Choudhury, M. and Share, J. (2012). Critical media literacy: A pedagogy for new literacies and urban youth. Voices from the Middle, 19:4, 39-44.
This article followed the teaching practice of Choudhury, an inner-city ESL teacher. He faced the challenges of high poverty and level of crimes within the community where he taught. Nearly 96% of the students at his middle school were Hispanic, which demanded a non-traditional model of teaching. Wanting to create an inclusive approach for all types of medias that would reach his students, Choudhury used a media literacy framework gathered by the Center for Media Literacy. In crafting his framework, Choudhury followed five key ideas which encouraged students to question the messages received from various sources. Through classroom discussions about individual perceptions on various media messages, Choudhury moved the class to analyzing the media’s various societal messages. Following a year-long project where students learned “English, social studies, and new literacies,” Choudhury’s students moved from 64% being at the far below basic to 21% by end of year.
While there were authoritative sources cited within the article, the piece relied predominately on Choudhury’s restructuring his classroom and the methodology he used. The value in the article lies in the real-world application of a theoretical concept and a teacher’s willingness to shift from a traditional classroom setting to a non-traditional one.
The article demonstrates what effective incorporation of a visual literacy curriculum can do for students. This is clearly seen by the students’ dramatic improvement.
Eastman, G.S. (2015). Making metaphor visible: The common core, poetry, and visual literacy.
English Journal, 104:6, 40-46.
The author argued that teachers can help their students become better readers andthinkers by applying their ability to closely read visuals when deconstructing poetry. Following a definition of visual literacy, she proposed that students learn three basis things: the meaning of the visual may not be immediately apparent, a close read of visual allows for various interpretations, and inference skills can be transferred from close readings of visual texts to traditional ones. Poetry, arguably the most densely packed with figurative language, provides students with an easy way of bridging visual literacy to literary texts. Eastman demonstrated how poetry and visual literacy easily parallel within the classroom – first, by offering research support by a variety of authors and secondly, by offering practical classroom activities.
Eastman’s creates credibility in her article by first discussing times when she missed opportunities to teach students how visual literacy applies to other texts. Next, she offers current research in visual literacy to augment her argument. However, the assignments/activities offered at the end of the article make the article incredibly valuable. If teachers are going to embrace the call to address visual literacy within the classroom, there must be practical advice that can be immediately incorporated in the curriculum.
Eastman’s article, like several others I have reviewed, is constructed the way that I feel is most beneficial for practicing teachers. Realistically, while theory does provide the backbone to many best practices, it is how teachers are able to translate theory into actual practice that makes best practice a truly best practice.
Farrell, T.A. (2015). Visual literacy (VL) in teacher preparation: Measurement to direction. Journal of Visual Literacy, 34:1, 89-104.doi:10.1080/23796529.2015.11674724
As an English teacher, the author recognized students’ inability to critically analyze photographs both at the high school level and college level. Her study sought to create a baseline of visual literacy “in graduate level pre-service teachers.” Offering details about theory base, the author described why visual literacy should be based in language study. By discussing current visual literacy standards for students, the author addressed teacher responsibility for ensuring that those standards were being meet. She specifically mentioned teacher preparation programs and the need to create a means for measurement that includes visual literacy competency. The author explained the significance of the study, how the baseline was established, how the study population sample was selected, and the how data was collected and then analyzed. What the study uncovered was that visual literacy ability is an area of weakness in the study population sample.
This particular study may be one of the more valuable studies I have discovered in my research. Because the study looked at 1144 K-12 pre-service teacher participants at 10 institutions, it identified that while visual literacy ability part of various standards, pre- service teachers are not adequately prepared in helping their own students in the classroom with the skill set.
Because of the world we live in, we are bombarded by visuals constantly. Being able to critically interpret and analyze those images is a valuable skill; the study confirms my own classroom and peer observations – students do not know how to dissect the visuals they see, and in part, that is because teachers themselves do not have the skill sets.
Friesem, Y., Quaglia, D., and Crane, E. (2014). Media now: A historical review of a media literacy curriculum.Journal of Media Literacy Education, 6(2), 35-55.
In the late 1960, the Media Now Curriculum was developed. The self-contained lesson modules provided students with the opportunity to learn about media and its influence. From the Media Now emerged Project Film in the early 1970s, which was initially created to address students’ attitudes and understanding of motion pictures. Leading researchers at the time expressed concerned about society’s not fully understanding the “unique characteristics of the medium.” The authors offered an in-depth analysis of the Media Now curriculum to suggest that its ground-breaking curriculum can offer a model for educators to create a media-literacy curriculum relevant for today’s world. For the dissection of political speeches the internet and social media, the Media Now can offer an outline for creating a “non-linear curriculum” that empowers students to guide their own learning.
The inherent value of this article is two-fold. First, it demonstratesvisual/media literacy and its role in current role in education is not a new conversation; rather, educators and researchers have been discussing visual literacy in some form for fifty years. The second point stems from the first; because work was done five decades ago creating effective curriculum, 21st century instructors have a viable, working model to construct a relevant series of lessons for today’s students.
This article provides an opportunity for exploring a curriculum template in creating a much needed visual literacy curriculum. Teachers have long used existing resources to enhance their instruction.
Gilbert, C. (2013). Changing the lens: The necessity of visual literacy in the ELA classroom. English Journal 102: 4, 89-94.
By offering a specific definition of visual literacy, the author suggested that there is a lack of evidence that teachers approach visual literacy as actively as they do traditional literacy. According to Gilbert, there seems to be an assumption within the education world that students will intrinsically develop visual literacy skills because they encounter these “literacies” beyond the school setting. The author specifically discussed the value of visual literacy within the ELA classroom but pointed out that those classrooms are still centered on traditional print texts. The author then specifically discussed the power of magazine images and the adult images that are portrayed to teens. Contending that teens are influenced by what they say, often adjusting their dress and behavior to emulate what they see, the author argued a need for teachers to teach students to critically dissect what they see visually. The author used two examples from contemporary magazines to illustrate his point on both the influence of images and how to analyze those images.
This article offered a solid balance between current research and practical teaching suggestions. Like many of the other articles I have read, Gilbert reinforced the idea that while visual literacy is seen as a valuable skill set by many researchers, too many teachers still teach literacy centered solely on the printed word.
This article reflects the type of article that I would like to write – one balanced between the research and practical. I think there is a need, as illustrated by Gilbert’s article for approachable techniques, steeped in research, that teachers (who do not have the time to read heavily research-only articles) can read and then readily adapt for classroom use.
Jolls, T. (2015). The new curricula: Propelling the growth of media literacy education.
Journal of Media Literacy Education, 7(1), 65 -71.
The author began by discussing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program and its success. Part of the IB philosophy is to prepare students to become both lifelong learners and world citizens. By using IB as an example, the author demonstrated how both online and cellular technology help take the traditional classroom, teachers and students outside four walls to experience learning in a fuller way. Curriculum development must rise to meet the changing needs of this changing world. No longer, the author contended, does the “factory model” of teaching apply. She included a list of 24 characteristics of the factory model curriculum versus that of a networked model to illustrate the changing nature of today’s student needs. Teachers need to have time and practice to understand the media literacy framework if they are going to be effective in the classroom.
The author relies heavily on pre-existing research to support her argument concerning a restructuring of existing curriculum. The example she used with IB to demonstrate how students need to be engaged world citizens and can be so through the use of technology made a powerful point.
Much of what Jolls argues aligns with my personal ideology. Teachers can no longer be content to teach the way we did twenty, ten or even five years ago. Additionally, the importance of professional development and then follow-up to that development is a key component to the success of effectively embedding visual literacy curriculum within the classroom.