February 16, 2006

Today we took a pause and looked at the five core concepts we are studying in media literacy. I wanted the students to think about them now that we have been studying for 5 days. As far as I could see, they have only gained a little ground on being able to explain what being media literate means. That is fine. We have a long way to go.

We are beginning the advertsing techniques in the packet. These techniques will be our vocabulary for discussing how ads try to persuade us. In my continuing lesson on persuasion, we are now beginning to study false persuasion, techniques that rely on psychological and emotional manipulation rather than logic.

Here is a quote that I keep in mind as I teach my seventh graders about the media:

"To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. "
Martin Luther King Jr.
from "The Purpose of Education" 1948

-BoZ