Filming a Public Service Announcement

This past year I taught my grade 6 students how to compare and contrast P.S.A.s and commercials. I then asked them to develop and film a P.S.A. I had a great deal of difficulty accessing video cameras from the board so I went to the local high school. The media teacher agreed to lend me 6 of her grade 12 students as Media Mentors. My kids were split up into groups and then they developped a story board and a script and then they practised their P.S.A. I expected the mentors to come in and film for the day, instead they were actual mentors, they went over the storyboards, they made suggestions on the script, gave acting advice, and best of all they taught my students how to film it on their own. It was a great experience, so much so that many of my students sighted it as their favourite part of grade 6 during a E.Q.A.O. assignment. The second part was that I walked my class over to the highschool and they spent the entire morning with their media mentors, editting their film on the computer. Unfortuneately the teacher was going to get me a copy of all of their P.S.A.'s editted together for Open House, but she was unable to do so. Still in all I would not have missed the experience in fact I would add a couple of components, now I would have them do the storyboard on the computer and I would add an extra sound component. In fact, one of my students actually did use her i-pod to bring in the sound effect of a police siren which really added to their P.S.A., students really are ahead of us in technology.

Sonia

I'm such a Dinosaur!

Last week I had a huge argument with my older son because I would not purchase Airline Tickets on-line. I worry about using a credit card on-line. We have had this disagreement several times, because I believe he may be physically morphing into a cell phone or a computer, he is so attached to technology and he is frustrated with what he calls my paranoia about technology. I told him that I would buy my ticket at the airport as I always have but I did allow him to check for the cheapest ticket price, a compromise I thought. He said, "Mom, you're such a dinosaur". When I arrived at the airport I was shocked to find, Westjet no longer has a ticket counter. When I asked, I was told that everyone buys them on-line, but the young girl at the check-in counter let me buy my ticket at her register. I could almost hear the eye-rolls of the people in line waiting to check in for their trip, I flashed on my mother, this is something she would do. It occured to me, I'm such a Dinosaur!

Sonia

Guitar You Tube

Has anybody viewed the You Tube song about United Airways breaking a musician's guitar? It is amazing to me that it had over 500,000 hits at last count today. This has become a real tool for many disgruntled consumers. United Airlines was brought to its knees with one song on You Tube, amazing!Do you think this is a trend that will continue? Until now You Tube has thrust several people with some talent into celebrity, however I notice that it is rarely sustained.

Sonia

Equal Access

As I am reading all of the forums on audio and video recordings, I find that I am becoming irritated that the only Smartboard we have in our school is in the library and it isn't even hooked up yet. The new Prince of Whales School directly across the stadium from us has a Smartboard in many classrooms. I know that our school is likely slated for closure soon, but where does that place the students who attend our school now, and what of the teachers. I understand the financial implications of allowing equal access to technology boardwide are staggering but what are the academic and social awareness costs of not doing so on our students. My students had many questions for me about why P.O.W. could have Smartboards in their classrooms and not us. I can tell you that in the staff room there were many teachers with the same questions. We would like to be innovative and bring something new and fresh to our classrooms as well. As the new I.T. this year I will be ensuring that the library Smartboard is up and running and I will try to make sure that any classroom teacher who would like access to the Smartboard has a time period allotted, in cooperation with the Librarian and our Principal. Baby steps I guess.

Sonia

A great resource from website Read Write Think

Name: ___________________________________________ Date: _________________________
Blog Exemplar WebQuest
Visit at least three of the blogs listed below, choosing ones that match your personal interests. As
you surf through the content, notice the style of the writing, the format of the posts, and the special
features and details that attract your attention.
Environmental Blogs
Los Angeles Times “Greenspace”: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/
The Times (London) “Green Central”: http://timesonline.typepad.com/environment/
Got To Be Green: http://got2begreen.com
Travel Blogs
Everything, Everywhere: http://everything-everywhere.com
Food Blogs
Cooking with Amy: http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/
Cupcakes take the Cake: http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/
Sports Blogs
Reuters Soccer Blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/
Political Blog
CNN Political Ticker: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Music Blog
Said the Gramophone: http://saidthegramophone.com
Now, go back to your favorite blog and answer the following questions.
1. Which blog is your favorite? _____________________________
2. What are the posts about and how did the author(s) format them?
continued
Copyright 2009 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved.
ReadWriteThink materials may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Blog Exemplar WebQuest (continued)
3. What kinds of features are on the side bar?
4. How does this blog make use of graphic design?
5. Are there links included on the blog? How do the links relate to the content?
6. Are there photos or other kinds of graphics on the blog? How do they relate to the content?
7. List at least three features you noticed on blogs during this WebQuest that you would like to
have on a blog of your own design.
•
•
• It looks better on the website, see the forum Media2 post for the ReadWriteThink web hyperlink.

Media Literacy 2

Okay, I tried to get the hyperlink in my blog posts to work but it kept adding html language to the sights. I was wondering if that is where some of you are picking up the html language in your forums? Anyway, I decided just to add a forum and then copy it to my blog. I could not delete my first blog either, I could highlight the post but I could not cut it or delete it. I feel like a techno loser.

List of Online Resources for Media Literacy Brand Hype www.brandhype.org/MovieMapper/index.jsp

British Film Institute www.bfi.org.uk
Cartoons in the Classroom eagle.msnbc.com/teacher/

CBC www.cbc.ca Centre for Media Literacy www.medialit.org

Concerned Children's Advertisers cca-kids.ca English Language Arts Network www.elan.on.ca

Internet Archive www.archive.org/

Kids' Take on the Media www.ctf-fce.ca/bilingual/PUBS/ctfreport/kidsenglish.pdf

Library and Archives Canada-Learning Centre www.collectionscanada.ca/education/008-120-e.html

Media Awareness Network www.media-awareness.ca Media Ed www.mediaed.org.uk

National Film Board for Kids www.nfbKids.ca Newseum www.newseum.org

Newspapers in Education www.newspapersineducation.ca/

PBS Teacher Source: Media Literacy www.pbs.org/teachersource/media_lit/media_lit.shtm

Read Write Think www.readwritethink.org

Report Card on Canadian News Media www.cmrcccrm.ca/english/reportcard2004/01.html

Scholastic News Online teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/

BBC Newsround news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/ Time for Kids www.timeforkids.com/TFK/


My hyperlinks are not working here, see my forum comment instead, they are working there. Peter can you let me know what I'm doing wrong, I'm using the link symbol but no luck

Media Literacy

In the forum that I posted ealier today, I mentioned the Ministry document, A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4 to 6, Volume Seven Media Literacy and noted that there were quite a few online resources. I think some of these resources may be useful when completing research to write our rubric, as software is covered under the Media umbrella. I will copy my entry in the forum to the blog so as not to repeat myself. What follows is the list of online resources from the afore mentioned Ministry document.
Association for Media Literacy