{"id":3843,"date":"2023-11-27T11:27:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T17:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ic4ml.org\/?post_type=journal-article&p=3843"},"modified":"2023-12-06T13:15:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:15:23","slug":"ml3-librarians-as-leaders-for-media-literacy","status":"publish","type":"journal-article","link":"https:\/\/ic4ml.org\/es\/journal-article\/ml3-librarians-as-leaders-for-media-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"ML3: Librarians as Leaders for Media Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Abstract<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Librarians as Leaders for Media Literacy (ML3)<\/em> initiative was begun in New York State in 2021 with a grant from the Booth-Ferris Foundation.  Building on the extensive PD and curriculum work of Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College over the past 25 years, this initiative is grounded in the inquiry-based student-centered pedagogy of Constructivist Media Decoding (CMD).  Recognizing that K-12 school librarians are uniquely suited for this role, the initiative worked intensively with 19 librarians from across New York State to serve as leaders in media analysis, as well as training nearly a thousand librarians in the CMD pedagogy.  Now partnering with AASL and NAMLE on a new IMLS grant, Project Look Sharp is developing a national plan for school librarians to have the training, resources, and support they need to be leaders of media literacy in their schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keywords<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Media Literacy, Constructivist Media Decoding, Librarian Leaders, Inquiry Based Strategies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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How can we support all students to develop habits of critical thinking about all media messages?\u00a0 When will our overwhelmed teachers find the precious time to integrate media literacy?\u00a0 And who can lead this work in schools across the nation?\u00a0 These are the essential questions behind the ML3 initiative – Librarians as Leaders of Media Literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constructivist Media Decoding<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ML3 emerged from the work of Project Look Sharp<\/a> (PLS), a not-for-profit media literacy initiative based at Ithaca College that was founded by Cyndy Scheibe, Chris Sperry and others in 1996.  PLS provides all educators with free standards-aligned lessons for integrating student-centered, question-based media analysis into all subjects and levels of K-12 instruction.  PLS has codified a classroom methodology for leading media analysis that we call Constructivist Media Decoding<\/a> (CMD).  Through the process of CMD, educators lead students through the analysis and evaluation of engaging media documents – from books to blogs, films clips to Tik Tok  posts \u2013 by asking questions<\/a> that are aligned to specific curricular and media literacy objectives.  In leading a media decoding activity, educators have students apply core content, learn key concepts, and reflect on their own thinking. The CMD process shifts teaching and learning from a teacher-centered, didactic approach to a constructivist approach that acknowledges that students construct their own meaning, they learn best from each other, and that they should be the most active agents in media analysis \u2013 and their learning in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For two decades Project Look Sharp has been providing educators with free media decoding lessons<\/a> that enable CMD at all levels and subjects.  This highly-interactive and engaging approach enables educators to address their key subject area standards and content while also teaching students critical thinking habits.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example of a Search for elementary level health lessons on nutrition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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As an example of a media decoding lesson for teaching nutrition to 1st<\/sup> graders, a teacher can present a cereal box or commercial for Froot Loops and ask, Do you think there is fruit in this cereal?<\/em>  By following up students\u2019 affirmative comments the teacher can ask, What makes you think that?<\/em>  After students give evidence from the document (the fruit on the packaging) the teacher can ask, It shows fruit on the package, but how can we find out if there really is fruit in Froot Loops?<\/em>  After an introduction to the nutritional label, the teacher can shift from their nutrition objectives to media literacy objectives by asking, Why would the makers of Froot Loops want you to think there is fruit in it if there is not? <\/em>  This discussion helps students understand advertisers\u2019 intent, marketing strategies, and the \u201ctricks\u201d often used to fool consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example of a Search for high school history lessons on \u201cNative Americans\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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For a high school U.S. history class students can be shown different textbook excerpts and short video histories about the Trail of Tears, from different time periods, producers (including Native filmmakers), and through different voices.  After probing for application of knowledge about the event (e.g., What messages are given here about the Trail of Tears?<\/em>), the teacher asks about the representation of history, e.g., Is one of these histories more accurate or more biased than the others?  Why might different teachers, schools or states choose one version of history over the other?  How might our own identities influence how we see these different representations<\/em>?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the two examples above, all 800+ of PLS\u2019 free media decoding lessons<\/a>, address teachers\u2019 concerns about \u201cadding\u201d media literacy to the curriculum – and instead use media decoding to teach to their core content and standards in an engaging, relevant, and effective way for a diverse range of learners.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shifting Teaching Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The shift from teachers delivering knowledge to teachers facilitating learning is not an easy one for many educators. In a 2005 evaluation of the use of PLS lessons, Dr. Renee Hobbs observed that even with PLS\u2019s question-based lessons, teachers who had no training in CMD tended to use the media documents as examples or illustrations of what they wanted students to see rather than as prompts for collective analysis. To address this, PLS has added to its website 20+ short, annotated demonstration videos of classroom decoding for all levels and diverse subjects (see Demonstration Videos<\/a> on the PLS homepage).  Even more effective have been face-to-face trainings and online courses in CMD.  But the most effective way for educators to make this shift to inquiry-based media decoding has been through ongoing CMD practice, ideally, with reflection and feedback (PLS has protocols for PD practice decoding with colleagues).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two decades PLS has developed the lessons and professional development approaches that enable educators to integrate media analysis into all curriculum areas and levels, but we did not have a workable plan for scaling up this work.  From the start we were committed to providing our lessons and online PD resources to all educators for free through grant funding.  But this mission-driven approach limited our budget for promoting CMD.   Our lessons and approach were continually a revelation for educators, who often commented, \u201cHow come I did not know about these resources?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We clearly needed an approach and collaborators for sharing these media literacy resources and pedagogy with all educators through grass-roots advocacy.  But who could we collaborate with that is in every school, already has a commitment to media literacy, and that can play a leadership role with both students and teachers?  Once we established this essential question, it did not take us long to see that school librarians are our natural partners in this work.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Librarians as Media Literacy Leaders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

School librarians are the information literacy experts.  They often build relationships with all students in their schools, across many years.  They have relationships with all educators in their buildings and awareness of all curricular areas.  They are trained in the pedagogy of inquiry.  They have deep experience in collaboration.  They should be in the position to provide curricular and instructional support to their colleagues.  And, school librarians have the commitment to being the guardians of well-reasoned thinking about credibility, sourcing, and truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021 Project Look Sharp had the opportunity to propose a capacity-building grant to the Booth Ferris Foundation to scale up our work throughout New York State.  We immediately looked to school librarians and entered into a partnership with the New York State School Library Systems Association<\/a> (SLSA).  Together with SLSA we were able to develop a plan for the integration of critical thinking habits about all media messages for students in schools across New York State through the leadership of K-12 public school librarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2021, PLS received the grant.\u00a0 The pilot initiative selected 19 K-12 librarians, library system directors, and coordinators (from over 100 applicants) who reflected the diversity of schools and librarians across all regions of NY state.\u00a0 The ML3 librarians began their training (starting with 2-day workshops in the fall of 2021) to become leaders of CMD in their schools and regions. The grant also included funding for evaluation, documentation, outreach, and networking statewide for scalability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each librarian participated in monthly individual coaching (by ML3 Coordinator and long-time librarian educator, Susan Allen), monthly cohort meetings on Zoom, and a weekend retreat in Ithaca in July 2022.\u00a0 They each crafted an ongoing integration plan, led practice decodings, and gave continual feedback on the initiative including through confidential surveys. The ML3 staff (Chris Sperry, Susan Allen, and Cyndy Scheibe) met regularly with an ML3 Advisory Group<\/em> made up of the leadership of the NYS School Library Systems, filmmaker Rhys Daunic and the ML3 evaluator, Faith Rogow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Goals of ML3:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To identify successful approaches<\/strong>, accessible materials<\/strong> and a workable plan<\/strong> that will bring curriculum driven, inquiry-based media analysis<\/strong> to all students<\/strong> in NYS public schools through the leadership of school librarians<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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New Resources for ML3<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One goal of the initiative was to collaborate with librarians to identify and create the materials that would enable them to effectively integrate media analysis in their schools and to promote this approach to their teachers and administrators.  Based on the feedback from the ML3 participants, the Advisory Committee, and school librarians across New York State, we have recently added the following new resources to the PLS website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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