I have recently read the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, which is a young adult novel that tells the story of a girl struggling with depression after she has been raped.  As an English teacher, reading a book like this would be an opportunity to help students realize the reality of these situations and encourage them to determine their own opinions and ideas relating to tough issues.  Books can open up new worlds, some of them harder and more painful to understand than others.  Still, books are something that a person needs to seek out, while other forms of media are all around us and inescapable.  People are bombarded with song lyrics, news articles, movies, television shows, Internet sites, and so many other things that discuss ideas from all types of life.  CPMLE and the Core English Standards work together is so many ways to encourage students to be able to come up with their own opinions on things, think critically, and is a way to address “topics like violence, gender, sexuality, racism, stereotyping, and other issues of representation.”  Students will always be encountering topics and ideas that may not be in line with their personal beliefs, but by discussing theme and point of view, students will hopefully be able to  “become aware of and reflect on the meaning that they make of media messages, including how the meaning they make relates to their own values.”  I will try to make sure that students in my classroom will be able to understand that ideas will differ between individuals, that lives are lived differently in every situation, choices are never the same, but that it’s alright and that there are “diverse voices, perspectives and communities.”  I think that it is important to make sure that students know how to process and take in the information that they will be hearing all around them.  We help them understand difficult topics in books and texts in class, we need to use CPMLE to carry over the skills they learn in regards to books and apply it to all forms of texts/media they will encounter in their lives. 

            CPMLE will also help when it comes to teaching informational texts, as well as literature.  There are so many resources to access information.  In an English classroom, students could be encouraged to see how many different forms of media will cover the same information.  CPMLE focuses on helping students make wise choices on their media use, something that can be guided in a classroom setting.

            English and Media Literacy work together well.  They have the same goal in mind, which is to keep students thinking critically and to help them be “skeptical, not cynical.”  Obviously we need to keep things at an age appropriate level, but we need to help them understand that they can question what they see and hear.  Students should be trained to be able to accept the difference in opinion while not feeling pressure to change their own stand.  CPMLE focuses in on having students feel safe, respected, and believed.  I will make sure that in my future classrooms I try to bring in the ideas of CPMLE, all types of media, and a variety of teaching methods in order to reach my entire classroom and diverse learners.