Inspiring Ideas for Integrating
21st Century Themes and Skills

Watch Carefully . . .
The Media Education: Make It Happen! program is a collection of free resources to help educators understand and facilitate media literacy in their classrooms. The program consists of a booklet, PowerPoint workshop and a facilitator’s guide with handouts.

Think Critically . . .
Founded in 1995 as a concerned response to the ever-increasing deluge of messages youth receive from television, radio, film, print media, electronic games and the Internet, Just Think teaches young people media literacy skills for the 21st century. The organization creates and delivers in-school, after-school and online media arts and technology education locally, nationally and internationally. Just Think offers several curricula packages, each of which is designed with an online component.

Here are some of Just Think’s media literacy curriculum offerings:

Flipping the Script: Critical Thinking in a Hip Hop World is designed to help you teach media literacy concepts and media production skills around the engaging theme of Hip Hop culture and music. Try the Find Your Voice Sample Activity.

Following the success of the Peer Health and Media Education Program (PHAME), Just Think is presently developing a comprehensive curriculum that will engage students in both media literacy and media production around different health topics. The curriculum will be geared toward middle and high school students and will focus on issues that directly affect today’s youth. Stay tuned for the launch of these materials. View a sample PHAME lesson plan.

Hidden Heroes is a hands-on, standards-based curriculum that asks youth to tell the stories of their communities through the heroes and leaders who live and work there. Through lesson plans and production activities, youth establish their own criteria for heroism and community. They then become journalists and researchers as they probe their neighborhoods looking for hidden heroes. Integrating media literacy and production tools, Hidden Heroes encourages youth to capture those stories on video and then publish the footage in creative and engaging ways. The Hidden Heroes curriculum packet includes a 20-page Teacher’s Guide, a short documentary film and a Web site where participating groups can publish their work.