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IB Curriculum: Part 2, Language & Mass Communication
White Noise: The Dissemination & Pervasiveness of Media In Our Lives
Texts:
White Noise, Don Delillo
Outfoxed, Robert Greenwald
Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore
Hitler Propaganda videos
Article on post-modernism
Different forms of mass media: newspaper, radio news, tv news, twitter
Support:
Slate audio bookclub podcast on White Noise
IB Learning targets:
Examine different forms of communication within the media
Show an awareness of the potential for educational, political, or ideological influence of the media
Show the way mass media use language and image to inform, persuade, or entertain.
Essential Questions:
How does mode affect the message’s meaning?
How does the news media color our beliefs?
Does technology enslave us or free us?
How does news media affect the way we speak, act, and understand the world?
How much power do media institutions wield?
How can we understand White Noise through a post-modernist lens?
Concepts:
Evolution of news media and mass communication
Dissemination of messages through multiple modes of media
Pervasiveness of news media in our lives
Media institutions coloring our beliefs
The regulation of information versus increased access to information due to advancements in technology
The invisibility and power of media institutions
Post-modernism
Vocabulary Words:
public opinion: the collection of opinions and beliefs held by the population of a nation.
media literacy: understanding how language in the media is used as a tool to shape public opinion; the skill of analyzing various texts in relation to the media mode in which they are published.
manufactured consent: a term coined by the political scientist and linguist Noam Chomsky. It describes the phenomenon that a small ruling elite can shape public opinion in their favor by controlling the media.
bias: the skewed presentation of a story from a particular ideological position.
sensationalism: refers to a style of writing that is exaggerated, emotive or controversial.
hook: something that is supposed to grab your attention and move your ideas in a particular direction. if you understand the hook, you are less likely to be manipulated by the message.
post-modernism: a broad term applied to art, literature, philosophy, history, and numerous other disciplines. It refers to a historical period, beginning roughly around the end of the World War II and continuing until today, as well as a particular set of concerns, sensibilities, and forms. Generally speaking, postmodern literature is fascinated by the trappings of contemporary bourgeois culture.
Vocabulary from White Noise:
1. expatriates
2. menacing
3. ultramodern
4. ominous
Further Oral Preparation Activities - Teacher Led:
Using images as text (analyzing wartime poster)
Visual, audio, & text tracks (analyzing televised news story)
Following the trail of a news story: Tracing a story from its feed to its origin (Analyzing commentary and related links of a single story through its different modes of publication)
Evolution of mass media: a role play (class divided into groups, each group assigned a mode of media, students research that mode, create a list of advantages and limitations, create a character to report on his/her experiences with that mode of media).
A Comparison of Views: Titus and Jack Gladneys (Divide into groups, assign each group a character, theme, and passage. Develop a claim about the theme from the character’s point of view. Examine bias in viewpoint.)
Summative Assessments:
Structured Group Discussion
Role Play
Dramatic Presentation
Oral Presentation
Student Topic and Presentation Mode Choices:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gRBldTwvKikMJ1EZx9el_4LH3bGDtYskxIA-vMrJVFo/edit
Student Examples/Handouts/Powerpoints from Further Oral Activity- Jan. 2012:
Original Rap Video Comparing Characters' Language
Corresponding Questions for rap video
Prezi: Discussing Social Networking and Digital Media
Formative Assessments & Activities:
Full Class Reading Aloud Sessions:
Double-entry journals (focus depends on reading group activity for week.)
Summary paragraphs per chapter.
Think Alouds (For example, "when the author writes...I imagine....and this is why....)
Idea webs: themes, literary elements
Reading Group Activities:
Double Entry Journal: Review and share your double entry journal notes.
Develop evaluative and interpretive questions and respond.
Vocabulary: Words & Definitions
Significant quotes and passages
Close reading: Students receive passage from written or visual text. As a group, students practice critical analysis skills and draw conclusions about the passage.
Quotation Activities: Students receive index cards with significant quotations from an assigned text. Students need to describe the context of the quotation, the speaker, and connect the quotation to a central theme from the text.
Blog Posts:
Reply to Author: Write a response to the author about a passage.
Responding to interpretive and evaluative questions related to text
Further Oral Preparation Activities
Quotation Activities
Writing Warm-up Topics:
-Editing exclamatory sentences that use “question words”
-Editing run on sentences
-Using transition words and phrases
-Punctuation, quotations, and citations
-MLA formatting
-Pronoun consistency, use of "you"
Shared Inquiry- Student Led:
5 focus questions: 2 Evaluative & 3 Interpretive
Prepare Justification, Clarification, & Elaboration Questions
Discussion Format Options:
Large Group
Five small groups: Each member of the discussion group is assigned a different focus question. Reading groups are assigned to one discussion leader. At the end of the discussion, we return to full class and discussion leaders report back on the conversation themes.
Two small groups: Discussion leaders divide into two groups and class divides in half. Each group discusses the same questions. At the end of the discussion, we return to full class and discussion leaders report back on the conversation themes.
Instructor Approved Small Group Discussion Alternative: If your group has an idea for leading discussions, talk it over with your teacher! I would definitely consider it!
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