QUESTION: Teaching Students to Think Critically with Media

Hello Everyone! I am a Millersville University student finishing my Secondary English Cert. I am currently researching teaching students to think critically when viewing media. Any suggestions on how to incorporate this in the classroom? Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Faith Rogow on July 11, 2012 at 6:26am

Hi Shannon,

Check out The Teacher's Guide to Media Literacy. In addition to hundreds of lesson & activity ideas, it guides you through what kinds of questions to teach students to ask, and how to help them learn to compare and contrast different types of media examples. All the ideas are directly linked to the core curriculum. One of my favorites is the lesson on News Spin, that assigns students to write two articles covering the same event, one that casts the event as successful and the other that portrays things in a negative light (and both pieces have to be factual). The exercise gives students a great feel for language usage and also helps them think about how media makers use language to sway audiences.

Permalink Reply by Shannon Carey on July 12, 2012 at 10:37pm

Great thank you!

Permalink Reply by Frank W. Baker on July 11, 2012 at 7:50am

Shannon: There are two ways I can think to advise you on teaching students to think/view critically. First, I would introduce students to the "languages of the moving images." I have created a page which should be of value. Please go to www.frankwbaker.com/language_of_film here you will find categories (like audio, lighting, set design, etc) which include timely readings as well as lesson plans and activity suggestions.

Second, I would introduce your students to the media literacy list of critical questions. NAMLE has produced a list as a handout. You can download it here. A fuller explanation of the questions can be found in the Center for Media Literacy's MediaLit Kit, found here.

Good luck, Frank Baker, Media Literacy Clearinghouse
PS I am also the author of a new book, Media Literacy in the K12 Classroom, and it includes an entire chapter on visual literacy which would also be of help to you and your students.

Permalink Reply by Shannon Carey on July 12, 2012 at 10:39pm

Thank you! Thanks for the great resources!

Permalink Reply by Ryan Goble on September 6, 2012 at 12:54pm

Hey Shannon! Have you had a chance to look at some of the playlist tools like:

PLAYLIST: CONNECT THE MINDS (CTM) ACTIVITY + ARTICLE PDF!!!
PLAYLIST: CONNECT THE MINDS (CTM) QUIZ - PDFs for College, HS, MS, ...
DID YOU READ QUIZ?" - CARTOON EDITION

PLAYLIST: BETA MEDIA CIRCLES PART I

PLAYLIST: THREE 4 THINKING

Permalink Reply by Peter Gutierrez on September 7, 2012 at 8:49am

I have a blog at SLJ devoted to this topic. You can search on tags such as "critical thinking" to find relevant posts or search on terms related more specifically to your needs: gender, movies, marketing, audience, media literacy, etc.

Here's a post on violence: http://blogs.slj.com/connect-the-pop/2012/07/movies/some-brief-thou...

Here's one on the role of emotions: http://blogs.slj.com/connect-the-pop/2012/08/fandom/lead-with-your-...

And here's one from a couple of days ago on criticism: http://blogs.slj.com/connect-the-pop/2012/09/movies/critical-thinki...

Hope some of this can help...

Permalink Reply by A Theo on September 9, 2012 at 3:55pm

Hi, there! I haven't reviewed the other replies, so I apologize if my ideas are repeating. Are you familiar with http://www.medialit.org/? The link CML's Five Key Questions and Core Concepts of Media Literacy for Deconstruction is one worth reviewing. These are the questions I used to inspire the media literacy questions I developed for my Rhetorical Analysis of Media high school students. I hope this helps. Lots of luck!

Permalink Reply by Alex Peterson on September 10, 2012 at 4:03pm

Hi Shannon!

The Media Education Foundation has lots of good resources to help students think critically about media. For high school, you might try:

Spin the Bottle http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=210

Tough Guise http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=212

Consuming Kids http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=134

Writing About Media http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=129

FREE Handout: "How to Be a Critical Media Viewer" http://www.mediaed.org/Handouts/CriticalViewing.pdf

FREE Handout: "Deconstructing a Print Advertisement" http://www.mediaed.org/Handouts/DeconstructinganAd.pdf

QUESTION: Teaching Students to Think Critically with Media

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