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Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates

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Faith Rogow

About the Book

Media literacy is about wonder and imagination, questioning and learning, thinking and reflecting!
 
Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates is about all these things, and more importantly, it is about how early childhood educators and professionals can prepare children for their digital future.
 
This book is a first-of-its-kind guide for pre-service and currently practicing teachers and child care professionals looking for pedagogically sound and developmentally appropriate ways to help today’s children navigate their media-rich world with confidence, curiosity, and critical thinking. Detailed descriptions of media literacy competencies, along with dozens of activities, strategies, and tips designed for children ages 2–7, demonstrate how to integrate foundational skills, knowledge, and dispositions into existing routines as well as experiment with new lessons. 
 
By examining media through a literacy lens, this book will show you ways to
 
  • Use inquiry and media-making to teach children about media
  • Plan activities to engage children in meaningful media discussions
  • Engage with families about the importance of media literacy education for young children
  • Address media concerns with joy and creativity rather than anxiety or fear
. . . and much more!
 
Academics' Choice Awards Smart Book Winner

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgments
  • Start Here
  • Part I: Getting Ready
  • Part II: Defining the Task
    • Chapter 5: What Is This “Media Literacy Education” of Which You Speak? 
    • Chapter 6: Engaging Through Inquiry
    • Chapter 7: Building Media Knowledge: Key Concepts
  • Part III: From Pedagogy to Practice
    • Chapter 8: Integrating Media Literacy: Routines and Modifications
    • Chapter 9: Integrating Media Literacy: Planned Activities
    • Chapter 10: Engaging Families
    • Chapter 11: Taking the Next Step
  • Appendix A: 100 Words That Build Media Literacy Vocabulary
  • Appendix B: Using Media Analysis Questions to Draw Conclusions About Media Effects Research
  • Appendix C: Resources
  • Index
  • About the Author 

Book Details

Product Code: 1158
ISBN: 978-1-938113-97-0
Publish Date: 2022
Citation (in Chicago 17th ed. style): Rogow, F. 2022. Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Related Resources

Articles

“Start with Wonder, Then Add Inquiry: Developing Young Children’s Media Literacy Competencies” - Faith Rogow outlines 10 competencies necessary for media literacy as well as provides guidelines that early childhood educators can follow to embed these competencies into their classrooms. (Teaching Young Children, December 2021)

“Play and Technology: An Important Intersection for Developing Literacy” – Victoria B. Fantozzi, Christi Porter Johnson, and Anneliese Scherfen discuss how, with thoughtful selection and integration, play and technology can work in tandem to support children's learning. (Young Children, May 2018)

“Technology and Interactive Media in Early Childhood Programs: What We’ve Learned from Five Years of Research, Policy, and Practice” – This article by Chip Donohue and Roberta Schomburg highlights consensus takeaways on a set of foundational elements necessary for successful technology integration with young children based on position statements, reports, research reviews, guidelines, and recommendations released between 2012 and 2017. (Young Children, September 2017)

Other

Listen to a podcast from the Association for Media Literacy featuring author Faith Rogow as a special guest.

Read a book review from the Illinois Reading Council Journal. 

Audience: Student (higher education), Teacher
Age: Early Primary, Kindergarten, Preschool
Topics: Other Topics, Technology and Media, Digital Literacy, Digital Media
Faith Rogow

Faith Rogow, PhD, is an independent scholar and longtime media literacy education advocate and innovator. She has written or coauthored a number of books and articles, most recently Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates (NAEYC 2022). She also occasionally blogs as the Media Literacy Education Maven at TUNE IN, Next Time. You can find a link to the blog and also contact information on her website: InsightersEducation.com. Comments welcome.

Faith Rogow

Reviews

This is a book by a media literacy educator who understands digital media—and how to teach our youngest media users, and there is no better media literacy educator than one who asks, “How can we respond to uncertainty with imagination rather than fear?” Thank you, Faith. This is the question of our time.
—Anne Collier, Executive Director, The Net Safety Collaborative
 
Rogow has gifted us with a creative and comprehensive manual for teaching media literacy to young children, a challenge of the past that this author has now conquered for the skeptical early childhood educator who might question whether media literacy is age appropriate.
—Stephanie Flores-Koulish, Professor, Media Literacy Instructor, and Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Social Justice Program, Loyola University
 
This is not a book about media. This is not a book about technology. This is a book about literacy while using media of all kinds and technology of all kinds, and the power of inquiry to help children understand and excel in our complex world. Faith Rogow has done it again—she stretches our thinking, opens our minds, and provides an array of easy-to-use strategies to support children’s literacy for today and the future. There is no better book for helping you think, really think, about how to help children become media literate in today’s world. It has tips and “aha” moments on every page!
—Lisa Guernsey, Senior Fellow and Strategic Advisor, New America
 
As I read this book, I found myself completely engrossed. I learned, I reflected, I related. I found myself deep in ideas, thinking of how to capture, bottle, and pour this knowledge into my colleagues and my teaching! Early childhood educators and children will learn about media beyond imagery. This book talks about thinking critically about media with intentionality. Readers are guided through methodologies and taught to become purposeful and digitally engaged, inquiry-based thinkers.
—Sabrina Burroughs, Kindergarten Teacher, Technology in Early Education, Mentor
 
Knowledgeable guidance from an informed teacher is crucial and is not widespread in the early childhood community. Here emerges the need for this book. Parents are invited into creating media-literate children with clear explanations in this final section of the book. The research-based evidence of literacy over screen-time debates completes the book. Rogow also asks what is media, who are we, and why are we engaging? Asking and answering the questions posed in this text are excellent steps toward becoming a media literacy educator.
—Excerpt from Science and Children review by Laura Weilert
 
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Cover of Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates
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