High School Social Studies: Soviet History-Posters

Related to kit: Soviet History Through Posters: A Visual Literacy Kit

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Soviet History Through Posters. Students are led through a decoding of five Soviet government posters from 1918 to 1988, where they apply historical knowledge while practicing media literacy skills.

Selection of Media Documents

The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Online Guide consists of a series of pull-down menus and embedded links to specific examples from existing Project Look Sharp curriculum kits and lessons, particularly those designed for community groups and broad audiences, such as the sustainability curriculum kits. These suggestions on the topic of Selection of Media Documents include sections on: selecting media formats, searching for media documents, addressing copyright issues, seeking diverse representations, tracing media sources, teaching rigorous independent and reflective thought, and do no harm.

(Not So) Unprecedented Media Analysis of the 2016 Presidential Race and Its Historical Precedents

This article helps teachers to understand how to use media documents from the 2016 presidential race (as well as past campaigns) to critically analyze media messages to teach objectives from the new NCSS C3 Framework for the Social Studies and the Common Core ELA standards for secondary social studies. When students examine election posters, cartoons, and ads they will comprehend that many themes--including xenophobia, income inequality, and women's political power--have been historical mainstays on the campaign trail.

12 Basic Ways to Integrate Media Literacy and Critical Thinking into Any Curriculum

This booklet is designed for teachers and support staff at all grade levels who are interested in using media literacy in their classroom curriculum. The approaches are based on the concept of weaving media literacy training into the curriculum whenever and wherever possible throughout the school year. Routine integration is much more effective than simply treating media literacy as a special, isolated topic and may better meet the needs of teachers who are already at capacity with the demands of a full curriculum.

6 Key Concepts in Media Analysis

Key concepts to be aware of to practice critical thinking when evaluating media messages.

A Deeper Sense of Literacy

Related to kit: Media Constructions of War: A Critical Reading of History

Basic principles and best practices for using a curriculum-driven approach are described, with specific examples from social studies, English/Language arts, math, science, health, and art, along with methods of assessment used to address effectiveness in the classroom. By Cyndy Scheibe, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 48 No. 1, September 2004.

An Assessment of Student Critical Thinking Skills

This describes a high school level assessment of media literacy and metacognitive skills in which students examine a YouTube video, excerpts from an opinion article, and a webpage screenshot about GMOs and answer questions about media messages, authorship, purpose, bias, credibility and how the students’ own biases impact their analysis.

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.

Checking the Facts: Media Literacy and Democracy

By integrating the process of critical questioning of media messages into the everyday classroom curriculum, we can help produce a citizenry with the skills needed to negotiate future threats to truth.

College Level: 2008 Election Magazine Covers

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns. Students in this video decode various magazine covers portraying Barack Obama during the 2008 election.

College Level: Decoding "Last Words" by Nas

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Social Justice

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Social Justice. Students in this video decode the rap song "Last Words" by Nas to gain insight about prison life and the greater justice system.

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.

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.

Constructivist Media Decoding in the Social Studies: Leveraging the New Standards for Educational Change

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns

This article explores the role that media analysis can play on educational reform tied to the new NCSS C3 Framework for the Social Studies and the Common Core ELA standards for secondary social studies. It uses examples from media decoding activities on the Project Look Sharp website tied to specific standards. It also explores professional development tools that support methodological shifts towards inquiry and assessments of critical thinking skills. By Chris Sperry, The Journal of Media Literacy, Vol. 62, pg. 46-54, 2015.

Consulting

Project Looksharp personnel are available for coaching and consulting about media literacy in K-12 and teacher education, including ways to integrate media literacy into an existing curriculum, use media literacy with particular student populations (e.g., English as a second langauge or at-risk students), or build media literacy offerings into staff development within a school district.

Credibility, Information and Science

Designed for secondary science and environmental studies teachers, this 2 hour to full day workshop will explore the role of the internet and other media on our students understanding of information.

Critical Thinking & the News

Democracy requires an educated and literate citizenship. This 2-hour workshop provides guidelines and strategies for training our students to consistently assess the credibility, accuracy, and bias of various news sources.

Critical Thinking and Health: Media Literacy Lessons for Elementary Grades

Related to kit: Critical Thinking & Health: Nutrition and TV Commercials

This webinar offers pedagogical techniques and curriculum materials to help young children understand biases and misleading messages found in food advertising and toy commercials aimed at them, including cereal ads and advertising for foods and beverages that imply they have a lot of fruit in them. Part of the webinar specifically focuses on gender techniques and gender stereotyping in toy commercials.

Demonstration Video: Choosing a Just Right Book

School librarian, Michele Coolbeth from East Syracuse, NY, leads her first graders through analyzing different book covers and text [and drawing their own conclusions about the appropriateness of the book as an independent reading choice] - using our lesson, How Do I Choose? Picking the Right Book for Me.

Demonstration Video: Gender Stereotypes and Google Algorithms

Middle School teacher, Mary Kate Longeran, uses the Project Look Sharp lesson “Google Image Searches: Do they Promote or Counter Stereotypes?” to lead her students through an analysis of stereotypes and algorithmic bias. (Total Time: 6:10) Published 2023

Demonstration Video: Interpreting Charts of Media Use: Gen Z vs. Boomers

Middle School teacher, Mary Kate Longeran, leads her students through a decoding of charts using the Project Look Sharp lesson “Changing Our Media Habits: The Impact of the Pandemic” – to teach students to analyze and question charts and explore differences in generational media use. (Total Time: 5:15) Published 2023

Demonstration Video: January 6, 2021: Newspaper Front Pages

Middle School teacher, Mary Kate Longeran, leads her students through a decoding of domestic and international newspapers - using the Project Look Sharp lesson: “Storming the Capital” - to analyze media construction and bias in news coverage. (Total Time: 8:57) Published 2023

Demonstration Video: Wash Your Hands - Kindergarten

School librarian, Michele Coolbeth, has her students reflect on the qualities of different media forms (videos and a poster) while learning how to wash their hands. (Total Time: 2:13) Published 2023

Demonstration Video: What is Media - Kindergarten

School librarian, Michele Coolbeth, has her students identify media, including in their clothing – and then reflects on the importance of teaching young students to recognize that media is all around them.

Demonstration Video: Who is Family? - Kindergarten

School librarian, Michele Coolbeth, leads kindergarten students through analyzing book covers for messages about the diversity of families - using the Project Look Sharp lesson, “Who is Family?”

Does Fair Use of Copyright Apply in Education?

Explains Project Look Sharp's approach to creating curriculum that contains copyrighted media materials. Media materials can be reproduced and used where critiquing of the media is the central objective.

Elementary Level: Decoding Money

Related to kit: Introducing Africa: Critical Thinking and Media Literacy

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Introducing Africa. Students in this video compare two African currencies to the U.S. Dollar to gain insight about cultural differences.

Elementary Level: First Contact Between Europeans and Native Americans

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using our lesson, First Contact. Students in this video decode two opposing paintings to understand how Europeans impacted Native American life.

Elementary Level: Gender In Children's Commercials

Related to kit: Critical Thinking & Health: Nutrition and TV Commercials

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Critical Thinking and Health. Students in this video decode the commercial "Magic Kissing Dragons" to analyze media messaging about gender.

Elementary Level: Paintings of George Washington and King George

Related to kit: Causes of the American Revolution

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Causes of the American Revolution. Students in this video decode differences in paintings of George Washington and King George.

High School English: Examining Credibility and Bias in Web Sites

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Martin Luther King, Jr.

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Constructions of Martin Luther King Jr. Students analyze the white supremacist website martinlutherking.org and reflect on critical thinking and the internet.

High School Global Studies: The Politics of Maps: Israel/Palestine

Related to kit: Media Constructions of the Middle East

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of the Middle East. Students in this video learn to understand the level of bias in maps.

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.

High School Social Studies: National Geographic's Africa

Related to kit: Introducing Africa: Critical Thinking and Media Literacy

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Seeing Africa. Students reflect on stereotyping while analyzing the representation of Africa in the lead pages from the 20 National Geographic articles on Africa in the 1990's.

High School Social Studies: Newsweek Covers on US Wars in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan

Related to kit: Media Constructions of War: A Critical Reading of History

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of War. Students in this video are lead to decode Newsweek covers from various US Wars.

High School Students Speak about Media Decoding in Social Studies

Ninth through eleventh graders at the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca, New York, speak about the importance of integrating media analysis into social studies.

High School Students Speak about Media Literacy

Documents students' reactions to media literacy integration at their school and how it has impacted their lives and learning experiences.

High School US History: 1800 Anti-Jefferson Political Cartoon

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns

An example of leading a class through a constructivist media decoding using a lesson from our kit, Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns. Students in this video decode political cartoons against Thomas Jefferson.

How Does a Teacher Lead a Media Decoding?

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns

Demonstrates best practices used for leading a media decoding in the classroom. Be sure to read the subtitles while viewing the video as they refer to the pedagogical implications.

Integrating Common Core Standards across the Curriculum with Critical Thinking and 21st Century Literacies

This dynamic full-day workshop will expand participants’ understanding of literacy and deepen their ability to engage all students in active learning through the inquiry-based analysis of diverse fiction and nonfiction media documents. Participants will walk away with materials, strategies and a plan for developing Common Core literacy skills while teaching content-area knowledge. This workshop can be designed for a specific audience (e.g., secondary social studies, ELA and/or science teachers, elementary school teachers, librarians, PD specialists) or a mixed group of K-12 educators.

Integrating Media Literacy and Critical Thinking into the Curriculum

This popular interactive workshop introduces the theory and practice of media literacy integration throughout the curriculum, emphasizing the development of critical thinking and analysis skills. It can be adapted to address the needs of a mixed group of K-12 educators, or focus on a specific target audience (e.g., middle school ELA and social studies, librarians, elementary health). Participants will receive materials and learn approaches that can be immediately used in the classroom or other educational context.

Key Questions To Ask When Producing Media Messages

Graphic display of media production questions related to audience & authorship, messages & meanings, and representations & reality.

Key Questions to Ask When Analyzing Media Messages

Graphic display of questions related to audience & authorship, messages & meanings and representations & reality.

Lesson Conception

The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Online Guide consists of a series of pull-down menus and embedded links to specific examples from existing Project Look Sharp curriculum kits and lessons, particularly those designed for community groups and broad audiences, such as the sustainability curriculum kits. These suggestions on the topic of Lesson Conception include sections on: tying to your goals, choosing strategic learning and teaching options, and adapting Project Look Sharp (PLS) lessons.

Lesson Elements

The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Online Guide consists of a series of pull-down menus and embedded links to specific examples from existing Project Look Sharp curriculum kits and lessons, particularly those designed for community groups and broad audiences, such as the sustainability curriculum kits. These suggestions on the topic of Lesson Elements include sections on: providing background information, adding additional information, extending the activity, and evaluating student learning.

Looking at World War I Propaganda

Related to kit: Economics in U.S. History: A Media Literacy Kit

The article explores teaching about WWI through interactive decoding (analyzing) of propaganda posters from different countries. It lays out the theory and practice of media analysis for teaching critical thinking, questioning strategies, media literacy and core social studies content.

Media & Health Issues

Media literacy education is a powerful way to approach the impact of media use and media messages on a wide range of health issues for today’s youth by emphasizing media analysis, critical thinking, and self-expression. This 2-hour to full day workshop can address multiple health issues or focus specifically on one of them, including: nutrition, body image, advertising, alcohol and substance use, smoking, bullying and put-downs, safety, and teen sexuality.

Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns

A study of select campaign posters, cartoons, and ads teaches students to critically analyze messages from media source and to understand the role media have played throughout the history of American elections. By Chris Sperry and Sox Sperry, Social Education, November/December 2007.

Media Constructions of Energy Choices: Empowering Students to See Through the Smoke

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

This webinar offers pedagogical techniques and curriculum materials to support a deeper understanding of how to address issues of bias in media documents about energy choices. Learn to to seek out and use media sources to deepen critical thinking practice about authorship, purpose, credibility and economics.

Media Constructions of Food Justice: Shining a Light on Equity, Economy and Sustainability

Related to kit: Media Constructions of Sustainability: Fingerlakes

The webinar offers pre-service and high school teachers along with college and community food justice educators pedagogical techniques and curriculum materials to support a deeper understanding of how to tie goals to content in lesson design.