Renee Hobbs and Media Literacy

Renee Hobbs researched how media literacy was being taught in English 11. I think her research relates very closely to the standards Project Look Sharp is addressing. Hobbs set out to prove that teaching media literacy improves reading comprehension and writing skills. Hobbs also goes into detail discussing how teaching media literacy teaches students how to critically analyze the media that is all around them. I think her research is extremely important to today's schools. I think more schools should be adopting media literacy into the regular curriculum of the ELA classroom. It is more important to teach students how to read the world they live in, than to teach them how to read books they cannot relate to or understand.

I find Hobb's ideas for teaching critical analysis of news shows very interesting. Students need to understand what is fiction and non-fiction in a realistic sense. I think her research reflects the information that Warlick and Richardson are telling us needs to be in our classrooms. We need to be using social websites, searching the web, and analyzing media with our students. I think what Hobbs is discussing in her book is a great way to get students motivated in the classroom. Students might not mind reading or writing during class if it is based on a TV show, etc.