6th-grade project: Media use and values

[Kelly Farrow]

Hi, everyone!! I'm hoping Frank Baker and some of the rest of you fabulous teachers will chime in on this one. Ryan already gave me some pointers, but I'm very interested in how others would approach this. I was having a conversation w/ some 6th graders that started w/ violent video games and touched on things like values, entertainment choices, and ratings systems. It was such a wonderful conversation that I hated to cut it short, so one of the kids actually asked, "Can we do something w/ this for our final project this year?" I thought that would be absolutely perfect; we can continue a very high-interest convo that everyone has something to say about, it we can touch on Q's that have no easy answers, and we can help these kids think deeply about the choices they make as they move onto middle school.

So with all these ideas in mind, can anyone recommend any final projects that might come to mind about these thought-provoking topics?? Ryan mentioned the idea of the "media diet," which I've seen some things about online... That idea appeals to me since it's something we could try to craft, like the food pyramid...

I'm still kind of floundering. If anyone has any ideas to share, I'd love to hear them!!

[Frank W. Baker]

Thanks for asking me to chime in.  Have you heard of the Pro/Con website?  How about the "Taking Sides" series of books?
Some of the issues you've raised could be excellent research topics with students taking one side or another and defending it via a project.  Since you mentioned ratings:  are your students aware that the MPAA (movie) ratings just changed--apparently adding more information for parents--but DO parents even pay attention; are they aware of what the ratings for TV/Movies/Videogames even mean?  Do young people know that the video game makers themselves rate their games?  How about these topics: how real are reality TV shows; why does the Super Bowl command $4 million for a 30-second ad; how does the media perpetrate stereotypes; is advertising propaganda?

[Faith Rogow]

There's nothing quite as effective for provoking reflection as creating media and having to make choices that you have to justify to a group.  How about starting with a discussion about how games are designed to reward with scoring, so scoring is a way to evaluate value messages.  What scores the most is what is valued the most.  Once students understand the concept, let them design their own simple games or apps.  They can design on paper if you don't have the tech to help them actually create the game electronically.  For a simple example to illustrate the scoring=values concept, you might show Go Nini - an app recently developed by a Fellow at the Fred Rogers Center.  The main character can choose various foods - the high value foods add power and speed.  Low value foods slow things down.  I wish they had added poison, which if consumed, kills the character, but maybe that will come in the next version. Once kids have created their own games, they can return to the games they typically play and use the scoring system to describe the values conveyed by the games and decide whether or not those are values they want to promote.  Good luck!  Sounds like your students will be having some fun.