QUERY: Media lit vocabulary for early childhood?

[Faith Rogow]

Inspired by a recent Susan Neuman webinar and my own interest in mapping out what emergent media literacy looks like in practice, I’d like to know what vocabulary words you think are most important for children to know by the time they have finished first grade.  What would you add? subtract? affirm? Which 100 words are vital to analyzing and creating media, and are developmentally appropriate for early childhood. Hint: skip words that children are likely to learn without help (e.g., “story” or “picture”) or words that are just lists of production terms. I'm especially interested in the words you actually find yourself using with young children.  You can post your own ideas here or contact me offline via my website:  InsightersEducation.com.  THANKS!   Here's my list so far:

Pre-K – 1st grade Media Literacy Vocabulary Words
1.    actor
2.    animation
3.    camera lens
4.    choice
5.    close-up
6.    communication
7.    compare
8.    composer
9.    contrast   
10.    decision
11.    director
12.    edit
13.    evidence
14.    frame
15.    information
16.    interpretation / interpret
17.    microphone
18.    observation / observe
19.    online
20.    pace
21.    persuasion /persuade
22.    point of view
23.    prop
24.    purpose
25.    representation / represent
26.    scene
27.    subject
28.    video
29.    voice over
30.    volume (as related to sound, not containers)
31.    website
32.    wide shot
33.    writer
34.    zoom

[Frank W. Baker]

I would recommend both CONSTRUCT (or CONSTRUCTION) and DECONSTRUCT (or DECONSTRUCTION).  I also think the words AUDIO or SOUND might be appropriate, since you already have VIDEO.   What about OFFLINE since you're already using ONLINE?  And what about REAL and PRETEND?  How about VISUAL, PHOTO or PHOTOGRAPH and IMAGE?

[KellyAnn Bonnell]

I go back to the fundamentals of media education to guide the vocabulary young children need.

1. Media are constructions

Construction

Content

Creators

Consumers

2. Audience negotiate meanings

Audience

Intended Audience

Message

Purpose

Interpretation

3. Media has commercial implications

Consumer

Finance

Produced

4. Media have social and political implications

Communicate

Ideas

Persuasion

Subject

[Faith Rogow]

Thanks to all who have responded, both on and offline.  Keep the suggestions coming.  Looks like the final list may be fifty words for 3-5 year-olds and fifty for 6-8.  I'm combining online responses from various formats with a lit search of media literacy texts that deal with early childhood.  I'll post notice here when I've got something solid to share.

One word that has come up a couple of times is "deconstruct."  I'm curious to know if anyone has actually used this with 5 year olds?  Seems developmentally inappropriate to me, but I'm open to being convinced otherwise if folks have concrete examples.