1. Media Literacy — What it is and why teach it!
When I was growing up, my parents didn’t give me my first cell phone (a clunky flip phone) until I was thirteen years old. Now, I see families out and about who hand their toddlers Mommy’s iPhone or Tablet to keep their young one occupied. Nowadays, kids know how to work a phone before they can even read. You may think because of this, media literacy doesn’t need to be taught in schools or libraries. They already know what they’re doing, it’s second nature! In actuality, it’s because of the frequent and early exposure that teaching it is so important.
Media literacy means analyzing and interpreting media, anything from emojis to advertisements (Lynch 2017). Basically, teaching media literacy is important because it shows how everything has a hidden meaning (Lynch 2017). It encourages kids to use their critical thinking skills, a skill they also use in their English or History classes.
Ever since 2016, it seems the most used phrase in our society right now is “Fake News”. However, “fake news” isn’t just something an adult finds on their Facebook feed. It’s also something a kid comes across while researching their projects and presentations. Today’s middle graders care more about “content relevance than credibility” (Coiro 2017). Teaching media literacy to your students is important because it ensures their homework for your class will be a better product!
One example for teaching media literacy is to share different news articles with your students that vary on “truthiness”. Ask them to put in order the articles from flat out lies to near perfect journalism. This is just one example of teaching how to spot it. I encourage using online websites like NewseumED to find inspiration.
