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Critical Media Project: Making Change DIY

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Critical Media Project: Making Change DIY

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The Critical Media Project's mission is to encourage youth to think about how the different aspects of identity are portrayed and manipulated in media. "Making Change DIY" is a project teachers can assign to students to help them understand how advocacy media works.

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Advocacy uses compelling stories to inspire people to think differently or take action to change a problem in society. Consider the following questions to start: What is my "why"? What do I care about? What change do I want to see and be a part of in the world?

You can choose to do this project either individually or in groups.

Advocacy media takes all kinds of forms, and is used to support a wide array of social causes. The key to advocacy media is that at the end of the day, you want the audience that you are trying to reach- to do or feel something that will create positive change.

ADVOCACY MEDIA PROJECT WORKSHEET (use this to help scaffold your work)

PLAN Your Project

Advocacy is about addressing a problem in society. Start by defining the problem or issue you want to focus on in this project. The specific issue is up to you, but it should be something that has relevance for society generally, or for specific communities or groups in society.

Here are some questions you can use to help narrow down your topic:

What do you wish people paid more attention to?

What do you see or experience that makes you frustrated or angry in society?

Identify the focus of your advocacy, and briefly explain here why you chose it:
Think about who your intended audience is- what group of people do you want to reach?For example, your intended audience might be:

Members within a specific community (for example, members of a school or organization)

A specific demographic or group (for example, young people or newly arrived immigrants)

Leaders (for example, politicians or religious leaders)

The general public

These are just examples - you can choose to focus on any audience you want. Just be sure there's a clear connection between who you are trying to reach and what you are trying to accomplish. The kinds of visuals, messaging, and information that are powerful for one group might not work for another group, so think carefully about how best to reach your specific audience.
Identify your target audience and briefly describe what you think will be the most effective way to reach them: Gather Your Evidence
Show the audience why the issue you have chosen is a problem. To do this, you need to provide evidence of its existence and impact. You'll want to do some research to gather evidence in support of your argument. Not all of the information you find needs to be included in the final project, but the research is important in making your advocacy powerful and well-informed.

Here are some types of evidence you can use:

Statistics/Research

News articles

Illustrative examples (photos, video clips, stories, etc.)

Personal testimonial (talking about your own story or experience or hearing from another person who has relevant experience)

Interviews with an "expert" or someone with deep knowledge or experience with the issue (for example, a teacher, worker, writer, or anyone in the community)

Describe some of what you found in your research and list what research you'll use in your project: Establish Your Call to Action
Now that you've identified the problem and provided evidence of its significance, what do you want your audience to do about it? It is important to understand and be clear about your intent so that you can project a strong, direct message.

Here are common types of calls to action that you can consider for your project. You can choose to focus on just one, or combine a few in your project.

Raise awareness or educate

Change public attitudes

Change people's behavior

Support new or different policies

Motivate activism

Describe your call to action: Build Community & Momentum
Social media hashtags are one great way to build community and momentum around an issue by connecting people to each other. Hashtags are specific words or phrases that connect different social media posts, so that many different individuals can contribute to a shared conversation online. For this project, include a hashtag that is related to your topic. You can find an existing hashtag, or you can create a brand new one of your own.
Write your hashtag here:
CREATE Your Media

Here are some tools and programs you might find useful:
Image Editing Audio Editing Video Editing
You can also have a look at the Critical Media Project website for more videos and tips for creating different media like collage, video, digital art, and audio stories.

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Advocacy uses compelling stories to inspire people to think differently or take action to change a problem in society. Consider the following questions to start: What is my "why"? What do I care about? What change do I want ... Continue reading →

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Media Education Lab: Secondary School Unit: 2 Who Do You Trust? 

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Media Education Lab: Secondary School Unit: 2 Who Do You Trust? 

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This website offers media literacy teaching resources and lesson plans for elementary grades through high school. This particular lesson plan focuses on truth-telling, and credibility in websites. While participating in a scavenger hunt, students learn to identify "hot" and "cool" language as a strategy for recognizing bias.

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Secondary School Unit 2: Who Do You Trust? | Media Education Lab

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Use the PDF unit lesson plans plus the clip reel to help students: Work in small groups on a web research scavenger hunt to evaluate the credibility of websites and search engines Learn to identify “hot” and “cool” language used in writing, and how they may be used to express biased or neutral infor…

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Website that offers a free library of films pertaining to a range of issues, including consummerism. Titles include, "Behind the Screens," "Advertising & the End of the World," and "In Dept We Trust." All these films are available through Kanopy.

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Students create a Word Art cloud in response to an activity (similar to the numbers we have for each week of the semester)

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WordArt.com is an AI-powered word cloud generator that enables you to create amazing and unique word clouds with ease.

Professional quality results can be achieved in no time at all, even for users with no prior knowledge of graphic design.

Word clouds (also known as tag cloud, word collage or wordle) are visual representation of text that give greater rank to words that appear more frequently.

Word clouds are perfect for creating stunning personalized gifts. No sign up required!

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Create Stunning Word Clouds in Seconds | WordArt.com

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WordArt.com is an online word cloud generator that enables you to create amazing and unique word clouds with ease

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This free resource includes daily current events, weekly news quizzes, and weekly lesson plan ideas. Everything available is chosen with the intention of providing teachers with resources for "bringing the world into the classroom"

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Teach and learn with The Times: Resources for bringing the world into your classroom

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This resource provides links pertaining to specific identities/social groups- particularly ones that may be pertinent to students.

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why media matters

Key facets of identity - like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, and disability - play prominent roles in the media we consume and create, determining how we see, understand, and experience the world and those we encounter in it.
Learn More

praise for critical media project

"

The Critical Media Project gave me an opportunity to really be able to think. The project helped me remember my past and analyze myself. By being able to think I was able to rediscover what it was that I was fighting for, what it was that motivated me. What I found most valuable about this project was that I was able to present in class and let out all the things, my life story, the hardships, and my motivation, that I had bottled up inside.

Luis Hernandez Batres
Student, Canoga Park High School

More Testimonials
Keep Critical Media Project Going!

Demand for Critical Media Project services outpaces current resources. With new funding CMP could expand our outreach, grow our resources and content, develop training modules for teachers, and assess our impact and value. Please consider donating today! And thank you!

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Key facets of identity -- like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, and disability -- play prominent roles in the media we consume and create, determining how we see, understand, and experience the world and those we encounter in it.

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A savvy, engaging app that allows students to learn vocabulary through hip hop.

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This is a great resource for news that you can teach in a classroom. It offers articles from different sources on different subjects like criminal justice or immigration. https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/about-lowdown -Matt Teigland

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Create a newspaper in a hypothetical government to win over citizens' loyalty to Republia! Helps students use/learn about headlines and how they influence.

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"Well-structured lessons encourage deep analysis, thoughtful writing." An app that has pre-selected texts and questions, well-constructed prompts, and standard-based texts.

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App/Website that allows you to choose a picture and make them talk. Students can add their own  character/picture and choose what they say. It's a fun interactive way for students to convey thoughts or present information while making a cute fuzzy llama talk

Tori Holmquist

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This has articles geared towards a young audience. You can find articles that go with a lesson and have this as an introduction activity to get your students attention. Some include: why do we love junk food, this is what happened when an Australian city gave trees email addresses, and how a pizza maker changed the stunt-kite-flying world.

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween Tribune has been a valued educational brand of Smithsonian magazine, and we appreciate your continued support.

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

Get Smithsonian Educational Resources

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students.

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Curriculum from Apple on Creating Digital Media

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Curriculum from Apple on Creating Digital Media

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Digital media becomes more important every day with being able to broadcast, produce, and share information. This article has 16 lesson ideas, some of them being: Developing movie ideas, From script to storyboard, Shoot it! The production process, etc. These are all items that we may not feel comfortable to teach within our classes, but it is a creative way to get our students involved in creative writing and production. Obviously you wouldn't have a whole camera crew, but if we minimize it to what your classroom has (or even with students phones), it can be a fun idea.
(Jayda)

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This source walks students through deconstructing an ad of their choice, and identifying the tools used to send a message. It then instructs students to create an ad with a message countering that of their original ad to reinforce their understanding of media/advertisement principles.

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You are going to deconstruct an advertisement of your choosing and then give a presentation to your classmates. You will not be required to turn in a written report; your grade will be determined...

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A socially progressive way for students to take media skills to the next level. By helping students advance their media skills, the company pairs students with socially progressive companies, or students looking to start their own movement or idea.

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TMS facilitates mindful media making experiences and strategic technology planning with students, educators, and organizations to foster empowered understanding of self, community, and environment in the digital age.

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TMS facilitates mindful media making experiences and strategic technology planning with students, educators, and organizations to foster empowered understanding of self, community, and environment in the digital age.

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This is a multidisciplinary guide on evaluating research sources, especially resources found on the World Wide Web.
CRAAP is an acronym for:
Currency
Relevance
Authority
Accuracy
Purpose

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When was the information published or posted?

Has the information been revised or updated?

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic?

Are the links functional?

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?

Who is the intended audience?

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?

Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Authority: the source of the information

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?

What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?

examples: .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .gov (U.S. government),

.org (nonprofit organization), or .net (network)

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content, and

Where does the information come from?

Is the information supported by evidence?

Has the information been reviewed or refereed?

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion?

Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors?

Purpose: the reason the information exists

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda?

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?

By scoring each category on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = worst, 10=best possible) you can give each site a grade on a 50 point scale for how high-quality it is!

45 - 50 Excellent | 40 - 44 Good | 35 - 39 Average | 30 - 34 Borderline Acceptable | Below 30 - Unacceptable

Note: all credit for the CRAAP test goes to the librarians who developed it at CSU Chico.

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Research & Subject Guides: Evaluating Web Resources: The CRAAP test

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When was the information published or posted? Has the information been revised or updated? Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? Are the links functional? Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?

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This is another fun way to have students be visually creative and synthesize what they are reading! Students could use this to jump start book reports, or use this as a summative assignment. The resource, Canva, is a great and free tool that teachers and students could use in class. Infographics could also be used as book trailers to get other students interested in reading the book. Canva has great templates and visuals to incorporate!
Canva!!

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This source is basically an assignment where you practice mindful media consumption. You track your use, analyze it, retrack it, and then write and reflect on the activity. -Matt Teigland Set of College-Level Assignments on Media

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This app is a video slide-maker and is easy for students to use and explore. A few of the ideas that are given on the app are to have students create a family tree and walk through it or to present research. You can do a voiceover or add music, and you can also add original images or search for them as well. (Jenna)

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Newsmap creates a visual of news headlines and patterns based on topics in the news. You can see popular headlines represented by size and location on the diagram. This helps students visualize how patterns in media shape and take place.

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Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator.

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Social Media Posts ad Exemplars of Language

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Social Media Posts ad Exemplars of Language

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Allows students to express thoughts in a more natural way through 'Code Switching' communicating as they would on a more regular basis rather than a formal classroom setting. Students can transfer their knowledge of social media writing into the classroom

Tori Holmquist

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Our students spend a lot of time tweeting, composing Instagram captions, and text messaging. In the process, they are carefully observing and decoding the subtleties of social media text. They know when it's cool to replace "yes" with "yas" and how to turn a common courtesy into a sarcastic "thanksss" with just a few extra letters.

Even if internet-fueled trends like the popularity of ellipses drive you crazy, embracing social media writing still offers exciting possibilities. Our students are fluent in the language of pop culture. They spend hours of their free time writing and analyzing social media text. Instead of viewing such writing as a deficit, let's leverage the thinking that students are already doing when they write a text or engage in social media.

Language Patterns

The changing norms of social media writing don't match standard classroom English expectations, but they do follow patterns of language development. For example, you may have noticed that many students are leaving the period off the end of their text messages. The lack of punctuation may seem sloppy or haphazard to an unaware reader, but the missing period carries meaning. Many digital natives interpret the use of a period at the end of a text message as angry, overly formal, or an abrupt end to a conversation. Even if students can't tell you exactly why they didn't include a period, they can probably detect a difference in tone.

A missing period at the end of a sentence might make teachers cringe, but it's a real-life example of how readers and writers develop a shared understanding of what conventions mean and how language works in patterns. When we help students analyze this trend or others, like multiple exclamation points or the use of slashes, we're helping them analyze patterns that they use instinctively-and they can apply that kind of analysis in other, more formal contexts.

To get students to translate their knowledge of social media writing to the classroom, have students make lists of the ways that a particular convention is used in texting or tweeting. If they find multiple tweets that include periods to emphasize a point by punctuating every. single. word., they can correctly conclude that the period is being used for emphasis. Then, do the same activity with standard English examples. The comparison will provide plenty of fodder for discussing convention expectations in different writing contexts. By building on what they already know, students will be even more effective at analyzing classroom writing expectations.

Social Media Code-Switching

Of course, it's not enough just to analyze grammar. Good writers move seamlessly between writing at all levels of formality. The breezy language of an email to a friend is different from the more formal language required for a grant application. But developing writers often need specific support to code-switch between the informal language of social media or text messaging and the formal language required for school research reports.

Instead of banishing the writing students use most often, use it to help them identify the kinds of writing that a given context calls for. For example, students have no trouble identifying the different writing demands of texting their friends versus texting their parents, but they might not be able to dissect the exact ways that their writing changes between these two contexts. Consider making lists that compare informal and formal writing. Or spend a bit of class time finding examples of how writers show emotion or sincerity differently depending on the context.

Kristen Hawley Turner suggests using Flip the Switch, an activity where students translate sentences from one context to another. Students might figure out how a greeting, for example, changes between an email to a boss, a text message to a bestie, and an introductory letter to a new teacher. Acknowledging the validity of each context helps students translate their writing into the most appropriate form instead of writing off the informality of social media altogether.

Texting and social media writing aren't going away anytime soon. Linguist John McWhorter suggests viewing the changes as an "expansion of [young people's] linguistic repertoire." The changing, informal conventions of social media aren't a challenge to standard classroom English-they're an opportunity.

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Our students spend a lot of time tweeting, composing Instagram captions, and text messaging. In the process, they are carefully observing and decoding the subtleties of social media text. They know when it's cool to replace "yes" with "yas" and how to turn a common courtesy into a sarcastic "thanksss" with just a few extra letters.

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This resource gives students more resources to look at for media education including determining propaganda, and seeing how librarians are using youtube. -Matt Teigland Media Education Lab materials

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A social media network for students and teachers. A safe and secure way for students to practice blogging and social media skills, while interacting with a teacher and other classmates.

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The Twiducate Platform is a free resource for educators founded by Brian Aspinall in 2009 and was later taken over by Ray Blakney in 2011. Our goal is to create a medium for teachers and students to continue their learning outside the classroom. We attempt to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners in a social networking environment.

In 2016, the Twiducate Platform was moved to the same website as it's sister company Live Lingua. The reason for this was two fold. The first was to make the experience faster and more secure for the teachers and students. On the new Live Lingua server, the Twiducate Platform is now protected by a 256 bit SSL certificate. What does this mean? It means that everything on the site is now fully encrypted. It makes it safer for every student. By moving to this server the site should also be faster since the server is more powerful. We are also able to do a page redesign that will make the entire site mobile friendly. It will also allow us, over time, to put in some cool new features that we have access to from Live Lingua.

The second reason for the merge is... well, costs. Twiducate is free, and wants to remain, but unfortunately there were costs for the server, domain and time spent on support that we have to cover. By moving this to the same place as Live Lingua we are able to whipe almost all those costs away. Don't worry, we won't be adding any ads or monthly charge. The Twiducate Platform can remain free while here!

We understand that many social networking sites exist, however the control of content is limited for teachers. Also, many of these social networking sites are continuously being blocked by school firewalls and administrators.

Our service proudly differs in that only teachers and students may view classroom posts, thus creating a private network for you and your students and a safer online learning environment.

Many students already use social networking sites. Why not give them an opportunity to develop their learning in this type of environment but with control over visibility and content. Talk about student engagement!

It is a fact that students will need social networking, blogging and basic internet skills to compete in today's business world.

As educators with an interest in web 2.0, we understand how education has and will continue to change. We want to provide an opportunity for our students to explore web 2.0 but are constantly facing barriers with existing social networking sites.

Welcome to the Twiducate Platform.

Not only will the Twiducate Platform give your students the web 2.0 skills they need, but also expand their reading, writing, thoughts and ideas beyond the classroom setting.

The Twiducate Platform is an entirely free site. We support it with our other online education projects below. If you like the Twiducate Platform, please support us by using the other services on Live Lingua when you need them.

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The Twiducate Platform is a free resource for educators founded by Brian Aspinall in 2009 and was later taken over by Ray Blakney in 2011. Our goal is to create a medium for teachers and students to continue their learning outside the classroom.

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Comic Life is a website that allows students to create their own comics. This would be a great resource for a creative writing unit, or a fun assessment tool. Pixton is similar tool that is helpful for reluctant writers.

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This is a great way to connect students with the characters within a book they are reading in a super fun way! The source talks about facebook, but I prefer using tweet templates or Instagram profile templates.You can have students take this one step further and create posts or even a TikTok video personifying a character, or bringing it to modern life.
Tweet Template
instagram profile

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New York Times models to respond to literature

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New York Times models to respond to literature

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Going beyond the standard book report, this article has collected a variety of ways to encourage students to respond to something they've read in a new way. My personal favorite is "Bring the Beat" which asks students to create a soundtrack for a book they've read. (Jenna)

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Below, we present some alternatives to that classic classroom assignment, the book report. All of our ideas are inspired by The New York Times in some way, either because we've adapted an interesting format, or because we were inspired by an article, review, essay, interview or multimedia feature.

Do you assign book reports, in any format, to your students? What do they look like? Join the conversation!

A Times-Style Book Review

Read The Times's Books section to scan several current book reviews of novels, story collections and poetry, and to use the search feature to find reviews of older books. Next, make a list of common elements. These might include a summary of the plot or main points or themes, comparisons or references to the writer's earlier works, discussion of the writer's contemporaries or influences, how the reviewer assesses the work's quality; connections (if any) the reviewer has to the subject matter; and the like.

Next, write your own Times-style review of a book, incorporating many of these elements. If The Times has also reviewed the book you've chosen, avoid reading it until you have crafted your own review, of course.

Book Talk, With You as Host

Create a podcast around a book or author, perhaps inspired by the format of those found in the Times' Book Review. You might act as host and introduce several different segments, such as a mock interview with the author or an expert on the topic, or a discussion of how a classic book is suddenly timely.

You might also include free-form segments like "The Book That Changed My Life," "What We're Reading," or "My First-Ever Favorite Book." You could vary these with "advertisements" for books, top-10 lists of favorite authors or characters, or news about book-related events, such as online book discussions or local events such as readings given by authors.

For classic works, you might set the podcast in the time of its publication, considering other works popular at the time, the issues of the day and so on. Or, include an "interview" with the author, drawing from research such as published interviews, profiles, memoirs and biographies to ground the portrayal in fact. Another idea? Role-play a conversation of writers from the past or present sitting down together to talk about one another's work, or their own works in progress, with the podcast acting as the "tape recorder" that captures the whole thing.

Judging the Book by Its Cover

Start by considering how a cover "sells" a book and serves as a quick visual reference, and make a quick list of favorite or most memorable covers. Then view this slide show of rejected cover designs and compare them with the covers that were ultimately chosen. Are the final ones better? Why?

Next, create paintings or other illustrations to honor a book you're reading. You might do this in homage to the covers of favorite books, or you might create a cover for a work that doesn't have its own cover, such as a piece you read in an anthology or story collection. The covers can be representative of the setting, a key scene, main characters or major plot event, or be more abstract or conceptual, capturing the tone of the work, a theme or character's mental state.Or, you might want to create covers in the style of a favorite artist.

Shot on Location

Choose key scenes from a novel that is set in a real place and find photos or illustrations online that show the locations described by the author. (You can choose photos that fit the novel's descriptions if the setting is not directly named or is not a real place.)

Another option is to choose an author and show the places from a variety of his or her works, such as this feature about novelist Haruki Murakami, which includes a photo, related excerpt and voice recording of the person who chose them. As a low-tech alternative, you might draw, and annotate with relevant passages, maps of novels' environs or all the settings used in a writer's oeuvre.

For a longer-term project, visit the real life "stomping grounds" of a fictional character or visit places with a rich literary history and create a blog or podcast about them. You might record yourself reading relevant passages or discussing the works in the very spot the author(s) wrote about.
Bring the Beat
Create (and record, and add liner notes explaining) a soundtrack for a book you're reading, or invent a rap about it, as these Stanford students did about the biology of how the body converts food into energy.

Making Lists of Favorites

Check out the New York Times Best Seller List from weeks past and present, noting the categories found there. Use or tweak the categories to take a poll of classmates, teachers, parents, school and public librarians and other readers to learn what books they are currently reading or have recently read. Then, work with others to make your own lists - whether of local favorites; of books read in school over the years; or, perhaps, of genre suggestions along the lines of "If you liked the 'Harry Potter' books, you'll love...".

You and your classmates might then each choose one book to write up in the style of an Inside the List blurb that tells about the book, its author, its audience or all of these. Or, create "shelf talkers" about some of these books for your school library modeled after those in this bookstore.

Annotate Lists on One Topic

Choose an author, genre, time period, historical event, place or other relatively general topic and research books by or about the subject, perhaps starting with the Times' Sunday Book Review or Book News and Reviews.

Create annotated lists of published works about it, like this one on the Civil War, organized by category, chronology or other technique. You might then create brochure or Web pages, or a library display, as part of a class collection called "So You Want to Know About..."

Rate and Debate

Brainstorm thought-provoking questions about a common text, such as what might have happened five years before the events in a novel begin, 25 years after they end, or what would happen if a key plot point was changed. Then, ask several people to weigh in and give short answers in order to create a Room for Debate- style response.

Book Report by Video

Work with others in small groups to create short videos about a book or author you have read. You might voice-over narration and and include interviews, as in this example which is about the "Babar" series of children's books.

Be creative about your interviewees. For instance, you might talk to fans of a book series waiting until midnight for the release of the next installment; people of the same generation about what a seminal book meant to them as children; or experts like teachers, professors and historians who can weigh in on the significance of a often-taught book, or on a book controversy.

Another approach to the video is to stage key scenes from novels or stories, or record dramatic readings, with sound effects. Or, make an author and his or her works the subject of a video, with an actor portraying him or her and reenacting important career and life events.
The Graphic Novel Version
Everything from the Bible to "Twilight" to "The Art of War" is being turned into a graphic novel. How would the book you're currently reading be transformed by this genre? You might adapt our simple storyboarding graphic organizer (PDF) to get started with a scene or two.

Book Blurbs on Blogs

Read the "books" category of the ArtsBeat blog for a week or more, researching the topics mentioned there. Then, work on short blog posts of your own that go into greater detail, or give the "back story," about each news item for your audience. For example, a recent post about new and ongoing manga series might inspire a segment on manga in general.

Why Your Favorite Author Matters

Write persuasive essays that combine research, critical analysis of major works and personal accounts that raise and answer the question "Why does this author matter?"

You might begin by reading Sunday Book Review essays with similar aims, such as this one about Lionel Trilling, this "Riff" column about Joan Didion, or by reading the back issues of the review.

You can also search Times Topics pages which collect all the news, reference and archival information, photos, graphics, audio and video files published on topic, and find nearly any published author - whether Stephen King or Shakespeare -. Use them as a starting point for research.

Alternatively, the essay can be about why a particular work, genre or literary era matters, using the same guidelines.
The Book Report of the Future
Has the format of the book report assignment in your school morphed over time? If so, how? What do you imagine a "book report" in 2025 might look like? Use our post on the the "future of reading" that examines how technology is changing reading, readers and books to propose new formats for presenting reader responses to literature.For instance, perhaps you and your classmates can join or create an online book sharing and reviewing community, design a book app, or write about the difference between reading a paper-and-ink book and an e-book or some other digital format.
Related Lessons from The Learning Network 10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature "Going Beyond the Book Report With Literature Exhibits" "Our Computers, Ourselves: Imagining the Digital Lives of Authors and Characters" "Join the Club: Supporting Independent Reading with Book Groups" "Short and Sweet: Deconstructing and Crafting Brief Arts Reviews "We're Booked" "Reviews Revealed" Other Learning Network Resources
Fill-In | The First Times' Review of the First Harry Potter Novel

Resource | Ten Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week

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Beyond the Book Report: Ways to Respond to Literature Using New York Times Models

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Below, we present some alternatives to that classic classroom assignment, the book report. All of our ideas are inspired by The New York Times in some way, either because we've adapted an interesting format, or because we were inspired by an article, review, essay, interview or multimedia feature.

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This website offers a game to test people on whether or not they can detect fake news from real. This is a fun activity to include in a media unit.

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Visual literacy is to help students to think through, think about, and think with pictures. The language of talking through pictures is unknown to our students, so we must help them learn how to talk through pictures and show what this looks like. This can be pictures, graphics, comics, graphs, timelines, maps, diagrams, memes, symbols, etc. Some example questions are: What are you noticing? What do you see that makes you see that? What more can we find?
(Jayda)

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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It includes newspaper front pages from around the world. Newseumed.org's mission statement is: :Strengthening civil society through First Amendment & Media Literacy Education." It has areas on the site such as understanding the first amendment, finding reliable facts, making historical connections, exercising my rights, navigating a religiously diverse society, and examining the power of the press

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Benjamin P. Marcus Fellow for Religious Freedom

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The Freedom Forum’s mission is to foster First Amendment freedoms for all.