Movies As History: Why Do Students Believe It?

Movies are not history and they will never be. Frank Baker ruminates on what students, and the rest of us, should think about when experiencing docu-dramas.

Getting ready for Super Bowl and teaching with the “text” of life

School library blogger Joyce Valenza references the upcoming Super Bowl game as teachable moment as well as the importance of teaching with and about media.

Teaching Students Visual Media Literacy

In the first part of this two-part essay, media educator Frank Baker uses the occasion of the movie award season to examine student engagement via media production. In this second installment, we look a little deeper into the components of visual media that make up a special language and “literacy” — and suggest ways teachers can begin to meet Common Core standards for the English Language Arts that address visual literacy.