Presidential election years present ample opportunities for lessons in media literacy; depending on your outlook and your class dynamics, this is either exhilarating or terrifying. Either way, it’s necessary for us to play a role in helping students navigate the overwhelming messages that surround them. As I have written about in the past, I’ve found rooting my media literacy lessons in classic rhetorical analysis has been the most successful in eliciting meaningful class discussions....
To thrive and not just simply survive in a digital society, media literacy is a must. People of all ages need to be able to digest and analyze vast amounts of information from various sources. It is critical educators help students effectively create, access, analyze, and evaluate messages in a variety of forms. This resource list can help teachers help their students navigate this process. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)--which boasts free membership--has resources,...
At an almost alarming rate, students these days are unable to determine news writing from opinion writing. In my two Journalism I classes, I conducted a pre-assessment experiment where students evaluated a news article and opinion article from the local newspaper. I asked students to read both pieces, underline the facts and opinions in each article and then decide which piece was from the news section and which piece was from the opinion section. Students were able to accurately identify facts...
April 22, 2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the largest civic-focused day of action in the world. As student journalists and photographers, you have a special role in this upcoming day. By writing or making media about environmental issues that you care about, you have the opportunity to raise awareness about important community issues and develop writing, research and interviewing skills. Much like Greta Thunberg, Jamie Margolin and Isra Hirsi, you can be a youth voice in media and the environmental movement! During the first Earth Day in 1970, millions of people took to the streets to protest environmental ignorance and to make changes to build a cleaner world. Newspapers...
The Princeton Summer Journalism Program is a free college preparatory program for high-achieving (current) high school juniors from low-income backgrounds who are interested in journalism. Over a 10-day period, students will live on campus at Princeton University and learn reporting skills from professional journalists. They also will attend lectures on liberal arts topics led by Princeton professors. Participants hold a press conference, produce a short documentary, report on a professional sporting event from a press box, attend a play or theatrical production, visit three to four major news outlets, and interview subjects for their feature stories in the Princeton Summer Journal. After...
My classroom is in the same hallway as the Spanish and French classes; and we share a common lunch period. After years of listening about how their students learn while traveling, I noticed goals common to our courses, especially in conversing and communicating with others. I wanted to try a trip of my own. In addition, nearly a decade ago, I traveled to Austria, Hungary and Spain with photography teachers from across the country; I grew so much as a photographer in those weeks. Since then, I’ve talked to broadcast teachers who take their crews on bus trips and fly as far as Southeast Asia to have them practice in environments students would find uncomfortable, yet familiar. This summer,...
Multiple surveys and studies have shown that Americans remain unaware of the five freedoms the First Amendment guarantees. When more Americans can name characters from an...
MIPA is a state organization working in association with the Missouri School of Journalism; Journalism Educators Association, JEA; and the National Scholastic Press Association,...
January 14, 2017
