Media Education Lab
Understanding Viral Messages
Imagine advertising for a product but not being paid to do so. Welcome to the world of Viral Messaging. Class members first view a T-Mobile flash mob video that went viral and has been seen by over 14 million viewers. After analyzing the...
Curated OER
Class in the Media: Writing a Television Show
Students look at popular media presentations to determine what type of messages they convey about class and class-linked behavior. They listen to contemporary music to explore how the songs touch upon social class issues. They read...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.2
What are diverse media formats? Have your class figure this out on their own through small-group brainstorming. The resource includes two related activities about different kinds of data that will help your class get a grasp of media...
The New York Times
Should Anthony Weiner Resign?
The news regarding congressional representative Anthony D. Weiner's scandalous online communications was a hot-button topic in public media in 2011. Use this article to review the timeline of events surrounding the situation, and then...
Media Smarts
Teaching TV: Television Techniques
As part of a five-lesson plan unit on how television uses technology and film techniques to communicate meaning, elementary students create their own media productions that demonstrate their understanding of these concepts.
Curated OER
Now That's Beautiful!
Your class experiences dozens of messages about beauty every day by reading magazines, watching movies, and listening to the radio. Have them analyze society's view of beauty in groups after discussing several resources, including Dove's...
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Young People and Television
Students explore communication by participating in a role playing instructional activity. In this media analysis instructional activity, students answer surveys about their own television watching habits and compare them to the rest of...
Curated OER
A Free and Open Press: Evaluating the Media
Students compare and critically evaluate the different media as sources of news, develop criteria for defining "news", experience the editorial process of selecting news stories and detect bias in news reporting.
Smarter Balanced
A New Kind of News
Newspapers and broadcast news. Social media, blogs, and blogospheres. Class members generate a list of news sources they use to get information about events. The big idea here is to introduce the necessary vocabulary and to establish a...
Curated OER
Presidential endorsements: Newspapers decide
Twelfth graders collect, organize, evaluate and synthesize information from multiple sources in order to draw logical conclusions. They communicate this information using appropriate social studies terminology in oral, written or...
Curated OER
Watching the Clock: An activity to build media-savvy students
Students analyze time constraints on broadcast news. They apply data collecting and data display skills. They identify the difference between news progams and the evening news.
Curated OER
Pop Art-Reflections of the Mass Media
Students select a common object or a face, and draw or paint it on a flat surface making it larger than real life. They choose a common object or simple scene and repeat it horizontally or vertically as defined rows. They create a flat,...
EngageNY
Analyzing How Rainforest Scientists Communicate Their Research (Pages 39–42)
How do you say that? Learners read pages 39-42 of The Most Beautiful
Roof in the World to analyze how the rainforest scientists communicate their research. They record their ideas in a KWL chart and then work in groups to explain...
Curated OER
Surveying Our Media
Students participate in a lesson that is concerned with the concept of examining the use of media in society. They create surveys to measure the presence of the media in everyday life. The results are collected and represented in the...
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Comparing the Satellite and Broadcast Radio Landscapes
Learners research the development of satellite technology over the last 50 years students explain how the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed the rules for corporate ownership of multiple media outlets.
Discovery Education
Our Brain and Body on Opioids
Use a presentation that explores the world of prescription opioids. Learners look at the way the brain responds to the drugs and the long terms effects opioids have on the brain and body. At the end of the lesson plan, groups create a...
Curated OER
Expressive Mixed Media Collage
Learners create a collage that expresses color, symbols, and collage techniques. They view and discuss paintings, create a collage book that communicates their interests, and write a question about each collage in the class.
Curated OER
Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?
Interesting! Have your high schoolers watch this 13-minute clip from the documentay, "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" It examines the fear we have as a culture about death and whether or not the media increases those fears. The focus...
Curated OER
When Art Conveys Political and Social Conflict
Twelfth graders consider art as a medium to convey information and opinions on social conflict and issues. They analyze images from the Crocker Art Museum, discuss their effectiveness in raising awareness of an issue, and create a...
Curated OER
How was Your Day? Creating Mixed Media Designs
Students explore how art reflects culture and history. They examine everyday life experiences in various countries. Students design a mixed media composition. They create a class presentation.
Curated OER
Photojournalism
High schoolers choose a historical or present-day event to portray through photographs. They narrate this event with photographs and text to communicate its significance in history or our current daily lives.
Curated OER
Homeless awareness on a cold night
Pupils conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and posing problems. They use a variety of technological and informational resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate...
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Is Seeing Believing?
Pupils study different photographers who started the concept of battlefield photography. For this media lesson learners explore how to "read" a photograph and relate the use of photography during the Civil War to current use today.
Curated OER
Sweet-Talkers
Students investigate what is being sold to them. In this media awareness lesson, students visit selected websites to take a closer look at advertising marketed at them. Students discuss the implications of marketing geared toward children.