Media literacy - new lesson plan

Janice and I have been doing a media literacy unit for the past three years, tweaking it yearly to find the right mix of topics to make it relevant and interesting to the kids.

This spring I wanted to include the Dove 'Campaign for Real Beauty', but we deemed it unsuitable for the crew we were dealing with. However, I hope we'll be able to use it with this year's crop.

Then, this summer, I sawa a story on CNN about a 14-year-old model who was told she was 'obese' when she hit size 4 (no, really). You can see it here for yourself at
http://http://www.glamourgirltips.com/2008/08/size-4-teen-model-called-obese.html

I was especially struck by the comment by the creator of the mini-documentary referred to in this piece; he said that we are on the way to 'moral decay' if this is what we've come to (I'm paraphrasing, to be sure).

Debut blog

I've been interested in blogging for some time, and right up front I must thank Ms. Sandsmark (perhaps by now you're Mrs. Somebody - congrats!) at Claremont Secondary for that perfectly stellar presentation she gave back in May - it gave me the impetus to create this.

I want my students to 'get in the game' with this format of communication - I'm sure they'll think it's waaaaay cool, or whatever the equivalent expression-of-the-minute is. Anything that will get them thinking, writing, communicating.