• Calendar
• Featured Teaching Resources
• Spotlight on CML
• Classroom Connections
• Download This
• Around the Media World
• Action Idea of the Month

CALENDAR

Reminder: June 25-28 National Media Education Conference in San Francisco! Online registration is now available for the largest, oldest, and most broad-based gathering of media literacy educators in the U.S. sponsored by the Alliance for a Media Literate America of which CML is an organizational member.

Attendees will explore why what looks like many media choices is actually few media voices — and what can be done about it — during more than 75 conference events, including keynotes, workshops, pre-conference seminars, special interest caucuses and more.

Great hotel rates, an exciting location (accessible by public transit from both Bay Area airports), and a stellar program make this your best opportunity for professional development, idea sharing, and resource gathering in media literacy this year! Find all the details and register today at http://www.amlainfo.org/conference.

Registration deadline June 27 for the July 11-15 Annual Media Literacy Summer Institute, Project Look Sharp, Ithaca College: This intensive 4 1/2-day media literacy course for educators includes both the theory of media literacy and hands-on practice with digital/computer technology. Project Look Sharp staff coach participants in developing and implementing individual media literacy integration plans. Ideal for community educators and others interested in the field of media literacy CEU/GCU available. Housing available. Visit www.ithaca.edu/looksharp or email for more information.

July 7-14 BRIDGE program third Regional Conference "Empowering People Through the Use of ICT and Global Connections", in Beirut. Full scholarships to Beirut for US High School Educators! Educators from iEARN programs around the world including Asia, the Middle East and the USA. Collaborative learning, project planning and implementation workshops, and community service learning projects will be among the topics of discussion. The BRIDGE Project is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. For an application, please email Tina Habib.

FEATURED TEACHING RESOURCES

CML 2005 Catalog - Now Available as a PDF!
A new way to find the teaching resources you need in the CML catalog — a downloadable PDF of the entire 2005 CML/GPN catalog is now available online. New sections on Social Studies, Language Arts and Production. An index lets you select only the pages you may need to download.

May 23 Audioconference Features "Guided Tour" of Teaching Resources
Want advice on building a core collection of media literacy teaching resources? That's the topic of a telephone conference May 23 featuring CML founder Elizabeth Thoman and produced by Susan Rogers, editor and publisher of MediaLiteracy.com. Thoman heads the CML team that selected and evaluated the 300+ resources in the new 2005 Center for Media Literacy/GPN resource catalog. Teachers, library media specialists and others may call in toll-free to hear Thoman compare features of various books, videos and curriculum for classroom instruction as well as essential resources for professional development. Participants will be able to ask questions and get a personalized response. "What an incredible hour!...comments were so helpful! said a participant of the first event. Registration required with low-cost fee. Audioconference details and times available at www1.medialiteracy.com/experts.jsp.

New Book Argues Media Literacy Raises Test Scores!
For over 10 years, Denver media specialist Sue Lockwood Summers (author of CML best sellers, Media Alert and Eye Spy: An Interactive Coloring Book for Kids 3-8) has been using a media literacy approach to teach critical thinking across the curriculum. She argues that when students learn critical thinking skills through media literacy, they do better on critical state assessment testing. Now she's authored Get Them Thinking! Use Media Literacy to Prepare Students for State Assessments, providing dozens of lesson plans and hundreds of teaching ideas to inspire and guide teachers everywhere and at all grade levels. With many districts scrambling to improve scores, Summers sneaks under the radar and removes the last excuse to widespread adoption of media literacy in all grades and across the curriculum. Whatever it takes...Hurrah!"

  Check out the other new titles in the current issue of New For You!

SPOTLIGHT ON CML

CML at NMEC

• CML's Liz Thoman and Jeff Share will again conduct their acclaimed "Crash Course in Media Literacy" as a 5-hour preconference session Saturday, June 25. (It's called " Media Literacy 101" in the conference materials.) If you're new to the field or can't get to one of CML's Southern California workshops, be sure to come a day early to attend this popular seminar and start the conference with a firm foundation. More information is available on the conference web site.



• Partnership for 21st Century Skills — Ken Kay, Dale Allender and Bob Pearlman will participate in a panel organized by Tessa Jolls on the work of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an advocacy group for infusing 21st Century skills into education. An overview of the Partnership's work, its importance to organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the New Technology High School in Napa, CA will be featured on Sunday, June 26 from 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.



• We all talk about media literacy being "inquiry based" — learn more about what this means at Liz Thoman's conference workshop: "Aha! Building the Questioning Skills that Bring True Insight" Monday, June 27, 3:15-4:15.

Nutrition Network
The Nutrition Network retained CML to develop, "Media Literacy, A Recipe for Action," to teach both nutrition facts and media literacy skills to students at Sepulveda Middle School, which is part of Los Angeles Unified School District. During the nearly three-week program, pre and post-tests revealed that participating students increased their understanding by 16%, to 95%. Students produced a video that featured a deconstruction of a food ad, and the P.E. class that saw the video had an increase of 9% in understanding on the same pre-post test on the basis of seeing the video alone. One student commented that "other students should do this project because it will help them learn about important things that I learned, such as nutrition and making better decisions on what to eat." Beth Larsen from the Nutrition Network will present the program and findings at the National Media Education Conference on Monday, June 27, from 9:15-10:15 a.m. For information on replicating this program, please contact Tessa Jolls at CML.

Crash Course in DC as part of the Arsalyn Program
CML will conduct its "Crash Course in Media Literacy" at the Arsalyn Program's national conference in Washington, D.C. on June 25 for about 100 youth who are Jr. & Sr. high school and freshman-sophomore college students. This year's conference topic is "Navigating the Media Maze" and focuses on Youth and the Media. Trainer Peter Worth will be doing the presentation. Arsalyn specializes in civic engagement for young people. For more information on the Crash Course visit the CML web site. For more information on the Arsalyn Program, visit the Arsalyn web site.

Fire & the Media Curriculum
CML teamed up with the Oregon State Fire Marshal's office to develop lesson plans on Fire and the Media as core elements of their new curriculum It's Up to You! — a proactive approach to teaching middle school students about the reality of fire and how the media influences their attitudes and behaviors toward fire. CML associate Sarah Bordac developed the two media literacy lesson plans that bookend the program and are built on the CML's MediaLit Kit framework. Check out this creative program online.

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS

Take a Closer Look at Video News Releases and the Future of TV Anchors

• There are many aspects to the news — writing, interviewing, editing, delivery. In recent months TV news has seen changing faces of those who deliver the news with the retirement of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather and the illness of Peter Jennings. The New York Times and Bank Street College have develop a lesson plan, "This Just In…: Examining the Careers of Major Broadcast Journalists" to look closely at the role of the familiar faces who are invited into living rooms around the country every day.
  

• Video News Releases have been used by public relation firms for decades, but the practice is growing beyond public interest groups and lobbying groups to include larger organizations, particularly the U.S. government. In "News or Propaganda?: Evaluating the Use of Government-Created News Segments" The New York Times and Bank Street College take a look at the new reality of packaged news. Who is doing the packaging and why?
  

Plus! Check out the following teaching resources about TV News from the CML catalog that tie-into these lesson plans:

• A Day in the Life of a TV Reporter (Package of 5)
  
• How To Watch TV News
  
• How to Analyze the News Media
  
• She Says: Women in News
  
• Media Literacy: Get the News?
  
• The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World
  
• Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion
  
• Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns: A Document Based History Kit

And note these two collections of primary sources of world events from legendary reporters and anchors

• World War II On the Air: Edward R. Murrow and the Broadcasts that Riveted a Nation
  
• We Interrupt this Broadcast: The Events that Stopped our Lives
  

DOWNLOAD THIS

Report Describes Kids "Media Multi-tasking" Bedrooms
Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, notes that children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using "new media" while not cutting back on "old" media. Because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), they're managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day. In response to this report, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is reintroducing a bill to create a government-administered media research program under the National Institutes of Health. The program would study the links between media and child development, and between media consumption and childhood obesity, a growing national health risk. Co-sponsors of the bill, the Children and Media Research Advancement Act, are Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Rick Santorum (R-PA). Read the report.

Internet and Multimedia 2005: The On-Demand Media Consumer
One in 10 Americans show a heavy preference to control their media and entertainment, according to a recent study from Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research. The study focuses on new devices and services that allow Americans to exercise more control over the media they consume. Topics include DVRs, portable MP3 players and other on-demand technologies.
[Source: Arbitron]

 

AROUND THE MEDIA WORLD

The Internet and Campaign 2004: Pew Report
The Internet became an essential part of American politics in 2004. Fully 75 million Americans of the adult population and 61% of online Americans -- used the Internet to get political news and information, discuss candidates and debate issues in e-mails, or participate directly in the political process by volunteering or giving contributions to candidates. A post-election, nationwide survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press shows that the online political news consumer population grew dramatically from 18% of the U.S. population in 2000 to 29% in 2004. Read the report.

Online Web Users: Teens and Seniors
More than half of American families with teenagers use filters to limit access to potentially harmful content online. But both teens and parents believe that teens do things on the Internet that their parents would not approve of, according to a new report. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project]

There has been a steady increase over the past year in the percentage of older Americans who go online. In Pew's January 2005 phone survey, 26% of Americans age 65+ report Internet access, compared to the 22% of older Americans described in Pew's March 2004 report. [SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project]

 

ACTION IDEA OF THE MONTH

Time to prepare curriculum and select your teaching resources for next year! CML has dozens of new teaching materials in our new 2005 catalog. Called the "illustrated bibliography of media literacy" you can download the PDF or if you'd rather have original printed copies for each of your teaching team to help in planning, send an email with your full name and address and how many copies you need to gpn@unl.edu. Your purchase of teaching resources from CML/GPN helps provide the income to keep this newsletter going and support our website. Thanks for your support!