Weaknesses in Media Literacy

Kellie Ouzts

At the beginning of our school year, we all met in the lunchroom and watched our
“Welcome back to School” presentation by our Principal, Ryan Butcher. He had taken
the CRCT data and compiled it into a power-point slide show. He began his presentation
with county-wide scores and broke them down further and further still until he had slides
on each grade level and their percentages of students meeting and exceeding per strand. I
was astonished to learn the “Reading sub-domain Information” and “Media Literacy”
scores. In fourth grade, only 72% of our students met or exceeded in these areas. I
decided then that media literacy was certainly lacking for our fourth graders. For this
reason, I have chosen to develop my Understanding by Design unit specifically on media
literacy in the fourth grade.
I met with the fourth grade lead teacher. We discussed the media literacy scores
and what they are able to incorporate into their other lessons. The strand that fourth
grade has a hard time incorporating into regular education class work is:

ELA4W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing. The
student:
a. Acknowledges information from sources.
c. Uses various reference materials (i.e., dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia,
electronic information, almanac, atlas, magazines, newspapers, and key
words).

Fourth grade students conduct research on key historical figures. Students write a
paper and dress as their chosen individual. My unit will teach basic resource materials in
order to get the students ready to conduct their own research.
All classes come to the Media Center once a week for thirty minutes. Lessons are
taught in fifteen-minute sessions before the students are allowed to check out books for
the last fifteen minutes of their Media Center time. During our lesson time, I will use the
Promethean Board to teach a lesson and conduct a summative assessment that covers the
fourth grade standard.
 Stage 1 – Desired Results
Content Standard(s):

ELA4W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing. The student
a. Acknowledges information from sources.
c. Uses various reference materials (i.e., dictionary,
thesaurus, encyclopedia, electronic
information, almanac, atlas, magazines, newspapers, and key
words).

ELA4R2 The student consistently reads at least twenty-five

books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words)
each year. The materials should include traditional and
contemporary literature (both fiction and non-fiction) as well
as magazines, newspapers, textbooks, and electronic material.
Such reading
should represent a diverse collection of material from at least
three different literary forms and from at least five different
writers.

Understanding (s)/goals Essential Question(s):

*Students will understand that: *what are forms of resource materials that I
Reference materials, both online and hard can use to help me complete my research
copies, are useful tools when conducting and how do I use them?
research.

Student objectives (outcomes):

Students will be able to:
• Use a dictionary
• Use guidewords
• Use an encyclopedia
• Use an atlas
• Search periodicals for information
• Conduct basic internet searches
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:
*Students will demonstrate *Teacher observation of student work at
understanding by correctly Promethean Board.
answering Final activote assessment
questions.
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Learning Activities:

W- The students will be researching a historical figure for a wax museum in social
studies. This reference materials lesson will get them ready to conduct their own
research.

H- To hook the students I will tell them that by using the reference tools they can learn
about anything they want to!

E- In order to become better researchers students will:

-listen to lesson
-manipulate items on the Promethean board
-assess learning through activote quiz

R- Assessments: