Instructional Materials: Click here for downloadable instructional materials, forms and worksheets developed for use with the Youth Media Project: Student Town Meetings:
Resources: Click here for a list of materials and links to Web sites for:
We’d like to know…. If you’ve used any of these materials, please let us know how you used them, how they worked, and what we can develop or add. Send us your story and photos if you have them, to Maryanne Malecki at mmalecki@wamc.org.
Media Literacy
The Alliance for a Media Literate America seeks to stimulate growth in media literacy education in the United States by organizing and providing national leadership, advocacy, networking, and information exchange. Instructional materials related to current news events are regularly posted for downloading.
MediaChannel is a media issues super site, featuring criticism, breaking news, and investigative reporting from hundreds of organizations worldwide. “As the media watch the world, we watch the media.”
Contact Information: MediaChannel
575 8th Avenue
New York, NY l0018
phone: 212-246-0202
fax: 212-246-2677
Project Look Sharp provides materials, training and support to help teachers prepare students for life in today's media saturated world. Project Look Sharp promotes the effective integration of media literacy and critical thinking into classroom curricula at all educational levels and instructional areas. Website contains variety of curricular materials regularly updated.
FILM: Weapons of Mass Deception - an account of the TV coverage of the US invasion by independent filmmaker Danny Schechter. WMD Instructional Guide, developed by Project Look Sharp of Ithaca College, is available in .pdf format on left-side menu.
BOOK: Schechter, Danny. Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception , the book that inspired WMD the film, is a blow by blow dissection of the news media coverage of the war in Iraq.
- Center for Media Literacy: An excellent all-purpose resource; links to specific curricular strategies and items follow.
- Strategies for Introducing Media Literacy in Your School or District
- How to Teach Media Literacy
- 10 Classroom Approaches to Media Literacy
- Five Key Questions That Can Change the World. Classroom Activities for Media Literacy: Downloadable classroom activity guide with 25 core lesson plans for K-12 media literacy
- Workshop Report: How to do Assessment and Evaluation in Media Literacy
- More ideas from workshop presenter/educator Chris Worsnop on Assessment in Media Education
- Newseum: Interactive museum of news in Arlington, Va. Takes Web site visitors behind the scenes to see and experience how and why news is made.
- NYT @ 150: This collection of articles looks back at The New York Times as an organization and as a major media source during the celebration of the paper’s sesquicentennial (150 th anniversary), 1851- 2001.
- New York Times Learning Network: Classroom activities include articles from the NYT.
- Web English Teacher: Media Literacy and Information Literacy: Site lists links to various resources, articles and instructional materials.
- Media Literacy - Directory of Related Sites and Studies
- Media Literacy – Getting Started: Activity Ideas for Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science, and Health
- Media Literacy On-Line Quiz
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Research and Writing Resources
BOOK: Burke, Jim. Writing Reminders: Tools, Tips and Techniques. Heinemann, 2003.
Like Reading Reminders, its best-selling companion, Writing Reminders is designed to be read on the run—between periods, while planning, even while teaching—to make every minute count in your classroom, to help you work smarter and more effectively. It features techniques for teaching writing, complete with tools and tips on how to implement them.
BOOK: Christensen, Linda. Reading, Writing and Rising Up: Teaching about Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word. Rethinking Schools, 2000.
A practical, useful and informative book, containing examples of teaching and activities that develop critical thinking and effective writing for even the most recalcitrant students and the most experienced educators.
BOOK: Harvey, Stephanie and Anne Goudvis. Strategies That Work. Stenhouse Publishers, 2000.
Full of practical suggestions to help students think when they read. Written for grades 3-8, the strategies are easily adapted for use with high school students.
Instructional Materials to accompany Strategies that Work:
Methods and Instructional Information on Using Data and Documents in the Classroom
Includes formats, procedures and techniques to help students write
BOOK: Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style. Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc., 2000.
For teachers of English language arts. Addresses the practicalities of helping students compose multi-genre papers. Each idea is supported with actual student writing, including five full-length multi-genre papers. One chapter alone is devoted to helping writers create unity and coherence in their papers. An excellent reference for in-service or pre-service English language arts teacher.
Writing Instruction: It’s not just for English classes anymore…
Formats and instructional techniques across curricula at the secondary level.
Social Studies Resources
Instructional Packet: Use the Town Meeting format to teach the Bill of Rights to Elementary and Middle Level Students
The Legislative Gazette: The weekly newspaper of New York State government.
BOOK: Ward, Robert B. New York State Government
SUNY Press: Rockefeller Institute, 2nd edition 2006
A comprehensive examination of NYS government, including essential information about current and historic state policies in health care, education, transportation, economic development, the environment, taxes and spending.
Instructional Guide to accompany New York State Government 2nd edition 2006
BOOK: Ward, Robert B. New York State Government: What It Does, How It Works. SUNY Press: Rockefeller Institute, 2002
A comprehensive examination of NYS government, including essential information about current and historic state policies in health care, education, transportation, economic development, the environment, taxes and spending.
Instructional Guide to accompany New York State Government: What It Does, How It Works, 2002 Edition .
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government
The Rockefeller Institute is the public policy research arm of the State University of New York. The Institute conducts research on the role of state and local governments in American federalism and on the management and finances of states and localities.
Court Cases: FIRST AMENDMENT & RELIGION
Compiled by Jay Worona, General Counsel, New York State School Boards Association. Available online with his permission.
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Educational Issues & Methods
Rethinking Schools remains firmly committed to equity and to the vision that public education is central to the creation of a humane, caring, multiracial democracy. While writing for a broad audience, Rethinking Schools emphasizes problems facing urban schools, particularly issues of race. Throughout its history, Rethinking Schools has tried to balance classroom practice and educational theory. It is an activist publication, with articles written by and for teachers, parents, and students. It also addresses key policy issues, such as vouchers and marketplace-oriented reforms, funding equity, and school-to-work.
BOOK: Topping, Donna, and Roberta McManus. Real Reading, Real Writing. Heinemann, 2002.
Two seasoned veterans recount their 23-year collaboration to find ways to get students to improve their learning in their content area subjects. Donna Topping, an elementary-trained reading specialist who knew a lot about literacy but little about content areas, met Roberta McManus, a secondary-trained science teacher who knew a lot about science but very little about how to get students to read and write about it. Over the years, they have developed a host of practical activities and strategies to infuse the processes of learning into the content to be learned. Their book brings these activities to life—real activities immediately doable in classrooms at any level.
