need to write. Identifies the kinds of documents writers in several fields actually write and offers instructional implications for what should be stressed in technical writing courses. (HTH)

The first of two concerning children's periodicals, this column describes five such magazines that present information from various disciplines in a compelling way. (FL)

Speculates on what might be gained by using three of Robert Cormier's novels ("I Am the Cheese,""The Chocolate War," and "After the First Death") in the high school classroom. Suggests that the novels can be used not only as compelling literary works but also as a means of helping students understand what is happening…