Media Literacy Through the PSA

     More than ever, young people need to be equipped with media literacy skills. To be able to dissect and analyze abundant digital information for meaning and credibility. To recognize fact from fiction. To understand when a message is angled towards a single perspective. One way to develop these media literacy skills is to have students produce their own digital stories. In Mr. DelMonaco's 5th grade class, we produced video Public Service Announcements. These videos were inspired by their own persuasive writing stories. We first examined production techniques used in other PSAs. We noticed the tone. Some were funny, some serious. We noticed how some conveyed information visually, some with a narrator. We discussed the possible reasons for the pacing of nvideo cuts. And we paid attention to how music influenced the message the viewers received. Then we created storyboards to convey the main idea of our persuasive writing pieces. Once the storyboards were completed and approved, the students formed small production teams and launched into the Edgewood hallways, the back yard, the front yard, and into classroom nooks with iPads recording each storyboarded scene. These scenes were then assembled in the iMovie app to put the final edits on their :30-:60 video PSAs. They were all put on display outside Mr. DelMonaco's room using the Aurasma app, but you can take a look at one of them here. This one's on school locker searches. https://goo.gl/a8Hg6p