Media literacy is an essential skill for students of all ages, even the youngest. By teaching them to critically analyze media, navigate the internet safely, identify different types of media, and balance their screen time, you are preparing your students to become responsible digital citizens. This article provides tips and resources for teaching media literacy at the elementary school level.
Media literacy generally involves six types of skills. They are honed through doing research, creating content and communications, learning to use software, and collaborating and thinking critically.
Media technology skills:
a. Knowing how to use a computer
b. Surfing the internet
c. Using office software
Information skills:
a. Looking up information
b. Evaluating information
c. Processing information
d. Using information
Creative and artistic skills:
a. Using media and digital tools as a form of self-expression
Behavioural skills:
a. Knowing how to conduct oneself ethically and responsibly online
Critical and aesthetic judgment:
a. Being able to critically examine media content and communications
Introspective skills:
a. Reflecting on your values and how you receive and process information
There are certain principles that guide our relationship with media. It is important to teach students how to decode media content so that they can view it with a critical eye.
Here are the seven principles in a nutshell:
Media shapes our perceptions of reality and the social fabric. Media productions are the result of human decisions and interests. It is important to recognize their impact on norms, stereotypes, and prejudices.
Consumers give meaning to media productions based on their own values and experiences. Different people respond differently to media content.
Media productions communicate values and ideologies, even when they claim to be neutral. The information conveyed may even contradict what is taught in school.
Media productions are influenced by commercial interests such as entertainment, advertising, and sales.
Media content has a social and political impact, particularly when it comes to our electoral processes and our understanding of social issues.
Media messages depend on a number of technological and practical constraints that determine their content and format.
Each medium has its own aesthetic and can be appreciated for its artistic qualities.
It is never too early to start teaching media literacy. Recent research shows that media literacy can be taught effectively as early as age 5. Most young people begin using media and the internet long before they start school. To better prepare you to integrate media literacy practices into your classroom based on the needs and strengths of your students, here is a framework that provides benchmarks for appropriate levels of media literacy in elementary school.
Kindergarten through Grade 3
Students take virtual environments and activities literally because they have not yet developed the ability to think critically about technology.
As they become more independent, they begin to incorporate computers and the internet into their daily lives and look up more information online.
Topics to discuss with your students:
Strategies for looking up information on the internet
Recognizing how branded characters, games, and activities on websites encourage loyalty (French only)
How to protect their personal information on commercial sites
The persuasive power of advertising
Grades 4 through 6
Younger students do not have the critical thinking skills to navigate the internet on their own.
Yet about one-third use the internet without adult supervision.
They are easily influenced by media images and personalities, especially people with a cool or impressive persona, such as influencers.
Topics to discuss with your students:
These students need internet safety and privacy guidelines.
They must learn to be good cybercitizens and responsible internet users.
This is an ideal time to teach them good internet search habits and how to fact-check information, as well as how to recognize marketing messages and stereotypes.
At this age, they need to learn how to be empathetic, how to resist upselling techniques, and how to manage their time online.
They are increasingly sensitive to messages about body image and gender norms and need help dealing with them.
They may still be frightened by realistic depictions of violence in news reports and television shows.
Since your students were all born after 2010, there is no getting around the fact that they have grown up surrounded by digital technology, interacting with tablets, computers, cellphones, video game consoles, smart devices, and more. They need the right guidance and hands-on activities in the classroom to strengthen their digital and media literacy skills. Here are some suggestions from Alloprof:
Have your students complete this educational activity, where they will analyze cereal boxes as marketing media to better understand the role of advertising in consumer products.
Create a fictional profile of a historical figure based on social media profiles. Students can then discuss hypotheticals (e.g., what the person’s YouTube channel would be like), the uses and shortcomings of social media, and their thoughts on how the person would use it differently.
In Geography, you can have students practise their research and fact-checking skills using search engines, travel websites, and other online resources. The Listenbourg country hoax (French only) is a good fact-checking activity.
In History, students can explore how their view of history and historical events has been shaped by the media. They can search for old posters, newspapers, movies, and advertisements and analyze them in light of the mores of the time.
In Geography, students can analyze how media coverage influences the way they perceive different parts of the world and the people who live there. Even maps can be analyzed as media.
(The following links are in French only) Students should learn to critically assess information that claims to be scientific by learning to identify misinformation. They can use this poster to help them separate fact from fiction. This Agence Science-Presse poster is another excellent resource for scientific news. Finally, this poster is useful for reminding students that social media is not the same as news media.
Students can test their critical thinking skills with this interactive game from the Montréal Science Centre, where they have to decide whether the information provided is a hoax or something that really happened.
Snopes.com and FactCheck.org are great resources for determining the accuracy of information circulating on the internet. You can suggest that students draw conclusions about information that turned out to be false.
Have students read this fake article about tree octopuses. Then, ask them to use the poster on how to spot fake news to determine whether the information is reliable.
Math:
Students can learn how concepts such as statistics and probability are presented in the media and how this affects our understanding of current events.
More resources
Media Smarts, a website that offers a wide range of educational resources
The media and information literacy section of Agence Science-Presse (French only)
This practical toolkit, which answers ethical and legal questions raised by producers of digital kids’ content
This Agence Science-Presse educational activity on news media (French only)
This educational kit on media exploration from the magazine Les Débrouillards (French only)
How to tell what’s true online tip sheet
From CBC Kids: Fact or fake – can you tell the difference online?
Teach your kids to be expert fact-checkers by National Geographic