Media Literacy Educator Mrs. Ladner facilitates the Ad Savvy Kids workshop with Grade 4 students.
AdSavvy Kids at Guiteras Library: A Media Literacy Study
The AdSavvy Kids project offers fourth-graders a 75-minute workshop to delve into media literacy criticism in an age-appropriate and engaging way. The workshop was facilitated by Communication and Media Specialist Jennifer Ladner of Screen Savvy Kids. Grade 4 is a critical grade level for media literacy analysis because the students can take the experience of the workshops and create videos and other artifacts in order to share their learning with Grade 5 and the younger grade levels. Additionally, the project provides the Guiteras Library with 6 Ad Savvy Board Games that will be used as an introductory learning activity for Grades 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The most basic definition of Digital Citizenship - a large, overarching concept - is the practice of navigating the digital world safely, responsibly and respectfully. Every Kindergarten through Grade 5 student’s education in Library Class at Bristol Warren Regional School District includes learning about facets of Digital Citizenship (Internet Safety, Privacy and Security, Relationships and Communication, Digital Footprints and Reputation, Self-Image and Identify, Information Literacy, Creative Credit and Copyright) and while media literacy overlaps within those categories, the majority of curriculum materials, sources and examples are aimed at students in middle and high school. As a teacher-librarian of elementary age students, it is a challenge and a joy to create media literacy units of study from scratch rather than a pre-packaged curriculum. The freedom and advantage of creating units of study is that the learning activities can be finely tailored to my students’ learning needs and interests. A creative innovative approach to learning and teaching means identifying a gap in curriculum and content - media literary analysis within the study of K-5 Digital Citizenship - and then designing a unit of study with an emphasis on a variety of learning activities for the students.
The funding for the project was generously provided by the Bristol Warren Education Foundation.
