Ms.+Fryer's+Week+2

The "Mighty Media Crew" had a week full of current events, storyboards, photo shoots, and last but certainly not least, a trip to China!


 * But first, this week in current events**:

On Monday, we read about Telia Jacalles, a young Haiti earthquake survivor, and how she's learning to cope with life six months after the disaster. Tuesday, we discussed the slap on the hand that Cleveland Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, received for the disparaging remarks he made about Lebron James, his former employee. On Wednesday, we substituted current events for a few Russell Byers facts. The reason being, the day before, the majority of the class discovered they didn't know much about his legacy. Thursday, we discussed, Cori Broadus, daughter of "Snopp Dogg" who is learning how to live with the autoimmune disease, lupus, after being diagnosed at just 6-years-old. On Friday, we discussed some of Rihanna's charity work.

I try to have the students use a variety of sources for current events. This week we used BBC News, Huffington Post, New York Times, Philadelphia Daily News and People.com. Our current events are done in two parts. First, the students view the image that accompanies the article before they are given the actual written text. This practice improves critical thinking skills because the students attempt to determine the content of the article based on the story being told buy the image. The students are getting pretty good!

You try it! Below is one of the images used this week, now see if you can determine the article's content:

In addition to current events, the students were briefly introduced to the late Marshall McLuhan, an educator and communications theorist, who is infamous for some of his media theories. The media theory discussed by the "Mighty Media Crew" was McLuhan's "Global Village" theory. In fact, we used elements of the theory to visit Jasmine in China. Be sure to ask the students how her culture differs from their own, and how their small village evolves into a global village. The next day, the students brainstormed to determine what from their culture they would like to share with Jasmine if she was actually able to visit them in Philadelphia. (They will finish the storyboards for this activity next week.) The remainder of the week was spent writing articles about their favorite artists using credible sources, discussing the different purposes of media, representation, omission, and learning how to use different camera techniques to communicate different emotions and perspectives. Below you can see some of their work:

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