Miss M's Learning Space

During my down time this summer I decided to take a media literacy online module offered by Brock. I've distilled here some of the take-aways from this module. This video is a great introduction to what media literacy is . As a side note: Jennifer Thiessen has several videos diving into media literacy and it's influence on children on her youtube channel .  Key Concepts of Media Literacy :  Media are constructions Audiences negotiate meaning Media have commercial implications Media have social and political implications Each medium has a unique aesthetic form In addition to evaluating media's message, it's important for students to apply their critical thinking to evaluate the legitimacy of resources. For example, when choosing resources to inform their opinion they need to understand where the information is coming from (i.e. is the website trustworthy and founded?).  There are several ready-made lessons for direct-teaching critical evaluat...

During my placement, my associate and I attempted an inquiry project that completely failed. The intention was for students to do research on a person they found inspiring, and then share the biography with the class. Then, each student would try to find connections between their inspiring person and other people’s. For example, one person did research on Malala Yousafzi who was heavily influenced by Gandhi, and someone else in the class was researching Gandhi so they would (in theory) discuss why they think Gandhi had an impact or how Gandhi had an impact. However, it was exceptionally challenging to facilitate. Each student was working at a different pace, and several would make statements like ‘no one has ever inspired me’. In addition, several would look up a few facts and then be done for the day and play on their devices (which was hard to police considering the general chaos in the room). As a result, I never felt like I could facilitate all the unique learning challenges, whet...