Teaching Media in Primary Schools – Edited by Cary Bazalgette

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Teaching Media in Primary Schools is a collection of essays and teaching strategies to help elementary teachers weave knowledge of many media forms, including print, into existing language programs so that students learn the necessary communication skills to function effectively in a digital world. Editor Cary Bazalgette has gathered together a group of experienced elementary teachers and academic r

Researchers who have focused their attention on the acquisition of an expanded array of literacy skills for children ages four to eleven, who attend elementary schools across England.

Bazalgette worked at the British Film Institute from 1979 to 2007  after teaching English and film-making at the secondary level in London. She is now Chair of the Media Education Association, a member of the European Commission’s Media Literacy Experts’ Group, and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her personal entry point to Media Education is through film, the study of still and moving images. As it turns out, this is an ideal starting point for young children as well. As she states in her introduction to the book, “Although primary-age children are the most avid consumers of media such as television, the idea that learning about this and other media might form part of their curriculum has continued to seem outlandish until very recently.” She and several other contributors to this book have been instrumental in opening up the discussion to expand the definition of a ‘text’ to include still and moving images as well as multimedia platforms such as social networking sites.

As Geoff Dean states in his chapter, Rethinking Literacy, “Of the many anachronisms that still dominate our school systems, one of the biggest is the disproportionate privileging of the written word literacy as the centerpiece of educational success and communication.” He goes on to say, “It is absolutely essential that all children are taught to read and write in conventional ways: that universal right is not in question. But just as children are taught to make meaning from the arrangement of sounds, words, sentences and paragraphs in traditional printed texts, so they need to… understand the arrangement of elements in non-print texts. Being literate today has to include the capacity to notice and understand the composition and framing of shots, the deployment of light, colour and movement, the arrangement of order and duration in aural and visual material; it also needs to include the skills of identifying the sources and reliability of non-print material, and understanding the kinds of truth-and untruth-that can be created through images and sounds.

As a primary teacher who helps children with the important rite of passage of learning to read, I see great value in “starting where the children are” as Bazalgette suggests. Children arrive in kindergarten having hundreds of hours of experience with TV, DVDs and other forms of sound and visual narratives, created specifically for this age group. What a relief it would be for these children, to have their prior knowledge recognized and utilized. What a relief it would be for teachers, to be able to draw on a much broader range of stories to motivate and inspire students to love language in all its forms.

This handbook is organized into an accessible format. The introduction creates a context for the three major sections of the book, Cultural Learning, Critical Learning, and Creative Learning, the three interrelated strands of media learning, identified by the European Charter for Media Literacy. Each chapter begins with a little box containing the chapter objectives. This design feature is very useful to a teacher looking for material to meet a specific teaching goal.

The book is composed of essays written by nine different expert practitioners who have extensive classroom experience upon which to draw. Each chapter ends with a separate section, either Points for Practice, or Case Studies. These are practical guides for explicit classroom activities easily adaptable for a variety of primary/junior programs. As a Canadian, subject to both British and American cultural influences, some British ‘isms’ may be less apparent to me and more apparent to you. Skip over any cultural incongruities, and enjoy ideas that appeal to your own sense of purpose.

Each chapter has a brief list of references relevant to the topic. Many of the references direct the reader to the work of British scholars, including the chapter authors, as well as David Buckingham. They have set the bar high for classroom research. The work of American scholars, including Anne Haas Dyson and Henry Jenkins are also referenced.

Part 1: Cultural Learning, contains three essays, which suggest ways in which teachers can learn what their students know about media, what they enjoy, and how they use this knowledge, before deciding how to help extend this cultural learning. Teachers can utilize knowledge about new media conventions at school, however the content is chosen at home. This section explores ways to bridge these two worlds.

As an elementary teacher, I know a lot about the codes and conventions of print, but little about the codes and conventions of still and moving images, so I am grateful for the clear descriptions and discussions of this topic which permeate the book.

Part 2: Critical Learning, proposes strategies to help students gain the critical literacy skills to analyze multiple media forms and to talk and write about them confidently. As Bazalgette states “This kind of learning is important in its own right, but it needs to be embedded in the curriculum from the first years of schooling.” Elementary teachers are already teaching elements of critical literacy related to print, as a component of reading and writing programs. These efforts are enhanced when students learn to apply critical literacy deconstruction skills to a wider variety of texts, including visual imagery (e.g. advertising in its multiple forms).

Specific critical literacy skills for social media are developing and adapting to the exploding interest and participation in these media… In the essay “Social Media and Primary School Children,” Guy Merchant identifies a difference in approach to social media between the United States and Europe. Jenkins regularly uses the term ‘participatory culture’… suggesting the importance of audience engagement and collective intelligence in popular media, a culture in which members believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection with one another. On the other hand, the European Charter for Media literacy suggests a more reflective or critical producer and consumer, and is explicitly educational, describing its aims in terms of literacies while underscoring the importance of criticality. These differences will create interesting debates as we move forward.

Part 3: Creative Learning, describes teaching units related to classroom production to “develop learner’s creative skills in using multiple forms of digital media for expression, communication, and participation in public debate.” This section of the book shines with the work of teachers who can clearly see a new vision for the ways in which students can use multiple media tools to express their ideas and communicate with others.

These early adopters of social networking in the classrooms are clearing the technical and ethical pathways so that followers can move ahead more smoothly. One of the most imaginative classroom projects is described in Case Study 1, Alternative Reality in the Classroom. Angela Colvert writes “A mysterious email arrives and is read aloud by the teacher to the class of 8- and 9-year-olds. It’s from two secret agents, Onyx and Violet Linton. In it they explain that there’s a beast on the loose and that they are in desperate need of help” Using information the students gained from the web address on the message, they find clues and develop ideas using a wide range of modes and media (e.g. webcam diaries, community forums, the telephone) to solve the mystery. The surprising twist to this project is that the adventure was an alternate reality game created for the class by a group of 10- and 11-year-olds in the same school, who had spent most of the school year designing the game to include the necessary game elements and to meet the National Curriculum standards of each of the cross-curricular subjects required for the project.

While I see this book as a teaching handbook, overflowing with good ideas and practical advice, Cary Bazalgette sees it differently. “…this book cannot provide a simple template for classroom activity. It is more like an invitation: we invite you to join a movement that will, we hope not merely add another requirement to the curriculum, but transform our ideas about the very nature of literacy, and help us offer children more pleasurable, purposeful and successful learning experiences.” On with the Revolution!

Teaching Media in Primary Schools
Edited By Cary Bazalgette
[J. Sage Publications, Ltd., London, 2010]

 

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