It's not enough for youth to know how to use technology and to press the right buttons: it's critical thinking that counts! CML's basic framework for media literacy provides children with an internalized process for critical thinking and discernment that is an essential guide for lifelong learning.
The CML MediaLit Kit™ provides, for the first time, an accessible, integrated, research-based teaching strategy needed to assist schools and districts in organizing and structuring teaching activities using a media literacy lens. Based on longstanding theoretical foundations and a research-based approach, education tools contained in the CML MediaLit Kit™ reflect a philosophy of empowerment through education and articulate the key components of an inquiry-based media literacy education.
The cornerstone of CML's approach rests with its basic framework, called Questions/TIPS (Q/TIPS), which feature the Five Core Concepts and the Five Key Questions of Media Literacy for both deconstruction or consumers of media, as well as construction or producers of media.
Learning to apply CML's Five Key Questions and Five Core Concepts to any media message is a core skill for life in the 21st Century. But before teachers can teach these important ideas, they must first understand and experience media literacy for themselves.
To explain its framework, CML offers the following resources for teachers, parents or community leaders:
Explains media literacy pedagogy in plain language. Contains Questions/TIPS (Q/TIPS™) and explanations of new questions for media production as well as for critical analysis. How does media literacy relate to the construction of media? How can critical thinking be taught and learned while students are producing media?
In a short and readable format, it:
Along with its handouts, Literacy for the 21st Century is an invaluable reference for teachers, media librarians, curriculum developers, researchers and anyone who wants to understand what media literacy is all about and/or explain it to others.
As a resource for workshops, graduate seminars or faculty in-service programs, it provides an unparalleled overview of the field and a common language and vocabulary for building a media literacy program in a school or district. The First Edition of Literacy for the 21st Century -- which covers only media deconstruction and CML's Five Key Questions for analysis -- is available in Spanish and Turkish, as well. As a service to the media literacy field, he First Edition/English version is available for FREE. This groundbreaking book pulled together the various elements of media literacy into one source and was first published in 2002.
2. Professional Development Slide Presentation. Reading about media literacy is one thing; experiencing media literacy is another! The goal of this PowerPoint presentation is to provide an Aha! moment in understanding your relationship with media, and providing practice in applying CML's basic framework for deconstructing media messages in a way that encourages "seeing" media in entirely new ways.