Media Literacy and Hobbs

While reading Chapter 8 of Hobb's Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English, I felt a lot of what was being said was repetitious. With that in mind though, I did find a few elements of the chapter both interesting and pertinent to my education and future as a teacher:

1. Multiple Forms of Literacy
In this section, Hobb's states that "literacy must be reconceptualized to include these new message forms and to exploit their potential to help students master the demands of reading more sophisticated texts" (131). "These" refers to "visual, electronic, and digital forms of expression and communication" in such literacies such as visual, critical, informational, and digital (131). To continue, Hobbs explains that students use technologies to "create their own messages" (132). This is where it made sense. Students creating their own messages... If students are actively involved in something they like, involving technology they know, they will be more motivated in the work they do.

2. Learning that Connects Literacy to Life
Since media literacy can connect what students learn to what students live, it can increase student motivation and learning. This coincides with what was said above: creating own messages, life relevance, content that connects to students lives. Hobbs confirms that critical think skills, reading comprehension, and writing skills are all impacted (positively) by media literacies.

3. Students' reflection on their Literacy Learning
This is something that we-- students and teachers-in-training-- take part in consistently during the semester. Every course we take is likely to have us reflect on our work, and 3007 alone has us reflect on our work with Media Literacy and Literacy Learning. As students reflect on their work, they can understand what they have learned, how they have learned, the amount they have learned, and what else they can learn. They also begin to understand the material they have learned and why it was presented in such a way. For example: "what critical decisions were made about certain shows/songs/commercials/etc, and what impact does this have on my life?"