| Over the last several years this inquiry has focused on the impact of a media literacy curriculum on the literate behaviour of several groups of at-risk high school students. One of the characteristics of many of these students is that they possess low levels of literacy, in addition to being unmotivated to engage in the academic activity of schools. These characteristics result, in a large part, from assessment practices based almost exclusively on the ability to generate certain forms of print texts. Because at-risk students have not been particularly successful in these contexts, assumptions are made as to their intellectual abilities, prescription are made for drill and practice exercises to promote “correct” language use. As a result, at-risk students often find themselves engaged in the struggle for literacy described in the quote above. In many instances they give up the struggle.; Using a re-conceptualisation of literacy, I devised a curriculum in which the students produced (wrote) and analysed (read) popular media texts. I examined the behaviour of these groups of students as they participated in the reading and writing activities. Through this investigation, I gained insights into the literate abilities and behaviours that the at-risk students possess and can demonstrate, which traditional measures of literacy were unable to uncover. I also developed pedagogical approaches which enable the literacy of not only at-risk students, but also all students. The results of this inquiry suggest that the consideration of Media Education within a conceptual framework of literacy holds considerable promise for research, curriculum development and pedagogy. |
