About a month ago I posted a target asking for ideas to introduce /
teach magazines / periodicals to my elementary students. Here at LONG
last is the very belated HIT of the replies that I received. Since I
posed my target my assistant and I have been taking turns being sick, so
it's been a long month. I tried to send individual thanks to those who
replied, but if I accidentally missed you please accept my apologies.
Here are the replies and ideas that I received. Thanks for you help!!
Cynthia Collins
Media Specialist
Dewey L. Carter Elementary
Effingham, SC
ccollins@fsd1.org
Just two quick thoughts off the top... teaching newspapers, magazines
and
journals is an opportunity to bring up various information literacy
concepts
including media literacy, search strategies, and citation analysis.
Media Literacy and Search Strategies: You'll probably want to be sure
that
students understand that newspapers and magazines reports information
at
different stages of the time cycle - newspapers focus most often on
what has
just happened ("crisis") vs. longer and more in depth discussions in
magazines of "chronic" issues. Naturally, blog reporting and breaking
news
in Google & Yahoo has put pressure on daily print newspapers to provide
more
depth, and pressure on weekly news magazines to report crisis events
with
depth. Everybody's scrambling to figure out their time-niche. I've
used
sections of "Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need"
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/advicee
ngin
<http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/advice
engin>
e.html to clarify differences in communication media. Also, here's a
neat
flash program that shows the information cycle from "breaking" news to
books:
http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/research/timeline.htm
<http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/research/timeline.htm> And
regarding newspapers, for example, you can also make distinctions in
level
of objectivity vs. opinion:
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/newsmedia/attitude.html
<http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/newsmedia/attitude.html>
Citation: Don't miss teaching a bit about the difference between a
magazine
and a journal, because you'll need to reinforce it when you teach MLA
citations later. Here's a Knowledge Base quick-and-dirty definition
for you
http://www.noodletools.com/kb/index.php?article=36
<http://www.noodletools.com/kb/index.php?article=36> and here's greater
detail: http://www.unk.edu/acad/library/ref/index.php?id=2866
<http://www.unk.edu/acad/library/ref/index.php?id=2866> for you.
-I found that using the Boys' Quest and Hopscotch as samples worked out
the best for me. They had the best variety of various items. I had
enough back issues saved so each child could have one during the lesson.
Here is a list of the things I mentioned:
-Find the cover. What is the name of the magazine? What is the month and
year of issue? (Mention that some magazines are not issued on a monthly
schedule - these two are issued on alternate months).
-Look on the inside cover. Do you see the little symbols? (the award
symbols). Those mean the magazine has received awards. Now look at the
tiny print. It tells you the publisher's information, the subscription
rate, and where to send your questions or subscription money.
-Find the Table of Content. (Can you tell which articles are regular
features and which are just for this month? Some magazines list them in
groups).
-Now look through your magazine. Let's find a:
-make-believe story (how do we know? illustrations can clue us in) -a
true story (how do we know? photos are usually good indicators) -a photo
with a caption (do you know what a caption is?) -a poem -a puzzle -a
craft or project -a letter to the editor ("Potsy's Mailbox" in
Hopscotch)
The way I do magazines is this- I read a selection from one, and go
through the rest of the magazine, noting ads, puzzles, letters,
nonfiction and fiction articles, comics, reader submissions, poetry,
etc. I like to use Spider magazine and compare it to a magazine with
heavy ads, like Nickelodeon. I explain to the kids how the respective
mags make their money, and how subscription fees differ, as well as the
issue frequency. We also discuss the intended audience for the
magazine. Then I give them a short worksheet, which is mostly just a
checklist for the kids to go through to see if the magazine contains the
elements we've discussed. I break them into small groups, and give each
group a stack of a certain title, and the kids look through them,
applying the checklist as they go. I also give them some sticky notes
so they can mark a good represntative sample of each. Then, each group
"pitches" their title. This makes them much more critical consumers of
magazines, and also gets them to dig through titles that they might not
ordinarily pick up.
I have done various activities with this topic - but the best one was
where I took a magazine and read from it for about 2 minutes, then
pointed out a few of the special features. Then I split the class into
partner groups and handed each a magazine. They spent 5-10 minutes (go
with your time limit) looking through magazine for unusual features - or
what they would use to "sell" it to other students. Then they tell
title and what they found to entire class. It works surprisingly well.
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