Tag Archives: critical thinking

Is it true? Gr. 6 Media Literacy in Action

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Media Literacy from BrainPOP

The Media Literacy BrainPOP movie states that “most kids spend more than half their waking hours consuming media.”   Hmmm?   That would mean about 7 or 8 hours per day!

This statement led Grade 6 students to ask themselves several questions . . . Where did BrainPOP get their information about this topic?   How did they get this information?  Does BrainPOP want us to believe something specific about time spent engaged with media based on this statement?   Is this a positive message or a negative one?  

Students did a Google Search and found many websites with both corroborating and differing information than that found in BrainPOP.  Many sites contained articles that were based on the same source:  the census conducted by Common Sense Media Media Use by Tweens and Teens 2019  

The infographic based on the census showed that teens spend 7 or 8 hours per day or more with media on their phones, but among TWEENS like them, the number of hours was on average, 4 hours and 44 minutes per day.

What is a census?  How was this information gathered? were some of the new questions that students wondered about.  We decided that Common Sense Media used surveys to get their information, and that we needed to do our own survey to see if this amount of time on media was true for our school’s Gr. 6 students.

First, we had to decide exactly what we meant by the term “media”?  We made a list and created a spreadsheet with the types of media students are engaged with during their week.   Not all students have phones of their own and not all of the media that students are engaged with (video games) are found on phones.   So, how to proceed?   Students agreed to include all media types that they are likely to use in their days, whether they were on phones or not, in their self-surveys:  reading, TV, YouTube, video games, music, social media apps and the internet.

Students then learned how to use the Google sheets app to create a pie chart representing their data.

Students also wondered about the days when they were not engaged with media due to sports commitments, parental controls, homework or other reasons.   Which days should they choose to report?  They ultimately decided to add up the hours per week that they were engaged in media and then divide that number by 7 to find the average time per day.

Lastly, students found the average time spent with media per day for their homeroom class and then they found the Gr. 6 average, which was 3.5 hours per day.

Next up in Media classes, we will be doing a deeper dive into YouTube.

ISTE Standard #3.   Students as knowledge constructors.  Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources; they create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions and they build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues. 

 

 

 

Extended Studies in Library Media 2018 – 2019

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Gr. 6

Fall Term – Shark Tank. Over 30 students worked in teams or alone to develop a product that could solve a real world problem.

They then “pitched” their product ideas to staff member investor “Sharks.” In order to successfully pitch their ideas, students needed to have a basic understanding of the economics of venture capital investing.  In addition to creative problem-solving, this experience was also an opportunity for students to gain confidence in their oral presentation skills.   A few students opted to be the “production crew”, introducing the inventors to the potential investors, and running and filming “the show”.

“Have a pet at home that could use a pet door to independently go in and out during the day, but don’t want to encourage the local raccoons in to dine out of your kitchen trash?  Solution: A pet door with Nose Print recognition capability, the DNA Pet Door!” 

Gr. 5.  Term 2 – Passion Projects in Science and Social Studies

Did Mrs. O’Leary’s cow start the Great Chicago Fire? It’s possible!   Topics like this that sparked curiosity were explored in depth by students through guided “passion research projects”.  Students decided on a topic in either United States history or one involving space science.  They also chose how they wanted to present their knowledge to their peers, either by creating a digital presentation, constructing a physical model, giving a talk or a combination of  these.  We learned about NASA’s Robonaut program, the theory of black holes, the D-Day Invasion, the Great Chicago Fire and the Mars Rover.

 

Gr. 6.  Term 3 – The Amazing Race 

38 students participated in the second annual Amazing Race, Spofford Edition.   Two races were held at the end of May and many staff volunteers eagerly volunteered to be “cluemasters” at the race locations throughout the school.   Based in part on the popular television show, the SPS Amazing Race requires that students think creatively “outside the box” and work harmoniously in collaboration with teammates to first create a challenging race for their peers and then to successfully compete in their own race.   While racing, students have to work together and develop critical thinking skills under pressure in order to decipher the clues that lead them to the race locations. They then have to perform a task at each location found, such as dancing, singing, writing, solving math problems, scoring baskets, speaking in a different language or building foil boats.  Creating the challenging races themselves took a lot of time and effort from the students and competing in the races was often a struggle, but in the end, all students involved reported having a great experience and were glad they stuck to it.

Information Literacy

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I recently read an article by Elizabeth Mulvahill on the website We Are Teachers  posted on August 28, 2018 and have excerpted it below.

Information Overload from Chanty.com

“There is an infinitely greater amount of information available to our students than we ever had to deal with.

Think about it, you can find the answer to any question you have about practically any topic in the world in seconds via technology. The problem is, there’s SO much information available, it can be overwhelming. How do you discriminate between what’s important and what’s fluff? What’s true and what’s baloney? How do you know what sources to trust and where to look for proof? Learning to evaluate and prioritize information quickly and efficiently is one of the most important life skills we will ever teach our students.

In addition, with the landslide of information available, it may seem to our students like everything’s already been said. Our challenge is to teach them to sort through and use the best information to create original works and solve problems in innovative ways.”

At Spofford Pond School, a significant portion of students’ Library Media classes are dedicated to Information Literacy.    Students will be learning how to use trustworthy sources, apply effective search strategies and to look critically at the information they find in order to create understandings.

“In the complex technological world of today, education is no longer simply the acquisition of a body of knowledge. It is rather the ability to continually access and use a
vast array of information sources. The learner must be able to effectively evaluate these sources, combine them in meaningful patterns and react creatively to the results.
For a successfully educated individual, this mode of learning becomes a lifelong habit, since knowledge acquired today may be inadequate tomorrow, while the process of
searching out answers, once learned, will be a lifetime skill.”
—Rationale for Today’s School Library Media Center, MSLA

 

 

 

The Fate of Merlin

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In Term 2 Media classes, all Gr. 5 students participated in the Unit, “Read It or Weed It;  The Fate of Merlin”.  An essential element of maintaining a library collection is the process  “weeding”, the culling out of books and materials that are dated and no longer popular with the patrons of the library.   This task usually falls upon the Librarian.  For this unit, Gr. 5 students played the librarian role to determine the fate of several fiction book series that were once, but are no longer, popular.

We began by creating a data table  in Google docs of agreed upon criteria for which to assess the twelve books in the fantasy/adventure/mythology series of  T.A Baron’s, called The Merlin Saga.   Students browsed through the books themselves, referred to the author’s website and also read reviews of the books in Good Reads and Amazon Books for Children.   Students then tallied up their total number of “read it” criteria and their total number of “weed it” criteria for one book in the series and entered these numbers in a Google Form.   See the chart below for the grade level results and the Fate of Merlin.

As a follow-up extension of learning, students were then tasked with choosing the “fate” of one other fiction series from among 25 different series books in our library that are no longer circulating on a regular basis.  Some series that students decided to “weed” are Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo and Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.  Two that were deemed still “readable” are Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman and Vet Volunteers by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Massachusetts School Library Association Standard 3. Locate and Access Information – Students will be able to access and gather information efficiently and effectively.

American Association of School Libraries Standard 2.  Learners use skills, resources and tools to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations and create new knowledge. 

Survey Says . . .

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“Survey research is often used to assess thoughts, opinions, and feelings. Surveys can be specific and limited, or they can have more global, widespread goals. … A good sample selection is key as it allows one to generalize the findings from the sample to the population, which is the whole purpose of survey research.” (Wikipedia)

Grade 6 students have been creating and taking surveys with their classmates using Google Forms and Google Classroom.

Star Wars Survey by Madeleine Payne, Ms. Stewart’s class

Once the surveys were taken, and students received the results, each student analyzed the results of his/her survey using Google Sheets.

Students asked the following questions in their analysis.

“Did my survey give the results I had expected when I created the survey?”

“What would I do differently with my survey now that I have seen the results?”

“How could I “tweak” the survey to get different results?”

Students then revised their surveys for their classmates to retake and noted both the difference in the results and their explanation for the difference.

Massachusetts School Library Standards 

5.7

Use appropriate medium to produce an original product to communicate research results.

7.9 Review and evaluate the process of transforming information into knowledge.

What does a Gr. 5 Media class look like?

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In Grade 5 Media classes,  students begin in the Media lab and choose between TTL4,  Dance Mat Typing or Big Brown Bear software programs in which to practice and increase their keyboarding skills. During this portion of class, those students who would like to check out a library book that day are able to do so in lieu of keyboard practice.  This time also allows students who may have missed a Media class to make up any missed work using their Google Classroom account assignments feature.

This winter, we have been using the topic of black holes to learn more about online resources of information.  In our information-rich age, students and adults alike often get lost in an online “black hole”, getting sucked into the vastness of a simple Google search results list, for instance.  The essential question of this unit; what is the best resource to use according to my learning needs?

Wikipedia is an often-used resource that is widely regarded, and alternately, criticized for its free, open sourced information.  Students were engaged in lively debates over the usefulness and appropriateness of Wikipedia for this school use.  After analyzing the Wikipedia black hole article, students learned about vandalism of articles in Wikipedia, and also that the information found in this particular article was not written at a reading level that they could comprehend.  We agreed that the best online resources in which to learn about black holes were the NASA for students website and an article with supporting media found in the Britannica School Edition encyclopedia.

Massachusetts School Library Media Standard

7.7

Use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze, synthesize and evaluate relevance, reliability, and authority of sources.

 

 

6 Resolutions Every Family with Tweens and Teens Should Make in 2016

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Happy New Year!

Caroline Knorr, an Editor at Common Sense Media, laments in her  January 4, 2016 online article , that   “8- to 12-year-olds average nearly six hours a day on entertainment media”!  However, she also reassures parents that “even if your tweens and teens know way more about media and technology than you do, you can still help them navigate the digital world safely, responsibly, and productively”.

In Gr. 6 Media classes, we are discussing the importance of thinking about the messages behind the media students see and hear every day.

One of Knorr’s recommended resolutions is to  “Encourage healthy skepticism. The ability for tweens and teens to think about the messages behind their media is more important than ever. Ads and content are increasingly becoming entwined, and studies show kids have a hard time telling the difference between them. Online stories are regularly unmasked as hoaxes. Even companies’ privacy policies are filled with legalese. Help kids to think critically about all the content they consume. Ask: Who made this? Who’s the audience? What are the messages?”

To this end, Gr. 6 students are creating advertisements in their Media classes.  The ads are based on the surveys they each conducted with their classmates in the fall.  Are their ads completely true?  Who is their audience? What are the messages?

I look forward to sharing some of the students’ work with you soon!

MSLMA Standard 5.7  Use appropriate medium to produce an original product to communicate research results.