High school social studies teachers are always struggling to "cover the content" while addressing an ever-expanding set of additional demands. The Common Core expects literacy instruction to be incorporated into social studies. NCSS's new C3 Framework emphasizes teaching students to ask questions, evaluate sources, and communicate…

Social studies teachers are tasked with aiding their students' abilities to engage in public debate and make politically sound decisions. One way the authors have found to help facilitate this is to draw connections between content knowledge and current political conversations through the use of clips from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." While…

Media literacy is a topic that is being addressed globally as greater numbers of people become aware of the need to teach audience members how they are influenced by the media. Here, two of its broad categories - captive and voluntary - are identified. Examples of media literacy programs in Canada and Australia are also presented to illustrate the…

By the time children reach middle school, they already have a well-established relationship with the media. Ignoring the significance of media in the lives of adolescents creates a gap between their in-school and out-of-school worlds. Middle school curricula needs to be relevant to students. Therefore, educators should make time to address the…

Literacy has traditionally been associated with the printed word. But today, print literacy is not enough. Children and youth need to learn to "read" and interpret visual images as well. Film, television, videos, DVDs, computer games, and the Internet all hold a prominent and pervasive place in one's culture. Its presence in people's lives is only…

American (and English language) television has gradually become a more influential factor in the way people are learning English overseas, as access to cable programming has widely spread across cities, regardless of socio-cultural backgrounds. What students watch on TV affects not only how they are learning the language, but also their cultural…

Outlines classroom techniques for analyzing historical films and documentaries. Provides student materials to develop media literacy. Suggests that role-playing might be useful in stimulating student consideration of the actual production of a documentary. Emphasizes the transfer of critical insights developed in class to other media experiences.…

Argues that teaching video production techniques in high-school English classes achieves the goals of language arts proficiency, media literacy, and student self-realization. Discusses preproduction; information search; script and storyboard; writing activities; oral communication activities; teamwork; aesthetic judgment; media literacy; affective…

Stresses that media literacy is a skill which can and must be learned in the classroom. Urges that media be placed on center stage not merely used as audio-visual aids. Lists eight statements which can serve as the basis of curricula concerned with media literacy. Suggests pedagogical approaches to the subject. (KO)

Today information about the world around people comes to them not only through words on a piece of paper, but more and more through the powerful images and sounds of their multimedia culture. This explosion in information has presented a major challenge to the world of formal education. The transformation of their culture from an industrial age to…

The mass media teach whether or not mediamakers intend to or realize it, and users learn from the media whether or not they try or are even aware of it. This means all of the media, including newspapers, magazines, movies, television, radio, and the new cyberspace media serve as informal yet omnipresent nonschool textbooks. This raises an…

If media literacy is to become part of the K-12 school experience, enabling transformation in both curriculum and teaching, then teachers need to become literate first. Teachers cannot teach what they have not learned, and learned to value, themselves. Although more American teachers are becoming knowledgeable about media literacy, much remains to…

Media literacy education is being explored by scholars in many different fields (including education, literature, media studies, psychology, and public health), but there is less evidence of implementations occurring in K-12 settings. With more than 1.3 million teachers in U.S. public schools, it is impossible to estimate the extent to which the…

This chapter will explore the "shadow curriculum" (a term used by those who question the assumption that direct selling to students who are compelled to attend school is questionable on several levels--ethical, moral, and democratic) and its connection to media literacy. The author first summarizes the kinds of marketing in schools that…

Media literacy educators from the United States regularly pay homage to their colleagues in Canada. Canadians have talked about, thought about, taught about, and written about media literacy for many years. Canada first hosted a World Conference in media literacy in Guelph, Ontario, in 1990, and all provinces in Canada now include media literacy…