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Annotated Bibliography
Rationale
Kathy Fredrick in the May-June 2012 issue of School Library Monthly states that
educators need to reevaluate the ways in which they integrate media literacy education into their
curricula in order to help students become more responsible, self-aware digital citizens and more
adept users of technology. According to Fredrick, educators bemoan plagiarism, cheating, and
the way students present themselves online, but what can they really do to make them
[students] understand the power of their choices with regards to technology consumption?
Fredrick offers a solution: look to the Common Core State Standards. One way we can
do this is through putting into practice the Common Core anchor standard that states students
should be able to make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express
information and enhance understanding of presentations (2012). Common Core State
Standards are a natural (and perhaps surprising) ally to media literacy education. These standards
are forcing educators in the United States to make a place for media literacy in the curriculum,
which has not been an easy task, even when media literacy is connected to academics. Canada
has long since had media literacy as a part of the core curriculum in schools; in fact,
representatives from the Media Awareness Network (now known as MediaSmarts) found that if
teachers focus on the creative process behind an assignment and learn about the creative
process, they will be less likely to plagiarize, having developed an understanding of and a respect
for the work of others (Minkel, 2002).
The scope of the resources in this bibliography is limited those that will offer ways to
incorporate media into lesson planning as a way to help K-12 students to make strategic use of
digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understandings of
presentations, and understand the impact of their choices as digital citizens. These resources can
provide ideas for school media specialists to use in their own instruction; in addition, media
specialists can share these ideas with classroom teachers and assist with the facilitation in the
teachers classroom instruction.


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Resources
Baker, F.W. (2012). Political Ads and Media Literacy Skills. Library Media Connection,
30(5), 18-19.
Political ads are an excellent medium to use when educating students on the effects
advertising can have on viewers. In this article Baker provides guidance on how to introduce
students to the world of political ads by offering list of questions to address with students in
order to introduce them to traditional advertising. He then suggests websites to visit, segments
of documentaries and other videos to watch, and worksheets to use when walking students
through a political ad lesson. He concludes with a brief outline on how to help students create
their own political ads using iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Glogster, PhotoStory3, or similar
programs.

Burns, M. (2013, February 12). Create engaging presentations with free ipad apps. Retrieved
from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/engaging-presentations-free-ipad-apps-monica-burns
Burns provides brief summaries of the presentation capabilities of Haiku Deck, Prezi,
Educreations, ScreenChomp, Doceri, and SnapGuide. All of these free apps are ideal to use in a
1:1 classroom setting, and can be used either by the librarian or teacher to enhance the lesson or
by the student to create a presentation of his or her own.

Byrne, R. (2013). Planning common core lessons? Help is here. School Library Journal,
59(1), 17.
Byrne briefly describes several lesson planning sources that allow an educator to align
lessons to Common Core State Standards and summarizes how to use them: Common
Curriculum, Mastery Connect, XO Plans for You, and ePals Common Core Implementation
Center. Choosing one of these sources would be helpful for school librarians and teachers to
ensure that their media literacy lessons are aligning to the CCSS, particularly when it comes to
the anchor standards regarding the presentation of knowledge and ideas and the reading of
informational texts.

Digital citizenship [Web log message]. (2014). Retrieved from
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/digital-citizenship
Common Sense Media offers a blog focusing on the topic of digital citizenship with
timely posts on sexting, cyberbulling, and Internet Safety Rules of the Road.
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Fredrick, K. (2012). Fostering media-literate students. School Library Monthly, 28(8),
21-22.
Fredrick presents the idea that in order to make students more media literate, educators
need to find ways to organically incorporate media experiences into standard assignments.
Fredrick offers six specific lesson ideas that will incorporate media platforms and support the
Common Core anchor standard focused on in this bibliography. Fredrick provides web addresses
and brief descriptions of six different media platforms that will compliment her suggested
lessons: Glogster, Jing, Screen Chomp, Go! Animate and Photopeach.



Hobbs, R. (2011). Empowering learners with digital and media literacy. Knowledge Quest,

39(5), 12-17.

Hobbs focuses on ways librarians and educators can work with students to develop into
responsible digital citizens, paying particular attention to the idea of judging the credibility of
information found on the web. She offers three questions to judge the credibility of a media
message: 1.) Who is the author? 2.) Whats the purpose of the message? 3.) How was this
message constructed? Some of Hobbs suggestions include bringing current events into K-12
classrooms and involving the community on local, regional, state, and national levels to build the
infrastructure capacity and human resources necessary to bring digital and media literacy to all
citizens.



Holland, B. (2014, April 2). Barbaric yawp in the 21st century: Using tech to engage budding
poets. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-tech-engage-budding-poets-
beth-holland
Holland writes about delivering poetry through multiple media and suggests using
iMovie, Animoto, Pixoral, or WeVideo, and posts a student-created example. These multiple
media format incorporate text, music and pictures, bringing a new element to poetry study. She
also suggests using the Book Creator app to help students publish their poetry. These mediums
allow students to manipulate and publish their work, experimenting with ways to present
information beyond merely typing another poem as her students were previously used to.

Holland, B. (2013, December 27). Projects to engage middle school readers. Retrieved from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/projects-engage-middle-school-readers-beth-holland
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Holland argues that students do not have to create an essay or book report in order to
demonstrate understanding of a piece of literature. She suggests educators move away from
traditional book projects and use technology-based forms of assessment that not only will
demonstrate the students understanding of the text but will allow them to practice technology
use and digital literacy skills. One project Holland suggests is using Animoto or iMovie to create
book trailers: Not only do these projects ensure that students have a firm grasp on the story's
plot, setting, theme and main characters, but they also provide an opportunity to address
persuasive writing as well as digital literacy concepts like copyright and publishing.

Greller, J. (2008). A media specialists guide to the internet. Retrieved from
http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/p/media-specialists-and-teacher.html
This website is a treasure trove of links to articles, blogs, websites, and web 2.0 tools
everything needed for a school media specialist to teach media literacy with a focus on the
Common Core. The web 2.0 tools are so extensive they are organized alphabetically, providing
mind-boggling options to bring alternative presentation platforms into the classroom. Two
resources that are particularly of interest: a link to an article entitled 9 Tips for Enriching Your
Presentation with Social Media and a link to an article entitled The Anatomy of an
Infographic: 5 Steps to Create a Powerful Visual.

Gutierrez, P. (2013). Whos playing who?: How sneaky online marketing is targeting kidsand
what you can do about it. School Library Journal, 59(2), 28-30.
In a fascinating article analyzing the clever and clandestine ways advertisers work their
subtly manipulating forms of marketing into websites designed for children, Gutierrez
problem-solves by offering ways for educators to turn this troublesome trend into a teachable
moment. Gutierrez offers several suggestions on ways to teach students how to identify and
critically examine advertising practices in websites they like to visit, making this article a
valuable resource on ways to jump-start a series of media literacy lessons that focus on
advertising practices. The critical thinking and close reading that would be required of the
students in order to have the discussions suggested would support Common Core expectations
and help students to become more aware digital citizens.


Jaeger, P. (2012). Is a picture worth $2,500?: It takes a deep understanding to synthesize and
summarize facts visually. School Library Journal, 58(8), 17.
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A picture has always been worth a thousand words, but now they are worth $2,500 or
more a pop. According to marketingtechblog.com, infographics agencies charge between
$2,000 to $5,000 to research, design and promote a fantastic infographic. Jaeger uses this
intriguing statistic to ground her discussion of the tremendous value of students creating
infographics as a means for them to practice writing, close reading of texts, drawing evidence
from texts, and critical thinkingall skills required by the Common Core State Standards. The
construction of infographics is an engaging way to have students closely read and analyze texts
and requires them to conduct research to build and present knowledge, a CCSS anchor standard,
and has students meet this standard in a relevant, useful way.

James, N. P. (2014, May 2). 4 free web tools to boost student engagement. Retrieved from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/web-tools-boost-student-engagement-nicolas-pino-james
James identifies the difference between tool technologies (those that create content)
and tutor technologies (those that educate). He states that motivational tool technologies
combined with educator instruction can increase a students cognitive, emotional and
behavioral engagement the most. These technologies must be innovative, easy-to-use, and
reliable, among other characteristics. James identifies several of these motivational tool
technologies and briefly explains their capabilities: myBrainshark, PosterMyWall, Screencast-o-
matic, and Padlet.

Kimmel, S. (2012). Deep reading: Using technology to engage, connect, and share. Library
Media Connection, 30(5), 10-12.
The skill of close reading is strongly supported by the Common Core and necessary in
order for students to analyze media and to present information digitally. This article suggests
educators harness these technologies and use technology and social media to share meanings
found within reading and to promote the social side of reading. A short but good list of web tools
is offered, including GoodReads, Tagxedo, and Twitter.





Lepi, K. (2014, March 8). 4 powerful tools for making your own interactive content. Retrieved
from http://www.edudemic.com/making-your-own-interactive-content/
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Piktochart, StatSilk, ManyEyes, and Google are briefly discussed as excellent free
resources to create interactive charts and graphs to present informationcalled data
visualization tools. All are free and easy to use, with Piktochart being the authors favorite
choice.

Minkel, W. (2002). Media literacy--part of the curriculum? School Library Journal, 48(4), 31.
Minkel makes a case for the United States adopting media literacy as a part of the core
curriculum, as Canada has, citing the connection between teaching young adults about media
education and the meaning of intellectual property. Several important media literacy
organizations are mentioned in this article: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
(McREL), Center for Media Literacy (CML) and the Media Awareness Network, now
MediaSmarts. All of these organizations provide resources for media specialists who want to
develop media literacy curricula.

Rogow, F. (2011). Inquiring minds want to know: Media literacy education for young children.
Library Media Connection, 29(4),11-13.
Rogow grounds her article in the goals that the Association for Media Literacy Education
(NAMLE) gives for media literacy education: to develop habits of inquiry and skills of
expression needed to be critical thinkers, effective communicators and active citizens in todays
world. Rogow goes on to present ideas on what the librarians role is in media literacy
education and how librarians and educators can help to develop the habits of inquiry, with and
without technology.

Shook, R. (2013). Tips for embracing CCSS. School Library Monthly, 29(7) 2.
This is a simple checklist of ways school librarians can stay ahead of the curve with
respect to CCSS, including collaborating with classroom teachers and other librarians and
following Twitter accounts of other librarians to compare strategies for following Common Core,
and One particular tip was to always promote the use of technology in responsible ways and a
helpful website for reference:
http://www.schools.utah.gov/CURR/star/Documentation/AppsforEarlyLiteracy-final.aspx.



Subramaniam, M., Waugh, A., Ahn, J., and Druin, A. Sci-Fi, storytelling, and new media
literacy. Knowledge Quest, 41(1), 22-27.
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This article describes the Sci-Destiny Project, organized by researchers at the University
ofMaryland collaboration with school librarians. The goal of the project is to create an engaging STEM
curriculum in which science storytelling, new-media literacies, and participatory culture are mixed
together to ignite students interest in STEM.

Teaching digital citizenship. (2014). Retrieved from
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-digital-citizenship
CommonSense Media in conjunction with TeachingChannel created a series of video
lessons on teaching digital citizenship. There are questions to guide discussion of the video, and
users can create a free account to access supporting materials.

The news literacy project. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsLiteracyProject/
The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an innovative national educational program that
mobilizes seasoned journalists to work with educators to teach middle school and high school
students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. NLP was founded in 2008 by Alan C.
Miller, then an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. NLP has created original
curriculum material and hosts its own YouTube channel with videos from professional
journalists discussing news literacy issues as well as student project videos.