Cyndy Scheibe, Project Look Sharp, Ithaca College
In the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S., media literacy (or TV literacy) strongly emphasized protecting children from harmful media messages. The focus was largely on advertising and audiovisual media (TV, radio, music, film, video games) and many media literacy initiatives were primarily aimed at parents and adults working with youth outside of school settings. Over the past 15 years media literacy education has gradually begun to establish a foothold in K-12 education, due in part to the explosion of digital technologies and increasing emphasis on the development of critical thinking skills. This presentation will briefly trace the expansion of media literacy pedagogies into the K-12 curriculum, moving from limited inclusion in ELA (film analysis), history (politics and propaganda) and health (advertising) to a much broader integration emphasizing literacy and multimedia communication skills across many disciplines – including social studies, science and math – with a much broader consideration of “media” to include all forms of digital and print media (e.g., websites, newspapers, magazines, books). As time allows, the presentation will highlight some diverse examples of curriculum-driven media literacy approaches and materials. The final discussion will focus on recent attempts to align media literacy initiatives with the new Common Core Standards in order to better meet the increasing demands on teachers to address multiple literacies throughout the K-12 curriculum.