Why Vote?

In this media literacy activity students analyze videos for messages about why voting is important.

Why to War? How to Peace?

Media literacy and critical thinking lesson using four short song excerpts to compare songwriters' techniques in crafting songs of peace.

Wind Farm Site Selection: A Community Debates the Issues

This is a media literacy and critical thinking activity in which students analyze two op-eds for perspectives on siting local wind farms.

Wind: Benefits and Costs

Media literacy and critical thinking activity in which students decode a book cover and a tweet for messages about how human use of natural resources for energy affects the biosphere.

Women’s Suffrage: Why the Women’s Vote Was Important Then and Is Now

In this media literacy activity students analyze primary and secondary texts from the 19th to the 21st century for messages about the arguments in favor of women voting.

Workers Unite!

Media literacy and critical thinking lesson using four short song excerpts to compare songs with messages about worker organizing.

Working for Peace, Working for Justice

Media literacy and critical thinking lesson using diverse media imagery to teach about the interconnections between U.S. peace and social justice movements by examining the lives of five peacemakers.

World War II D-Day - Two Views of History: Soviet and American

This is a media literacy and critical thinking activity in which students decode U.S. and Soviet history texts for conflicting perspectives about D-Day and the liberation of France.

World War One Through Posters

Media literacy and critical thinking lesson analyzing messages about economics in World War One posters.

YouTube Recommendations: What Do I Do?

In this media literacy activity students analyze results from a YouTube recommendations list for messages about how to select videos based on the likelihood of their offering credible information.

YouTube Recommendations: Who’s Steering Your View?

In this media literacy activity students analyze three online articles for messages about the impact of YouTube recommendations on viewers.

Young People Taking Action to Protect our Warming Planet

This is a media literacy and critical thinking activity in which students analyze four short excerpts from online articles for messages about youth activism for environmental protection and social justice.

Youth Activism

Media literacy and critical thinking lesson using four short film excerpts to reflect on the role of young activists in the black freedom/civil rights movement.

Youth, Hip Hop & Climate Change

This is a media literacy and critical thinking activity in which students analyze two short hip hop music video to compare different approaches to encourage youth activism to deal with climate change.

“The Truth About Coronavirus” - Google Searching For COVID-19

In this media literacy activity students analyze results from two Google searches, one for “coronavirus” and one for “the real truth about coronavirus,” to reflect on the impact of search terms on the sources that Google recommends.  

Standards Alignment: National Media Literacy Alliance Joint Statement on Media Literacy Education

This 3-page document briefly summarizes the alignment of media literacy with the core standards for each of the following disciplines: library (AASL + YALSA), technology (ISTE), Journalism (JEA), Early Childhood (NAEYC), Social Studies (NCSS), ELA (NCTE), Math (NCTM), Science (NSTA), and Writing (NWP).

Briefing: Project Look Sharp's Decoding Media Constructions and Sustainability

Antonio Lopez, in his coda to Greening Media Education, summarizes the complex set of skills needed “to bring ecologically oriented cultural practice into the realm of media education (which) promotes systems thinking, collaborative learning, critical thinking, lifelong learning and digital media literacy.” This article offers cases studies of two Look Sharp lessons, one for elementary age students and another for upper level high school, each of which was designed with these skills in mind as a way to bring Lopez’s vision into practice in the classroom.

College Level: Hydrofracking, Media and Credibility

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Sustainability: Fingerlakes

This 9 minute annotated video demonstrates constructivist media decoding using the lesson "Exploring the Impact of Hydrofracking on Aquifers," where college students analyze pro and anti-fracking diagrams.

College Level: Farming, Community and Sustainability

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Sustainability: Food, Water, and Agriculture

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Sustainability. Students in this video examine clips from a film and a commercial to decode farming in the US.

High School Science: The Great Global Warming Swindle

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Constructions of Global Warming. Students analyze a short video clip from the film The Great Global Warming Swindle, compare the information in the clip with a chart, and reflect on issues of credibility and bias in media representations and our own biases when evaluating information.