Featured JMLE piece: The Epistemological Equation: Integrating Media Analysis into the Core Curriculum
Author: Chris Sperry, Director of Curriculum and Staff Development, Project Look Sharp
Abstract: Teacher/author, Chris Sperry, draws lessons from 30 years of integrating media analysis into high school social studies and English classes. He describes a high school world history project where students role play world leaders who debate solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. Sperry shows how media literacy instructional methods and core concepts link to the development of core knowledge, skills, attitudes and motivation in adolescents.
Chris Sperry Bio: The Director of Curriculum and Staff Development for Project Look Sharp, Ithaca, New York, Sperry started the media literacy initiative at Ithaca College in 1995 and has been teaching secondary social studies and media studies at the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca, since 1979. He is the co-author of numerous curriculum kits that integrate media decoding and critical thinking into the curriculum. These include Media Construction of: War, Presidential Campaigns, The Middle East, Soviet History Africa, Economics, and Global Warming. He is the recipient of the 2005 National PTA and Cable Leaders in Learning Award for Media Literacy and the 2008 National Council for the Social Studies’ James M. Becker Award for Global Understanding. You may recall Sperry’s riveting keynote address at NAMLE’s conference, last year, in Detroit.
To see all the articles in the newest issue of NAMLE’s JMLE, please visit jmle.org
*Featured pieces have been selected by NAMLE’s Program and Publication Committee. For more information, please contact Dr. Paul Mihailidis