Lots of Extracurricular Media Literacies

What with the time change and my busy week-end schedule, I'm not feeling particularly rested as I head into Monday morning, but I did have some time to contemplate some media literacy during my extracurricular activities. The big event this week-end was a Saturday fundraiser at the Cub Foods grocery store in Bloomington with my yearbook staff. We spent 7 hours bagging groceries for tips. As I watched the kids work and interact, I spent some time thinking about how media literacy is involved with the yearbook. At first, I dismissed the idea--the only literacy I could initially think of was print literacy as the students write the text of the book. But then I thought harder. Our book is a combination of many skills. There is certainly visual literacy in the graphic design aspects of the book. We spend a great deal of time analyzing qualities of good graphic design. The book employs technology skills because the design program is online and requires learning and using the publisher's software. Even using our digital cameras to capture images, download them, edit them, and upload them into the book is a kind of visual literacy. One of our goals is to tell the story of our school year in pictures, so graphic storytelling has a role as well.

As we worked, the kids commented on the store's music and made jokes about plugging their iPods into the store's sound system, but ultimately decided that forcing people to select cereal while listening to Lady Gaga might not be a wise sales move (although it might perk things up in the meat department). Because they weren't allowed to have any electronics in sight during the work, a couple of my kids took quick breaks to respond to their buzzing phones or check their messages. All in all, it was a successful fundraising event and I realized that media literacies are all around us...even in our extracurricular activities.

Next, on Sunday, I attended a "Celebration of Life" service for an elementary student who died earlier this year. You might wonder what media literacy had to do with this occasion, but even in this event I found media literacy. First, as people entered the lobby of our school, the big-screen TV was scrolling a slide show of our student during her school years. During the service itself, special songs were performed or played. Poetry was read. There was a second video montage of music and photos. Lastly, the "Cassidy Collection" of books was unveiled. Later, I learned that Cassidy's mom has kept her cell phone account active...because Cass's friends still occasionally send a text message.

Media surrounds us. It adds entertainment and fun. It educates us. It helps us communicate our stories and our feelings. It can help us to listen or to speak. And maybe, if we use it well, it can even help us to grow.