Media Literacy

I did a lesson in class last night. We did a Webquest. We were talking about General Semantics. The very quick and dirty definition is "the word is not the thing, the map is not the territory."

If you go to this site and search for General Semantics, you'll see the web inquiry, or Webquest. I linked to articles from different media outlets concerning Tom DeLay's indictment. It was interesting because each source used a different picture and they definitely used different language. For instance, the Fox News headline was something like "DeLay Charge Ammo for Dems," which definitely put a different spin on things. You can make these webquests for any topic. You can give the student a guiding question and several sites, and then ask them to find the pattern or interpret the information. Good technique, I think.