Double Entry Journal #10

1. Do you think topics that center on "frustration with official power" and "attraction for mass media fantasies would differ in rural communities from those that inner-city teenagers focus on? How? Give some examples.

Topics would definitely differ in a rural setting.  I teach a lot of children that live “in the middle of nowhere” in Greenbrier county.  Many of these students have little exposure to “police brutality” and they do not like hip-hop.   They’re into hunting, farming, and country music.   Luckily, the crime-rate is very low in south-eastern WV so youth crime and violence would probably not be a topic of concern.

2. How do traditional social institutions and mass media work to silence inner-city kids?

They seek to maximize social control by constructing African American and Latino teenagers as criminals and superpredators, and then punishing their acts of defiance.  Pop culture seeks to maximize profits by naming them as hip-hop performers and trendsetters, and then co-opting their culture of defiance   

3. What is your reaction to the statistics presented under the heading "And Justice For Some?" Do you think the system in intentionally organized to disadvantage urban youth of color?

I was shocked by the statistics and felt as though African Americans were at a disadvantage from the start.  I do not believe that the system is intentionally organized to disadvantage urban youth of color;  I believe a long time cycle of poverty dating back to a time before Civil Rights is at play here.  I think it is important for “the system” to rid stereotypes and promote positive programs for urban youth of color. 

4. Link to an advertisement or commercial that you consider to be influenced by hip-hop culture?

By the way, here are lyrices to one of Lil Wayne's songs.  This is how we dew?

 

5. What dangers to young people do you see in the relentless marketing of "cool" ?

The hip-hop culture draw upon street and prison experiences.  It portrays that these things make you “tough” and “cool.”   Young people can see the rich and famous individuals of the hip-hop culture consider that as success.  They may think that that lifestyle can bring them success.

6. What is your reaction to the research that shows youth violence in decline? Do you still think that is the trend in 2012? Find some statistics to support your answer?

I feel that I can see that it is on the decline.  I do see more “anti-violence”  programs being promoted.  I also feel that I am seeing/hearing more about successful and educated minorities and it is also seen as being “cool.” 

 

photo citation:

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/07/75/25/2086251/7/628x471.jpg

7. Why is it important to let youth speak for themselves and their voices to be heard?

Speaking for themselves about their own lived experiences, inner-city youth offer an important alternative outside the dominant frame of consumption and crime.

8. What prevents Urban Youth from articulating their own lived experiences in ways that might be productive? Do you think this is problematic in rural areas like West Virginia? Do you think rural youth are victimized by mass media in ways that are different than Urban youth? How?

The language gap. A low income kindergartener has heard only half the words and can understand only half the meanings and language conventions of a high-income child.  A person needs to know about 95% of the words he or she hears or reads in order to understand language gap.  I do believe this is problematic in rural areas like West Virginia.  The socioeconomic status of a child’s family is a more important predictor of academic achievement than the school he or she attends.  In WV, we have several students with low socioeconomic statuses. 

9. According to the author, what is the best way to address the literacy challenge?

Apply multiple literacies in teaching.  The electronic media is becoming a big role in our lives, thus it needs included in instruction. 

10. Why is the skill and drill approach to literacy instruction ineffective?

This uses vocabulary from the white middle class.  Instruction needs to be more culturally responsive.  Teach by learning cultural experiences.  Kids need to have a sense of rootedness in place in time.  They need more opportunities for new experiences, facilitated by teachers, outside of school, in local communities and elsewhere.

11. What should schools offer to improve literacy instruction for Urban Youth? Do you think this strategy would also benefit student of the Appalachia region whose literacy rates are similar to those of youth in the inner-city?

Have more learning experiences with community involvement so the Urban Youth can have that sense of “rootedness.”  This could work in the Appalachia region with literacy rates similar. 

12. How is the process of reading changed by media?

Reading now goes beyond print.

13. According to the author how might the imbalance between inner-city kids strong command of oral and visual language be used to improve print-based language? Do you think this would also work for low-literacy kids in the Appalachia region?

Bringing a deeper understanding of media languages, in all their richness and complexity, to the process of teaching and learning might just go a long way toward overcoming this imbalance and bridge the language gap.

Brainstorming the Digital Story

1. Please describe a positive scene from childhood in detail. What led up to this event? When and where did it happen? Who was involved? What were you thinking and feeling? Why is it an important event? What impact did it have on you?

Thanksgiving at my grandma's house when my mother was alive is a positive scene.  My aunts and cousins were in.  My grandma cooked a million different dishes.  My sibilings and cousings would be playing in the basement by the pool table.  Everyone was happy.  It was probably at the most carefree point in my life.  We were just so happy to be with each other.  This yearly celebration impacted me by valueing "family."

 

2. Please describe a negative scene from childhood in detail. What led up to this event? When and where did it happen? Who was involved? What were you thinking and feeling? Why is it an important event? What impact did it have on you?

My mother had been in the hospital for a month.  She had been battling cancer for the past 5 years.  She was a teacher at my small elementary school so naturally all of her concerned co-workers were continually asking about her.  I was "almost 9."  My dad was in Columbus at the hospital with my mom and my Aunt Sharon had been staying with us.  My preacher and his wife took my brother, sister, and me to Columbus to visit my mom.  We were going to miss school the next day.  I remember thinking it was strange that the preacher was taking us and that  I would miss school.  I had a bad feeeling on the 3 hr drive, and the bad feeling was confirmed when we got to the hospital.  My dad met with my siblings and I in a seperate waiting room in the ICU unit.  We were then told that, "Your mom's not going to make it!"  My 15 yr old brother who I enjoyed tattling on my entire childhood began crying hysterically saying, "No, no, no!"  We all cried together.  Then we went to see my mom for the last time.  She was hooked up to a million machines that were basically keeping her alive.  She couldn't respond, but we told her our goodbyes.  I remember then only thing I could say was "I love you" over and over again.  She died the next morning (or later that night) at 1:40AM on March 4th, 1998.  We were staying with my Aunt Jana's in Columbus.  Obviously, that moment impacted the rest of my life.  My mom was the "glue" of our family.  When she was alive, we were the perfect family that lived in a big white house.  My mom was a teacher; my dad was a mailman.  My parents were very involved in my life.  After my mom died, my father turned to alcohol; he lost his job, the house, his kids.  By the time I was 10, my grandparents (mother's parents) were my legal guardians.  Although I lived just a block a way from my big white house and I still went to the same school, had the same friends.  Everything was different.  I was different.  I realized how imperfect the world really was.

    

3. Describe a particular event from your teen-aged years that stands out in your memory today. This can be positive or negative. What led up to the event? What happened? Where and when? Who was involved? What were you thinking and feeling? Why is it an important event? What impact did the event have on you.

I was crowned homecoming queen at my tiny high school when I was a senior.  I graduated with 24 people so to me this wasn't that big of a deal, but my aunts(my mom's sisters) and grandma cried because they were happy, but sad that my mom couldn't be there.  My dad, who flew up frome Florida(he had gotten his life together in the past 8 years).  All of the other homecoming queens were escorted by one person, their fathers.  I poudly was escorted by both my dad and my grandpa.  At this time, I considered my grandpa as a dad.  I was proud of both of my "dads" and they were proud of me

.   

4. Describe a vivid or important memory from any time in your adult years. Again, this can be positive or negative. It can be about anything – family, work, whatever. The scene stands out in your mind today as being especially vivid or important. Please describe what led up to the event. Then describe the scene in detail. What happened? Where and when? Who was involved? What were you thinking and feeling? Why is it an important event? What impact has the event had on you?

My wedding day was an important day.  I had just graduate college and gotten a house with my husband.  I had found a man that I love.  It was a happy day. My grandparents(who were like parents), helped plan the occasion and wanted everything to be perfect for me.  I could see the tears welled up in my grandma's eyes as she helped me with my dress.  I knew she was thinking of my mom.  I thought of my mom and what she would think of what I had become. I wondered what she would think of Tony, my husband.  On a memorial table at the reception sat a picture of my mother, on her wedding day.  Although the sorrow of her absence was present, it was a joyous day.  I was proud of who I had become, and I knew that even though she had been gone for nearly 15 years, that she was part of who I had become.   I think when life isn't taken for granted, you value it more.  On my wedding day, I was just so thankful and happy for the love that I felt.  

  

5. In looking back on your life, you may be able to identify particular “turning points” – episodes through which you experienced an important change in your life. Please choose one key turning point scene and describe it in detail. If you feel your life story contains no clear turning points, then describe a particular episode in your life that comes closer than any other to qualifying for a turning point – a scene where you changed in some way. Again, please describe what led up to the event, what happened in the event, where and when it happened, who was involved, what you were thinking and feeling, and so on. Also, please tell me how you think you changed as a result of this event and why you consider this event to be an important scene in your life story today.

My mother's death was a turning point.  I learned that life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful.  The one sorrowful event made the "good" events much more meaningful.  When you lose someone important to you, you realize just how valuable everything else is.

Week 9, Activity # 2

• Point of View. The point of view is from Larry Dressler, a man who was bullied in middle and high school.  He relates his bullying in school to corporate boardrooms.  He connects how his past has mad him the consultant he is today.
• Dramatic Question. When did you get into this tricky business of group facilitation?  This dramatic question takes Larry back to the years of bullying.   Another Dramatic Question, "...but who was going to protect me?"
• Emotional Content. Larry tells the story how 3 months into the school year the windows of the school had to be boarded up because school officials were tired of replacing them.  He also talks about how gang members had put him in a head lock, caught his shirt on fire, and other bullying stories.  These emotional and personal stories keeps me watching.  At the end of the video, Larry describes how he got two CEOs to "be on the same team" by appealing to their "Parent" side.  He related the two CEOs to "rival gang members."
• Voice. The author, Larry, is the voice of the digital story.  His voice is calm, but powerful; he let's the pictures speak.
• Soundtrack. The soundtrack contains older 60s/70s sounding music.  The music takes the author and audience back to the time that Larry was in high school/middle school.
• Economy. The author explains how he started to look at the connections of people and tried to be "well connected" so when the bully who lit his shirt on fire in middle, tried to break his nose in high school.  He had connections of people (not school officials) that stood up for him.  All of the authors stories relate directly to bullying. 
• Pacing. The author didn't choose too many "stories."  He had just the right amount and every thing blended well together.  The digital story is only four minutes long, but its impact is evident.

Double Entry Journal # 9

Quote:

"Today's explosion in media technologies has brought new literacies into being, transforming the way these kindergartners read the word and read the world, even if our schools have been one of the last places to recognize this(Teaching youth media, 2003)."

 

Reflection:

Although I currently teach 8th grade math, eight weeks of my student teaching was in kindergarten.  This quote near the beginning of the introduction made me a remember a particular student I had in my kindergarten student teaching placement.  Students always had daily journal where they would write a sentence from a particular topic(sometimes with help) and draw a picture illustrating the sentence. 

 

The journal topic on a this particular day had to do with, "Where is your favorite place to go?" or "What is your favorite thing to do?"  A young boy who struggled with learning to read drew the best McDonald's arch I've ever seen from a kindergartner.  I remember walking to his paper and immediately recognize that he was trying to write about going to McDonalds.  Although he couldn't write a sentence by himself or read many words, he could read, recognize and write the McDonalds logo.

At the time, I did not recognize his McDonald's logo drawing as any from of literacy, but now I know that being critically literate, analyzing ads, media, logos, etc is just as important as traditional literacy

 

Other Resource:

LOGO QUIZ

This logo quiz shows several logos.  It is amazing how many I recognize.  As I was going through the logos, I was trying to think of my 4-yr-old niece.  I know that even she would recognize several of these logos.  I "skype" with both of my nieces (with the help of their mom) and they're only 4 and 6, but I know that if their mom wasn't by the computer, they could point to the skype logo and know what is was. 

Additional Questions:

1. According to the author, what is the main reason school have ignored engaging student with critical media literacy.

A disconnect occurs between the experiences that most students have during their time in school and those they have during their increased alienation of low-income urban youth from the dominant social, political, and economical mainstream.

 

2. Define critical media literacy.

The ability to analyze, evaluate, and produce print, aural, and visual forms of communication.

 

3. How can film making or digital story telling support the goals of critical media literacy?

Students are used to being consumers of digital productions.  Becoming producers will essentially help them become better consumers.  

 

4. Why does teaching media literacy become more complicated as student become consumers of news?

Students already begin forming their own ways of dissecting the media.  They may also be learning media deconstructing habits (whether wrong or right) at home.  Once students are already exposed, it may be harder to break these preconceived deconstruction habits.

 

5. What is the difference between learning through the media and learning about the media?

Teaching through the media is using media to instruct.  When teaching about the media, we are teaching the youth to become critically literate and analytical. 

 

Sources:

(2003). Teaching youth media. New York: Teachers College Press.

Double Entry Journal #8

Quote:

"An essential element of the digital composing process was the “Story Circle.” Based on a component of the 3-day CDS Standard Digital Storytelling Workshop Jacobs attended, the Story Circle is an in-class workshop where students share their story ideas and get feedback from others in the class" (Raimist, Doerr-Stevens & Jacobs, 2010).

Reflection:

I chose this quote because I think that reflection from others is just as important as self-reflection.  In an online class we can't have a "Story Circle" in the literal sense, but we can have a "Story Circle" in the digital sense, by using social media tools like blogging.  Reflection of others is very important.  In one of the video's, a young lady shared her digital story "White Teacher" to others and got feedback that the video seemed "sad" and that was not her intention.  She then made changes like "happier music" to her digital story.  Without an audience perspective, she may have mislead others away from the true author's purpose.  

Although digital storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling, it is much easier to misconstrue the context of a digital story as opposed to the ancient storytelling.  When someone is telling a story in person, emotion and expression of the storyteller is evident.  When someone is telling a digital stories, elements like music, fonts, camera angles, etc portray the emotion and expression of the author.  It is easy for an audience to misinterpret the author's emotion due music or sound effects.  That is why reflection of others is very beneficial to digital story telling.

Other Resource:

7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling

This is short, but informative information about Digital Storytelling.  It would be great for people very new to the pedagogy of digital storytelling.  

Sources:

Raimist, R., Doerr-Stevens, C., & Jacobs, W. (2010). The pedagogy of digital storytelling in the college classroom. Retrieved from http://www.seminar.net/index.php/home/75-current-issue/145-the-pedagogy-ofdigital-storytelling-in-the-college-classroom

Week Eight, Reel Works

Favorite Link - A Girl Like Me

1.What do you like about the digital story?

I had seen this video before (I think in a class while working on my undergrad).  The message was just as strong as it was the first time.  I like that this video contained the perspective of several young black girls of today.

2.What did you learn from the digital story?

I learned that there are standards of beauty imposed on all races.  I learned that black girls feel the pressure to be a "lighter" skin color.  I also found out that some girls develop a very poor self image of themselves because of their race.

3.What surprised you about the digital story?

It surprised me that young black children looked at dolls of their own race as "bad" because as a Caucasian, I never looked at different races of dolls as "bad."  However, living in a predominantly White area, I never remember seeing many black dolls on the shelves of stores.  

4.How did the digital story provide an example of how digital story telling can build self esteem, help young people voice an opposition to social problems,  or create an alternative to stereotypes of adolescents typically portrayed in mainstream media?

This digital story helps others who may steriotype the young black girls as "ghetto," obnoxious, or unintelligent, realize that theses are all irrational stereotypes.  It also helps empower young Black girls to recreated these standards of beauty imposed by society.

5.How can digital storytelling promote critical media literacy?  Please refer to the reading for this week's Double Entry Journal to answer this question.

Digital storytelling is a critical process where students learn not only the technical skills necessary for creating and sharing their own digital stories, but also interrogate themselves and engage with other contexts for purposes of responsive content creation.

Double Entry Journal #7

Quote:

"A camera can only ever show part of an event, and it's the person who uses the camera who decides what to show and what to leave out. (Hobbs, 2002)"

Reflection:

First of all, I think that this article proves that adding media literacy to the school curriculum is not a daunting task.  Ten minute discussions a day would make students much more media literate.  As a teacher, this article was a wake-up call; media literacy can be taught without taking away from the many other objects we must teach a day.

I chose this quote because this lesson was taught to Kindergartners   If five year old children are getting this type of a media literacy lesson, this early in life, they will be pros at analytic media skills by the time they are adults.  What an important lesson for young children to learn.  I would imagine that the kindergartners that learned this lesson would go home and look at their toy and snack commercials differently.  I would imagine that they would also look at anything on TV differently.

Children hear this saying early in life: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  It is important if they realize that companies may try to sell us a product without showing the “whole picture.”

Other Resource:

I watched the 2012 Olympics, specifically women’s gymnastics.  McKayla Maroney was given a hard time by the media because of her reaction to receiving the silver medal in her vault performance.  She was anticipated to win gold, but shockingly fell on her second vault (extremely uncharacteristic of the athlete who made it to London, solely on her vaulting skills).  The media lashed out at the “scowl” on her face and called her “ungrateful.”  It seems McKayla forgot that “a camera can only ever show part of an event.”

Sources:

Hobbs, R. (2002). Center for media literacy. Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/teaching-media-literacy-yo-are-you-hip

Week 7, Media Literacy PSA