Read Online Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird by Michael J. Meyer - Free Book Online Page A

Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to assess, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms—from print to video to the Internet. Media Literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society, as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.
    Similarly, a position statement adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee states, “As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies.” In the same position statement, the NCTE lists key competencies for twenty-first century ELA students, all of which encourage a proactive rather than passive/receptive approach to technology:
    To develop proficiency with the tools of technology
    To build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
    To design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
    To manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
    To create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
    In addition, a policy statement issued by the American Pediatrics Association in August 1999 states that “given the volume of information transmitted through mass media as opposed to the written word, it is as important to teach media literacy as print literacy.”
    Why are pediatricians and ELA teachers, learned professionals who work with children, supporting media literacy in the classroom? Simply put, composing, implementing, and analyzing messages using the latest effective communication tools can greatly benefit today’s students. The digital age has torn down previously existing walls between media; the printed word, photography, film, video, graphic art, animation, voice tracks, music, and the Internet now constitute an emerging “mega-medium.” As a result, everyone with access to a computer can both consume and create massive amounts of information in various forms. Students must learn to master this flow of digital assets; one route to this learning is through innovative teaching of literature.
    Educators who first attempt to create and assemble a multimedia lesson/unit plan will find that their students are exposed to and arguably bombarded with a constant assault of information in various forms and of varying quality. By introducing and embracing twenty-first-century technologies and curricula in the classroom, teachers can train their students to be critical readers, viewers, and creators of all of this information. From digital photo essays, to character studies using Twitter, texts, and blogs, to electronic journalism reports—the possibilities are seemingly endless. What have up to now been considered by some as superficial social networking tools or multimedia software toys are seen by “digital natives” like today’s high school students as vital means of communication. Best of all, when embedded in a well-developed lesson plan, these tools can force students to use the higher-level thinking skills demanded in our standards and benchmarks. To create an effective multimedia message, students will, among other things, be required to analyze, appraise, select, evaluate, assemble, write, design, and create remarkably effective communication projects.
    Although “book culture” will continue to be valued and traditional literacy media (i.e., the original printed publication) will remain an important component of ELA education, we encourage twenty-first-century teachers to throw away the notion that only the printed word and classic means of information transmission are worthy of critical analysis. For ELA students to be best prepared for the information challenges of the twenty-first century, they need to