Embedded Files
Base XP: 45
Base XP: 45
Learning Target(s):
Learning Target(s):
Select and apply appropriate strategies in a variety of contexts to comprehend written and visual information to guide inquiry and to extend thinking.
Use information for diverse purposes and from a variety of sources.
Think critically, creatively, and reflectively to analyze ideas within, between, and beyond texts.
We use many modes and media of communication to share information, from books to websites, videos, and images. You've seen how a visual text uses images and can be a powerful tool in which to communicate information. Visual texts include images, diagrams, and film, and come in forms ranging from street signs and advertisements to television news. How do different media of communication influence our perspective?
Aid agencies such as Oxfam and World Vision use images of undernourished children on brochures and TV ads. Why? Images are the surest route to people's emotions and can influence attitudes and actions before a reader decides to apply critical thinking skills. Aid organizations are always in need of funding, so they want to appeal to our emotions and move us to donate to their organizations. Other forms of advertising appeal to our sense of community, social status, intellect, ego, and lifestyle, etc. Just as it's important to read critically, it's important to view images in a critical way.
Our perspectives on text, ourselves, and the world are all formed by what we see or read or hear. It is important to see things from different perspectives but it is also important to know our own perspective. This involves taking in information and processing it to form our own informed point of view. We need to actively read, view, and listen by contextualizing, questioning, and forming our point of view/perspective.
In previous quests, you identified strategies and techniques for active reading, such as skimming, scanning, and in-depth reading. You also practiced critical reading and viewing and determined an author's purpose and bias.
Many issues that you might encounter are complex, particularly political, social, and environmental issues. Often times, different perspectives each have valid points to be considered.
So, how do you make meaning from a text or image in which multiple perspectives are presented?
Within each issue, there are many different points of view. Thinking critically is not a matter of determining which view is right or wrong; it's more about looking at different angles of an issue and deciding where you stand, given the information presented.
When you are faced with many different perspectives, how do you come to your own decision about where you stand?
The following strategies will help you to critically read and view print and visual texts. In this lesson, you will employ these strategies.
Contextualizing
Contextualizing
In order to better understand what you read or view, you must look at the context. What is meant by context? Conditions which surround the topic in time and place give it added meaning. Contexts can be historical, political, social, and cultural. For example, if you read the 1964 court statement by Nelson Mandela when he was sentenced to life in prison, you would have to put it in context historically. What was happening politically in South Africa and the world in the 1960s? What were the political and social tensions between the black majority and the ruling white minority in South Africa? What were the cultural values and ways of life of South Africans at the time? Context provides background on an issue.
You understand what you read or view through the lens of your own life experience: what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and place. To read or view critically, you need to contextualize in order to recognize differences between your own values and those represented in the text in order to form your own perspective on the issue.
Questioning
Questioning
A critical reader always asks questions. Examine how you respond to the material you read and view. Observe and make note of what content challenges your beliefs, values, or positions on the issues presented.
Our perspectives on text, ourselves, and the world are all formed by what we see or read or hear. It is important to see things from different perspectives but it is also important to understand our own perspective. This involves taking in information and critically processing it to form our own informed point of view. We need to actively read, view, and listen by contextualizing, questioning, and then forming our own perspective.
Task:
Task:
In this lesson, you will put your critical reading and viewing skills to the test to form your own perspective on an environmental issue: the Great Pacific garbage patch.
You will read and view 5 media of communication. Follow the steps below to reach your own conclusion about the Great Pacific garbage patch and how each medium contributed to your final point of view on the environmental issue. For each medium, explain the perspective each resource communicates and the effect the medium had on influencing your perspective.
1. Brainstorming. Use the K-W-L graphic organizer to begin.
KNOW: Use this space to discuss any background knowledge you have on the topic. What do you already know about the Great Pacific garbage patch?
WONDER/WANT: What do you wonder about it? What do you want to know? Do you have any questions you want answered about the topic?
LEARNED: What have you learned about the topic? Summarize your learning and respond to the questions you generated.
2. Note Taking. Read the brief text "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and view the images and resources (website, video, article) provided. First examine how you respond to the material you read and view. Question and make notes of what challenges your beliefs, values, or positions on the issue. Give the resource some context. How can we view and read text in a critical way to best inform our perspective? Use this organizer for your notes.
Assignment 1 - Perspectives and Mediums Note-Taking Worksheet (.PDF)
Assignment 1 - Perspectives and Mediums Note-Taking Worksheet (.DOCX)
3. Responding. In a concluding paragraph of approximately 200 words, write about your final conclusion on the Great Pacific garbage patch and how each resource contributed to your final perspective. Which medium worked best for you? Has your perspective changed? Why or why not? What is your final point of view or conclusion about the environmental issue?
4. Submit your K-W-L organizer, notes, and paragraph.
Resources
Resources
1. Text: Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Imagine an area larger than the size of British Columbia that is made of a dense murky soup of approximately 3.5 million tons of trash - pop bottles, plastic bags, laundry detergent containers, and other garbage. Waste and litter from coastal waters off North America and Japan, trapped by an ocean current called the North Pacific Gyre, has created this floating garbage island. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of an Eastern Patch and a Western Patch that are connected by a 9700 km long current. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California, while the Western Garbage Patch is found east of Japan and west of Hawaii.
2. Images:
Submit your completed quest HERE when it's ready for assessment, and let me know if/why you require additional XP.
Google Sites
Report abuse