Teachers Institute

The Teachers Institute Media Literacy Training Program is a series of workshops designed to aid Chicago Public School (CPS) educators in bringing new perspectives to curriculum development and classroom study through the use of film and multimedia. The Teachers Institute is designed as a comprehensive series on media literacy, lead by renowned film and media professionals and professors. The goal of the Teachers Institute is to heighten media literacy awareness and its applications in teachers and provide them with the tools to incorporate film theory, multimedia deconstruction, and the impact of the moving image into their curricula. For the 2009-2010 school year,the Institute will be a free Cinema/Chicago Education Outreach program offered at Sullivan High School with development assistance from Communities in Schools of Chicago. The Teachers Institute will expand to numerous Chicago schools for the 2010-2011 school year.

The Teachers Institute provides educators the opportunity to actively participate in a detailed pedagogical development program that connects media literacy concepts and arts education to Illinois Learning Standards. Through interactive workshops, concentrated evaluation, classroom observation, and ongoing collaboration with workshop leaders and facilitators, educators will have an opportunity to increase their awareness of the impact of media on the lives of their students.  Participants will also explore personal attitudes and experiences with multimedia and develop methods for utilizing video research in creating arts-infused lesson plans.

Media technology is advancing at an ever rapid pace and the rate at which students are bombarded with images, sounds, and information can be daunting. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information gathered from these sources. Media literacy education is the practice of turning passive media consumers into critical thinkers and media creators to manage these images, sounds, and information.

2009-2010 Workshops

What Media Teaches Students about Race, Gender & Violence
Led by Salome Chasnoff, PhD, Executive Director, Beyondmedia Education
Emphasis on IL Learning Standard 2 – Reading

In the average American household, television is turned on for more than 7.5 hours a day. Research has shown that moving images shape students views of the world and their community, influences their identities and their notions of race and ethnicity and gender. Through this interactive workshop educators will have an opportunity to increase their awareness of the impact of race and gender violence on the lives of both young women and men. Participants will also explore personal attitudes regarding these issues and develop methods for utilizing multimedia as a teaching tool.

Hip-Hop and Critical Pedagogy: Tools for the Classroom
Led by David Omotoso Stovall, Assistant Professor of Policy Studies, College of Education, UIC
Emphasis on IL Learning Standard 27 – Arts & Civilization

This workshop seeks to examine the various uses of hip-hop as critical pedagogy in Chicago Public High School setting.  Hip-hop films, music and text will be examined and discussed as cultural phenomenon with multiple uses in the classroom across various subject areas.

Politics in the Classroom: A Film Guide
Led by Ron Falzone, Film Professor, Columbia College Chicago
Emphasis on IL Learning Standard 14 – Political Systems

As the country becomes increasingly politically polarized, it becomes more difficult to navigate the discussion of politics in the classroom. Traditionally considered a great discussion starter, documentary films have become so politically one-sided that teachers have come under fire for using them in the classroom.  This workshop will address how educators can use documentaries less as objective dispensers of information and more as the initiators of a balanced political discussion. It will include examples from recent documentaries as well as discussion and suggested exercises to help educators chart these increasingly choppy political waters and engage students in critical thinking to foster a higher degree of media literacy.

Foreign Cinema: Teaching Cultural Understanding through Film
Led by Adan Madrigal, Media Arts Coordinator, After School Matters
Emphasis on IL Learning Standard 29 – Culture and Geography

This workshop will help educators prepare lesson plans, assignments, and film and video materials to teach their students about other cultures, challenge their assumptions about those cultures, and encourage and motivated them to learn about their own roots.  The workshop will show how international film can be used to create a platform to discuss our level of awareness of, the kinds of assumptions and beliefs we have of other cultures. Through lists of questions related to each film, key issues and common stereotypes related to each film will be identified. The workshop will also explore the source of our understanding and knowledge in relation to media and movies, evaluate facts and fictions, and discuss plans and assignments that can be used in classrooms to help students confront their own level of awareness about themselves and others in an engaging and lively way.

Workshop session themes and objectives will include

• Enhancing critical thinking skills
• Using film analysis as an alternative assessment technique for literature studies
• Media literacy and thematic analysis of universal themes across disciplines
• Using non-text prompts to promote literacy
• Bringing new perspectives to history studies
• Promoting multicultural awareness and foreign language studies
• Integration of Chicago Reading Initiative components
• Facilitation of student-led discussion
• Deconstructing Hollywood
• Using media studies to motivate at-risk students

Sharing proven best practices in enhancing student abilities and assisting in writing techniques

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Ed Marzewski discusses teen internet information sharing with CPS school teachers.