Baker+Frank

Frank Baker is a well known media literacy expert. He graduated from the University of Alabama. He is nationally known and gives many presentations at schools and conferences. He has even been a presenter for the International Reading Association, The National Middle Schools Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. He also published his first book in 2007 and he published his second book in 2009. Frank believes it is important to educate children about media literacy because many teachers he has talked to told have told him that their students believe everything they see, hear, and read. One of his goals is to help educate students to develop critical thinking skills in order for them to become active intelligent citizens. Frank’s website is broken down into different categories so it is easy to navigate through. You can search through the website by concepts, teaching standards, and by most popular topics. The site is full of resources, lesson plans, activities, and games. He also provides assessment resources, videos, blogs, and newspaper articles on his web site. This is definitely a great site for teachers to use because it gives them many ideas of how to incorporate the topic of media literacy into various core subjects. The lessons and activities are very appealing to students as well. One math lesson used Super Bowl Ads to help teach students about media literacy. Students viewed the cost of the ads and the number of viewers from 1967 to 2009. There is also a link to view Frank’s blog and to view his Facebook feed. His blog gives information about new hot topics and about current issues that are being discussed. In order to view his Facebook feed you have to add him as a friend. [] (main website) [] (blog) [] (what’s new forum)
 * Frank Baker **

MP

I was just on his website to view something he posted in the OELMA listserv. If you go to the Math in the Media section of his website, you can click 2000-2010 30 sec. ad costs in Prime Time networks. It was amazing to see what people are watching and how much advertisers are willing to pay to put their product in front of that audience. I have a strong connection with media literacy because advertisers attack kids before they are capable of deciphering the information presented. I absolutely agree as stated above that helping students develop critical thinking skills is essential for them to become active intelligent citizens. CMS

I liked his blog on [|Educators use online wikis as classroom tool]. I think it is a great tool for collaboration between students and teachers. JD

The issue of media literacy is becoming more important for educators. Recently, more and more magazine covers are being digitally altered to portray very thin body images. I had never really thought of historical photos/images being altered, too. I looked on Frank Baker's main website and it is amazing to see media alterations. Students of the 21st century definitely need media literacy and critical thinking skills to interpret today's bombardment of media. BG

On Frank Baker's homepage there is a bunch of links for media literacy. I would like to see more teachers in my school touch on these topics. There are links here for every subject. I also thought the body image link could be very helpful to talk about in high school health class for girls. Advertising is another big area that students need to be aware of. The information literacy link contained some lessons in which could be used to teach students the 5 "w"s of cyberspace. Part of this lesson involved explaining and breaking down the parts of a web address so you know where it is coming from. DM

Students need to be taught skills to filter through all the information the media throws at them. Kids are the biggest consumers and they have no idea why they buy things or what made them think they wanted something. They need to be taught how to deal with the media and understand why ads are created the way they are so they have a better understanding of what is being forced on them. This is an important topic to teach. KG

Frank Baker's time is now. Young people are innundated with information, including advertising, almost 24/7 and yet they no so little about gaging whether or not the information is "good" or "correct" or "true". Even TV shows and movies are advertisements these days. Case in point, the 'Lie to Me' episode aired on 10/26 featured Fiji bottled water, Volvo cars, and Mac computers, among others. With brand placement, commercials on CNN videos, and poster advertisements for Cheetos hanging in school cafeterias, children need to be educated and Baker is leading the forefront. EH

Bakers website is full of very useful information and ideas! I especially like the resources and materials he has listed by subject area...especially those geared for literature and language arts curriculum. One link that I thought was exceptionally useful was designed to teach kids "visual literacy." The link [] had some great tips from Baker on teaching kids to be better at "reading" what they see. I think this may be a website for my tool kit in EDT 731. RL

I was excited just reading all the comments about his workshops and all the ideas he suggested for teachers to try and how schools need to change for the future.st

I checked out some of Frank Baker's lesson plans. I really like his format and information. I was particularly interested in the "Tobacco Ads" lesson since I live in a prominant tobacco growing county and have taught 8th grade health the past two years. On the left at the home page for the lesson is a Table of Contents that includes links to: Introduction, Background, In the News, Procedures, Tobacco Ads, Related Links, Smoking & Films, Smoking & Music, Tobacco On TV, Counter Ad Examples, Curriculum, Recommended Videos, and Tobacco Sweepstakes & Giveaways. Everything and more for a great lesson! Baker's website is definitely a keeper for teachers! RM

The first thing that caught my eye when perusing Frank Baker's material was a quote: "Everywhere I go, teachers tell me that their students believe everything they see, read and hear. Students today aren't applying the critical thinking skills we know they need in order to become active, engaged, intelligent citizens and consumers of information." 100% TRUE!! Our students are living in a world of instant gratification. Not only has the attention span of the average student shrunk dramatically in the past decade, they've also lost their sense of being a suspicious consumer of media. Nowadays so much is presented as pure fact our students simply accept it. We need to teach our students to question their media, research, and make informed decisions. I'm really interested in reading his book "Coming Distractions: Questioning Movies ". I think it would be a great idea to teach students //how// to questions using a form of media they are already comfortable with. CNR

This MLC is a great place to go to learn about how to integrate medica literacy into the classroom. I discovered an interesting resource book, //Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms// by M. Christel and S. Sullivan (Eds.) with a companion disk to help get you started. CW