In this reading of Digital and Media Literacy I found the five critical questions the most helpful resource in helping my students understand media to its fullest. These questions are all intriguing and help us not only put our analyzing caps on but also our creating caps on. As we are able to analyze why an artist/author made the choices they did and why, we discover the principles and concepts needed in order to create our own works of art. Asking the five critical questions in discussion form are very helpful, however, in order to use these questions to promote change of thought and action I believe application upon these questions is needed. Therefore, in my lessons I want to have activities where we both explore the author’s work, delve into the depth of it through conversation and discussion and then get on our feet and create a form of media inspired by that author’s messages, meanings, and representation.
On page 66 there is a worksheet that helps students to come up with answers to the following five critical questions:
1. Who is the author and what is the purpose?
2. What creative techniques are used to attract and hold attention?
3. How might different people understand this message?
4. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented?
5. What is omitted?
This worksheet has the feel of busy work. Rather than using the worksheet itself I will use other activities that incorporate the same thought process that is used to its fullest because the students will be actively creating so they will come up with answers not just for answering’s sake but because they need and want to in order to create something they enjoy. An example of this idea would be used in a reading of the crucible. I would break my students up into five groups. In each group I would give them a scene from The Crucible and a historical resource from the time period in which it was written, regarding the red scare and the McCarthy trials. The students’ goal is to find the parallels and connections between the scene they have and the information on the time period in which it was written. They then are asked to present a presentation of the meanings and messages that are within the scene inspired by the historical resource. After each presentation one of the five critical questions could be asked if they weren’t presented thoroughly in the presentation.
Doing this, it helps the students feel like they get to ask and answer questions; the questions that they feel are important. Giving them these generic five questions and telling them to roll with them would give off the mundane “I have to do this and I have no choice” feel. By doing that the media they are experiencing loses its relevancy. Modifying of these questions in creative and student-based ways will help them feel like creators rather than minions that have to get what we, the evil rulers, force them to understand. I would use the Seeing and Writing readings in the same vein as The Crucible but rather than using a historical resource to back up the meanings I would have them use their own personal experiences, media they are familiar with, and events in history that affect them. Their analyses can be accomplished and should be through different forms of assessment such as: performance, papers, creative writing, activities, and readings of like material. The principles discussed by Hobbs are great starting points and pave a great path of application and understanding. My goal is to make it so it is not the end all and be all, for when it is set as such learning becomes laborious and pointless.
2 comments:
I think that Beau is right; the worksheet example given in the book has the feel of ‘busy work’. Most would answer the questions in the most basic ways and then forget that they even did an assignment like that in a couple of days. Although the five questions listed in the book create a great base to start from for the student analyzers, they are just the skeletal outline of what a good and engaging teacher could do. I think I would probably use these questions in a lower level course or beginning unit. I feel the same as Beau.
I love his idea of comparing two events that have similar stories or themes. Beau’s suggestion of comparing or contrasting the context of The Crucible to more contemporary times (the McCarthy trials) not only allows the students to see why The Cricible is relevant to a modern audience, but also introduces them to different theories or approaches to historiography. One of the questions was “What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented? What is omitted?” In their research and discoveries of these two different times, they may come across ideas or events that were omitted. This will enable us to, as a class, discuss why they were omitted. What is revealed about the author’s intentions if he omitted those things on purpose?
I would give one suggestion on this. Perhaps, if we are using the McCarthy trials, to help us understand The Crucible, why not use the film, Good Night and Good Luck? This film portrays the work of Robert Murrow to expose the McCarthy scandals. By using two different artistic works to delve into the analysis process, the students will be exposed to varying artistic works. I would also discuss the time period in which the creators lived. This will bring depth to the question that was posed: “What creative techniques are used to attract and hold attention?” Leading us to a discussion about what techniques were available at each time.
I firmly believe that if the principles of analysis and critical thinking are not directly applied to us and our time, it will not have a lasting effect on the students. Once we have discussed and analyzed these works with critical eyes and the understanding of historiography, I would ask something to the effect of: “Is there a situation in your life or in the world today that mirrors these historical events? How have you seen this situation portrayed in the news, recent films, and other media? Why might it be important to recognize this situation? What part do we play in it? What creative techniques and points of view would you use if you were asked to document these things in an artistic piece?” This direction for application and ‘wrap-up’ of a unit or discussion will not only help them apply the critical or ‘reading’ techniques we’ve just learned, but also help them keep those basic questions in mind as they become the authors/ creators of their own pieces. It would lead them to ideas of composition and portrayal that are discussed in the Seeing and Writing book.
The process of teaching the ways of critical thinking, followed by comparing two works and applying the same ideas to one’s own world and time, will not only keep the students actively engaged, but also become a meaningful and long-lasting experience. They will reflect on these abilities more often throughout their education in relation to other works and assignments. It will help them think more critically and creatively than other students.
I agree with both of you about that list being busy work. Were it just a rubric or example, I think that I would have been okay with it; the questions are good ones, and they would help guide students to think more critically about the reading they would be doing in school. Like you two, however, I do not like the questions as work to do in the classroom, especially if it were a repetitive process. Like Meg, I would get tired of these questions were I the students having to answer them. I would give answers that I knew sounded deep just so that I could be done with it. If these questions were asked aloud, though, I think that it would be slightly different because they really are guiding questions. However, I do not really like the first one. I think we would already know who the author of a piece was if we were reading said piece in class. I would not ask “what is the purpose” because it seems much too broad to me. Instead, I would ask “what do you think was the author’s intention behind creating this piece?” I believe that this question is more of a critical question that gets straight to the point of it all. It would also allow my students to give their opinions openly, because the phrasing of the question demands the opinion. “What is the purpose” sounds more like I would be fishing for a correct answer, and I wouldn’t be. This question could apply to any medium and then be used for comparing messages and ideas through different media. For example, I could easily ask this question of the project called “Retrospect” in the Seeing and Writing book, and then the same question could be asked about the essay entitled “Homeplace.” This could easily become a conversation about the differences in media and how the same type of idea (in this case: how places shift so quickly because people move all the time instead of settling down) can be conveyed in different ways across different types of media. I believe that conversation would easily shift into the third critical question Hobbs presents, which is “how might different people understand this message?” I would want to ask the students to think about how their opinions differed after the first question, too. Really, these questions are quite good overall. They simply need to be tweaked a little bit to make them transferable (meaning the students could take what they learned after pondering to their lives outside of the classroom instead of thinking they were just busy work or manipulative).
Meg, I would like to quote you. You said: “I firmly believe that if the principles of analysis and critical thinking are not directly applied to us and our time, it will not have a lasting effect on the students.” I applaud this and completely agree. This is the reason I believe that the questions would have to be changed to make the information gleaned relevant to my students. It would also drive how I taught through media, as the young students now are growing up learning from different media sources. It is my duty, as a teacher, to let them know how to read each type of media they might get information from, and I could easily do that using the Seeing and Writing book because of how many times it uses different types of media to illustrate the same type of message.
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