Get Them Thinking!: Using Media Literacy to Prepare Students for State Assessments

by Sue Lockwood Summers

Overview

This exciting new resource incorporates engaging media literacy into the ongoing preparation of students for standardized testing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781586831721
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/01/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.29(d)
Age Range:	3 Months

About the Author

Sue Lockwood Summers is the director of Media Alert in Littleton, CO.

Editorial Reviews

The author has crafted a very timely and readable tool that will be of great benefit to media specialists. Educating students and teachers about the importance of being media literate is essential because our students are bombarded by media messages now more than ever. Teaching the four steps Summers talks about, "awareness, analyses, reflection, and action" will help to develop students who are critical thinkers and consumers, as well as better test takers. This book has an excellent taxonomy of thinking skills (blending Summers' taxonomy with Bloom's). Each chapter is a step in learning to recognize and critically evaluate media materials. Each chapter also contains lesson ideas geared toward elementary, middle, and high school students. The lessons are designed to be able to stand alone, or better yet, integrate into a content-driven collaborative lesson with a classroom teacher. For the critical media specialist in all of us, I particularly liked the comprehensive glossary of media terms; the extensive appendix with book, article, and online references; and the practical, ready to use handouts. As an overworked librarian trying to include one more lesson in my already packed class time, this book is a practical tool that makes my job a little easier. Recommended.” —Library Media Connection

From the Publisher

Summers's outstanding manual is an education in itself-a substantive rationale for the importance of establishing media literacy in children, explaining how it relates to standardized testing and offering a method for making it happen in your school. Five chapters outline the steps involved in teaching children to become media savvy, including analyzing who created the message, how it was delivered, its personal impact on the receiver, and on society in general. In addition to great teaching ideas embedded throughout the chapters, the author includes activities and reproducibles organized by grade-level appropriateness. Final chapters include teaching kids to be the message creators, not just passive receivers, and 10 pages on applied critical-thinking exercises, again geared to "the test" and complete with reproducibles. The glossary is extensive and really useful, and the appendix on resources and media organizations will be well thumbed. You'll want to dive right in and teach a class on research, with media literacy as the highlight.-Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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