Media Literacy Lesson Plan Ideas: Media Use

1. Have students keep track of how much media they use over the course of a week. Agree on categories such as television, computer, video games, etc. Discuss how it will be recorded if students are using two types of media at once. Collect the data for the whole class, with students submitting their diaries anonymously.
   
   Have the students break into groups and assign each group a media type. Have them figure out some interesting statistics such as the average media use per student, per day, and per week, the maximum and minimum media use, and the percentage of the day that students use media. Have the groups create charts and graphs and present their findings to the class. Are they surprised? Have students compare their findings to national averages, available in the Kaiser Family Foundation report Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds.


2. Have students keep track of all the time they spend sitting down during a day or week. Have them keep track of what they’re doing while their sitting and the percentage of their day/week they spend sitting down. How could they decrease their sitting time? Do they think it’s a good idea to spend so much time sitting?


3. Divide students into groups and describe a new society where there is no mass media -- no television, no computers, no telephones, no newspapers. Have one group discuss and present how school would be different in this environment. Have another group discuss how they would entertain themselves. Other groups could discuss how they would keep in touch with friends and family, how they would get news and information. Have them create visual aids, examples, etc. At the end of the presentation, brainstorm the pros and cons of media.


4. Declare a day "‘media free day." Get as many people involved as possible. If it is too much to restrict all media, just restrict one or two kinds. Afterwards, have the students discuss what it was like to be without that media. Did they miss it? Why or why not?


5. Without allowing them to prepare, have students brainstorm all of the advertisements they know by heart. Have them sing jingles, draw logos and act out commercials. See how many familiar ads you can find. Then discuss why they know these ads by heart, where they see and hear them and why they are memorable. Where would they put an ad if they wanted to make sure people would see or hear it as often as possible?

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