Putting it All Together

Tips for Integrating Media Literacy (via MediaSmarts)

1. Exploit “teachable moments”

2. When students have free time, take an opportunity to listen to what they’re talking about. Most likely, it’s related to the media they watch, play and listen to! Breaking news stories, blockbuster movies, and celebrity meltdowns are all great opportunities for media analysis.

3. Give students a chance to create media, not just analyze it

4. Although there’s more to media education than just creating media, this is a key part of it: there’s no substitute for hands-on experience to help kids understand how things like editing and music can influence the way a movie or TV show affects us emotionally. Camera phones, storyboards and even magazine collages are all affordable and easy options for bringing media production into your classroom.

5. Start and end with the key concepts

6. Media education, and the media world, can feel overwhelming when you start to analyze it. By always coming back to the key concepts of media literacy you can keep from getting sidetracked as you analyze media products or cultural artifacts.

7. Recognize that kids – and adults – enjoy media

8. It’s important not to take a negative approach to media education. Teach kids that critiquing is not necessarily the same thing as criticizing and that we can identify and talk about problematic issues in the media we love without losing our enjoyment of them. Don’t forget to look at positive examples when discussing things like gender, stereotyping and so on.

9. Teach about media, not just with media

10. It’s not enough to use media in your classroom unless students are learning about media as well. Any time you’re using media in the classroom, look for a media education opportunity: for instance, if you’re showing the movie version of a play or book, have students analyze the differences between the two using the key concepts. How are the commercial considerations of a movie different from those of a book or a play? What technical differences change how the story is told? How are the expectations of a movie audience different from those of a play or a book? How are the film-makers’ values and assumptions similar to, or different from, the original author’s? How do all of these differences affect the explicit or implicit meaning?

11. Make media education about asking questions, not learning answers

12. Even though you may feel strongly about an issue or a media product, give your students room to come to their own conclusions. This is especially important when you’re dealing with issues such as stereotyping or body image, where your students (and you!) likely already have strong opinions: you need to model the practice of keeping an open mind and using a critical analysis, not your emotions, to lead you to a conclusion.

13. Fight the perception that “It doesn’t matter”

14. Students often try to avoid talking about the implications of media products by saying “it’s only a TV show” – or a video game, or a music video, or so on. Remind students that media can have meaning even if the creators didn’t plan it, and that we rely as much on the media as on anything else to tell us about the world. For instance, research has shown persuasively that media consumption can affect how we see others and how we see ourselves, even if we don’t realize it – a condition known as implicit or unconscious bias – and the presence or absence of different groups in media has been shown to affect how people feel about those groups.

15. Assess and evaluate media literacy work

16. “Will this be on the test?” By doing formal assessment and evaluation of the media literacy work students do, you communicate to them that it is valuable and important. Make sure that your evaluations are as well thought-out and objective as they are for all your other assignments, and keep them consistent: when in doubt, return to the key concepts to gauge your students’ knowledge, understanding, insight and skill. See Assessing and Evaluating Media Literacy Work for tips on how to do this.

17. Let students bring their own media to the table

18. To get students more engaged, look for opportunities for them to do media literacy work with their choice of media products. You can deal with concerns about content issues by making your expectations clear and a part of the evaluation scheme (ethical and responsible use of media is a key part of media literacy) and by having students only present excerpts of media products in group or whole-class settings.

19. Keep up-to-date with media trends and developments

20. You don’t have to be a media expert to teach media literacy, but it helps to be current about what kids are watching, playing, reading, wearing and listening to, not to mention what they’re doing online. This is a great opportunity to let kids be the experts and teach you about the latest thing!