English Journal - Volume 87, Issue 1, 1998

Presents a process to prepare 10th-grade students to generate clear and thoughtful critiques of work in six nonprint media categories; movies, television shows, audio recordings, music videos, live performances, and computer programs. Provides detailed questions for student analysis of each.

Describes how three teachers learned about using Hyperstudio (presentation software), constructed a Web page, and created an original film as part of a unit on Florida writers. Recommends three major strategies for learning a new technology: choose the literary works, then the technology; build on your strengths; and learn to talk to the “techies.”

Argues that educators should train themselves and students to understand and cope with television’s power. Describes an inventory of viewing and reading habits, then discusses how three principles of teaching television are expressed in class activities. Outlines a unit that takes students from television as “just entertainment” to active, critical viewing. Makes three suggestions for teaching television.

Offers an overview of resource information in media literacy, including listings of key organizations; texts and resources for teaching on media literacy; comprehensive texts; sources of thematic curriculum units; and works that explore media genres.

Describes three instructional stages of television research for the classroom: (1) establish students as experts; (2) provide a solid research procedure; and (3) require written reports and oral presentations of research findings to the class.

Starts with a macro or global analysis of television, leading into an examination of how media (television and commercials in particular) functions at a micro or personal level. Proposes ways these issues can be transformed into challenging and meaningful curricula that teach students to engage in critical evaluations of the content and broader implications of commercial advertisements.

Describes a classroom activity where students compare an episode of “The Simpsons” to speeches and essays of Mark Twain. Suggests it invites students to consider the categorization of texts into “high” and “low” culture, and helps students build media literacy skills by applying tools of textual analysis first to a popular program and then to a literary classic.

Describes radio as a medium with a special power of intimacy, and notes its different eras. Describes briefly eight different classroom assignments using the radio, which can be used as stand-alone exercises, as enrichment for a variety of fields of study, or as a major unit of study on radio.

Outlines the major issues and dilemmas regarding the Internet and education. Discusses in detail both its promise (with regard to communication; references and resources; publication; hypertext; hypertext and reading; hypertext and writing; and hypertext, image, and sound) and its problems (inappropriate and inaccurate materials, educational distractions, and expense). Suggests five guidelines to help schools exploit the technology’s potential strengths.

Describes two class activities which used a computer software program to allow junior and senior high students to discuss and create on computers, electronically, in real time. Describes an online discussion in a large group, as well as a pairing activity in which two students worked together online to create an original poem.

Evaluates “Editor,” arguably the most sophisticated grammar and style checker. Tests its effectiveness by using samples from one student and one published writer. Finds that “Editor” is limited to identifying problems in surface structure and that it sometimes identifies “errors” which are not errors while failing to identify legitimate problems. Offers three recommendations for teachers.

Investigates whether technology supports curriculum content, how to get technology into average-level English classes, and what strategies using technology would appeal to students. Discusses reassessing teaching strategies, formulating a question and collecting data, initial survey results, implementing strategies, student response, difficulties implementing technology, and the final student survey.

Argues that teaching video production techniques in high-school English classes achieves the goals of language arts proficiency, media literacy, and student self-realization. Discusses preproduction; information search; script and storyboard; writing activities; oral communication activities; teamwork; aesthetic judgment; media literacy; affective goals; and vocational opportunities. Describes teaching production techniques to at-risk urban high school students.

Discusses the power of film and films as teaching tools. Describes how the 1987 French film “Au Revior Les Enfants“ can serve these purposes. Discusses its historical context, and ways to show the film in class. Lists numerous topics (on important film themes, and on technical aspects of film) for student projects.

Describe a situation between a teacher and a junior high school student in which the student was given detention for “talking back.” Argues that this disciplinary episode was unnecessary had the teacher been better prepared to talk effectively to students and for work with diverse student populations.

Offers 50 diverse suggestions intended to offer students new ways to think about a piece of literature, new directions to explore, and ways to respond with greater depth to the books they read.

Offers brief portraits of 10 remarkable and accomplished middle school language arts/English teachers from around the country. Finds common threads in their philosophy of teaching, learning, and living.

Presents brief annotations of 61 books of young adult historical fiction and nonfiction that address other time periods (biblical time period, the 1700s, the 1800s, the 20th century, political unrest overseas, and chronicles) that could be used in the classroom as part of a unit of study. Describes possible activities using five of the books.

Discusses elements of rhetoric as they are applied in education: its contemporary meanings, the history of rhetoric, its implications for teaching, and its applications for life.