Teaching Media Literacy through Primary Sources from WAMS
By Leanne Ellis: LEllis3@schools.nyc.gov
WITH THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS SUPPORTERS
Major Support for Women & the American Story provided by
Curriculum website and learning experience made possible through a grant from
Curriculum and the WAMS Ambassadors Program is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.
This work is also sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University.
Group Norms
AGENDA
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Historical Inquiry of a Painting
Historical Inquiry
Step 1: Observe
What do you see?
Step 2: Interpret
What do these details mean?
Step 3: Infer
What can we conclude?
What do you see?
Who are these people? Where is this? What details make you say this?
What conclusions does the artist want us to understand about this moment in history?
What techniques communicate this message?
How and why might different people interpret this differently?
What media skills were highlighted in this activity?
Historical Inquiry Media Literacy Activity: Choose a resource to examine and answer the questions on Jamboard. Type in this link: https://bit.ly/3Kkj3S5 or use the QR code.
Life Story: Loreta Janeta Velázquez (1842–ca. 1897)
Soldier and Spy
“All Bound Up Together”
A video reenactment of a speech given by Black activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper at the Eleventh National Women’s Rights Convention in 1866.
What media skills were highlighted in this activity?
You can’t be what you can’t see.
Ten Chronological Units
EACH UNIT INCLUDES…
RESOURCES: IMAGES
RESOURCES: DOCUMENTS
LIFE STORIES
CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS
STEM INTEGRATION RESOURCES
ART ACTIVITIES
CLASSROOM-READY VIDEOS
Take five minutes to explore the WAMS curriculum
Select a notable resource that your students would respond to from the A Nation Divided unit. Share out to the person sitting next to you.
What is Media Literacy? Why is it important?
Education “must involve helping students to understand how each media form has its own unique language of construction and its own biases. And it must help young people to reflect on the role that their own biases play in determining what they believe to be true. ..Authentic democracy requires us to habitually ask critical questions about all media messages and continually reflect on our own biases.”
-Sperry and Schiebe, Teaching Students to Decode the World, 2022
BUT HOW !?!?!?!?!?
The answer is still inquiry.
…So what’s changed?
…The world that we live in!
…The tools we use,
…The information we consume,
…The questions we ask
Knowledge isn’t enough
Confirmation Bias
“The tendency to seek out, validate, and share information and sources that align with one’s views and dismiss arguments and sources that present opposing viewpoints.” (Sperry and Schiebe 2022)
“By repurposing all types of media messages for critical analysis, we can teach students to have agency in their thinking and actions.”
Media literacy means decoding messages by asking key questions about their purpose and techniques, and evaluating the value and utility of such messages by making informed, reasoned judgments.
Components of Critical Thinking
Understanding the CMD Process
Constructivist Media Decoding
Inquiry-based literacy process
in which a teacher leads students through:
Why Constructivist Media Decoding?
•Addresses core standards
>> teaches subject area knowledge & skills
•Engages and reaches ALL students
•Adaptable to diverse levels and subjects
•Is flexible in time and utility
•Teaches Habits of Critical Thinking
•Effective with challenging topics
Teach Media Literacy Skills and Historical Inquiry with Resources from WAMS
Authorship
Credibility
Developing Questions
Facts, Opinions, and Claims
Evaluating Evidence
Making Inferences
Cause and Effect
Multiple Perspectives
Evaluating Evidence
Tools to get started with Media Decoding!
Review CMD and share this inquiry strategy with your teachers by showing them the Starter Kits from Project Look Sharp:
Starter Kits are step-by-step guides to integrate CMD into your work with students. Search by grade level or subject area, each guide contains helpful videos, resources, selected lesson plans, and a 1 to 5 structure to help you get started with media decoding!
Key Resources
Project Look Sharp: https://www.projectlooksharp.org/
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Leanne Ellis
wams@nyhistory.org
wams.nyhistory.org
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