Wednesday, April 2, 2008

student-selected texts/tools vs. teacher-selected texts/tools

I really enjoyed our discussion last week pertaining to the dichotomies in media literacy education. First of all I’ll have to admit I didn’t know the definition of dichotomy, but of course I referred to dictionary.com to clear things up (division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions). Dichotomy is one of those words that I understood because of the examples, but if it stood alone I would be confused. Experiences like this help me slow down and evaluate how I approach my lessons. If I get confused by an English word, how must freshmen feel about 85 minutes of Spanish every other day??!! The dichotomy that stands out the most to me is student-selected texts/tools vs. teacher-selected text/tools. While pondering media literacy education at the high school level, I have identified a list of pros and cons. Please add your own thoughts!

Student Selection Pros

● relevancy to age group

● ownership of learning

● teachers may also be learning

Student Selection Cons

● lack of relevancy to the curriculum

● constant revisions and screenings of texts/tools by teachers

Teacher Selection Pros

● all students will receive an equal education

● more controlled atmosphere

Teacher Selection Cons

● texts/tools not updated frequently (seem to use same things over and over)

● age barrier – not always connected to teen culture

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