Ithaca College

Project Look Sharp is excited to announce that Cyndy Sheibe, Sox Sperry, and Chris Sperry will be presenting at the 2015 NAMLE/MILID Conference, “Celebrating Connectivity Across Cultures”. The conference will be held on June 26-27th at the Westin Hotel in Philadelphia.

Cyndy Scheibe and Chris Sperry will be leading two different workshops at this conference:

• Leading a Constructivist Media Decoding
• Cultural Paradigms & Key Concepts – Lessons from Iran, Bhutan, and Beyond

The “Leading a Constructivist Media Decoding” interactive workshop will train participants in the methodology of constructivist media decoding. An introduction of inquiry-based classroom decoding of diverse media documents tied to different subject and grade levels will be taught. Following the workshop, participants will have the option to lead their own brief decoding with feedback from the trainers.

The “Cultural Paradigms & Key Concepts” workshop will address media literacy work taking place in Iran, Bhutan and other countries and how they can get involved. Engaging stories about cross-cultural paradigms, contexts, and challenges that have come up in teaching media literacy in Iran and Bhutan will be discussed. Media literacy pioneers from Iran and cross-cultural media literacy trainers will speak briefly about their experiences. Participants will be able to identify the impact of different paradigms and contexts in which media literacy initiatives have developed in several countries as a result of this workshop.

Cyndy Scheibe will also present the workshop “Taking on Gender Stereotypes Through Media Literacy Lesson for 3rd Grade” that will highlight ways to celebrate and connect students with issues related to gender and the media. This workshop will assist students in navigating cultural issues involving stereotypes. Participants will become familiar with the free curriculum lessons that use constructivist media decoding regarding gender stereotypes at the 3rd grade level.

Sox Sperry will be leading the panel “Media Literacy Education and Green Cultural Citzenship” Sox will speak on pedagogical approaches to use constructivist media decoding in the classroom as a means to help students think critically about local and global issues related to sustainability and social justice. Each panelist will address the question: “What might green cultural citizenship look like from the lens of media literate communities?”

Chris Sperry will be presenting three 5-minute media monologues. The first monologue is titled “Students Asking the Right Questions”. This monologue will discuss how students can integrate asking key media analysis questions into the teaching of core content. The monologue will also feature a short video clip of high school students decoding media.

The next monologue is titled “Students Speak About Media Literacy”. Chris will show a 3 minute video about high school students talking about media literacy. This will bring diverse student voices into the monologues to share reasons for why media literacy is necessary and crucial.

“Diversifying Our Texts” is the final monologue. Chris will share a personal story about his childhood and the education system being print oriented. He will then make a pitch for integrating the decoding of diverse text throughout all subject areas and grade levels.

For more information regarding the 2015 NAMLE/MILID Conference, please visit

http://namle.net/conference/2015-conference/

Project Look Sharp is Ithaca College’s Media Literacy Initiative. Project Look Sharp supports the integration of critical thinking through media literacy in school curriculum and teaching. They do this through developing and providing lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for educators at all education levels. The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens in today’s world.