Today's students are exposed to and have access to a variety of media including television, videos, books, magazines, radio, computers software, and the Internet. With all of this media at hand, students have to take a more active role as media consumers. They need to develop their reasoning and critical thinking skills to analyze the information they receive and not just sit back and be entertained.

At Forest Knolls Elementary School, students in grades four and five are participating in "Assignment Media Literacy", the Maryland media literacy curriculum. The purpose of this curriculum is to equip our students with critical thinking skills that allow them to become critical thinkers as they interact with the variety of media surrounding them. The curriculum has been written to encompass activities that interrelate with various subject areas of the elementary curriculum including language arts, social studies, math science, health education, and the fine and performing arts. It is designed to align with Maryland State frameworks and many of the problems and assignments model the types of activities students are asked to perform on the Maryland School Performance tests.

The themes appeal to children because they are familiar with these topics and are motivated to explore these high interest issues. Some of the themes include exploration of how media messages are created and presented, how print and television news is produced, the multitude of advertising and its influence upon children, and how the availability and use of electronic media such as computer software and the Internet change the ways we receive and use information. Students in middle and high schools throughout the state are also involved in media literacy education.

I am working with the Maryland Department of Education staff under the supervision of Dr. Nancy Grasmick, Maryland Superintendent of Schools, Discovery Communications Incorporated which funded the project, Dr. Renee Hobbs, Professor at Babson College in Massachusetts and staff from Rutgers Univerisity's Center for Media Studies in New Jersey. As a member and teacher of the Maryland State Media Literacy Team, I am educating our staff as well as educators and administrators throughout the state of Maryland on the use of this exciting and rewarding curriculum that offers our students the opportunity to become more knowledgeable and active consumers and producers of media.

	Assignment Media Literacy: What Has News Value?   Mrs. Michal introduces Assignment Media Literacy Curriculum: "What Has News Value?"
Learning about the Parts of a Newspaper   Students work in teams to learn about the sections of the newspaper.
	Searching for Information   A student searches through the newspaper to find a national news story that supports the news value: "Decisions! Decisions!".
Team Preparation   Students work as a team to discuss, locate and decide upon which stories support particular news values.
	Proud Journalist   Student displays the story she selected from the newspaper to support a particular news value. In her other hand she holds her hand written summary of the article with her written support of why this article supports the news value.
Introduction to the Venn Diagram for Comparison Writing   Mrs. Michal shows students how to set up a Venn Diagram to compare Print Journalism with Broadcast Journalism.
	Viewing A Video Segment   Students gather research as they view a video segment which presents the merits of print and broadcast journalism.
Focusing in on the Video Broadcast   In conducting media research, students learn that they have to focus their full attention on the visual message as well as the voice message of the video. This requires them to become active participants.
	Student Makes Venn Diagram   Student works on Print/Broadcast Journalism Venn Diagram.
Advertising Influences Our Lives   Mrs. Michal presents a lesson on the influence of advertising in our lives. Students are introduced to the essential questions: * How do I identify the purpose of different types of media messages? * What techniques are used to attract the attention of a reader, listener, or viewer? * What clues suggest the target audience for different types of media messages? * What questions should I ask when watching TV, listening or reading to help become an active media consumer?
	Pondering an Advertisement   A student carefully observes an advertisement to determine its purpose, target audience, and attention getting effects.
Group Discussion   A parent discusses advertising techniques with students.
	Working with Rutgers University   Gina Marcello, a professor from Rutgers University, visits us and conducts a post survey of "Assignment Media Literacy". These results will be studied at the university's Center for Media Studies.

Assignment Media Literacy Program conducted by Mrs. Susan Michal, a member of the Maryland Media Literacy Team.

Web Page designed by Susan Osmun.