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Educator Workshops


Educator Workshops are intensive professional development seminars that introduce teachers to the basic principles and concepts underlying media literacy.

In these sessions, teachers: 1) Learn how to view films selectively and critically, so that they can communicate effectively with their students about media. 2) Receive a basis in the schoolroom practice of media education including ways to use media in the classroom and as homework, to enhance students' educational experience. 3) Get information about how and where to obtain educational resources for teaching media literacy.

In 2006, workshops were presented to groups of teachers at the CAEYC (Chicago Association for the Education of Young Children), and through the Chicago Public School's Office of Language and Cultural Education just prior to the Festival. These workshops are tremendously effective in reaching educators, who in turn use the concepts in the classroom. The most powerful reason for expanding our work with educators is a simple one: when you reach one teacher, you reach 30-35 children.

Targeted School Partnerships
With the generous support of the Polk Bros. Foundation, the Alphawood Foundation, the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation and the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund the Festival piloted an intensive media education outreach program combining multiple screenings with professional development workshops for a number of Chicago Public Schools including Carpenter School, Daley School, Lafayette School and the Gale Academy.

Partnership goals for working with the schools are firmly tied to Illinois Learning Standards for the Fine Arts, which provide the framework for CPS Standards in the Arts. In this program, principals help to select the classes and teachers whose educational goals best fit with the resources and goals of the partnership. Meetings are then held with the teachers and education assistants to establish the areas of classroom work which will benefit most by media presentations and the development of media-based curriculum. Over the summer, special programs aligned with the teachers' educational goals are curated, and subject-specific curriculum is created.

Media Smart - In-School Programs
The Media Smart programs present a comprehensive synthesis of the CICFF's core media literacy curriculum for children as young as 2 and as old as 18. Available year round to schools, daycare programs and social service organizations, Media Smart programs work across the curriculum to help children build and improve fundamental skills required for success on standardized tests.

Comprising four age-appropriate media education programs, Media Smart workshops encompass reading and writing exercises, film production workshops, units for media literacy studies, discussions of key social and cultural issues, and activities designed to stimulate test-taking skills. By teaching children to pay attention to the verbal, visual, and ideological messages of the media that surround them, the CICFF's four Media Smart programs will awaken school children to a world of enhanced opportunities for learning, discovery, and creation.

1. LITERACY THROUGH MEDIA  - A groundbreaking program targeting literacy skills and participatory learning, Literacy Through Media amplifies the educational benefits of film by identifying and getting children to use the many "reading opportunities" in a film, from subtitles to credits. While traditional education models ignore the potential of audiovisual materials to enhance reading techniques, our experience has shown that reading skills and literary appreciation dovetail with learning to watch films. Younger children in the Literacy Through Media program learn to point out words and read aloud from films with confidence. Older readers are able to identify filmic elements of plot and characterization, carry out writing and analytic exercises, and conduct follow-up enrichment reading.

2. MY FIRST MOVIES  - Children aged 2 to 6 relate to audiovisual media differently than older children, and frequently respond emotionally to scenes of violence, graphic depictions, and programs that contain many rapid 'cuts.' Young children are also apt to become over-stimulated, hyperactive, fearful, and unable to learn when they are frequently exposed to age-inappropriate media.

By presenting age-appropriate, family-friendly programs of international animations and live-action shorts, My First Movie provides children and their guardians with positive experiences of high-quality media, teaches adults how to engage young children in discussions about movies and television, and provides children with post-screening activities to divert their energy from viewing into doing.



3. SCREENING RACISM - This program helps children identify, discuss, and dismantle the constructs of racial prejudice. Through screenings, group discussions, reading assignments, and group activities, children aged 6-18 learn to identify racial stereotypes and recognize the signs of bias in themselves and others. Careful mediation by adult educators helps children discover that the frequently challenging topic of race relations can become an opportunity for sharing and discovery. By seeing and discussing stories about children like themselves around the world, young people learn to appreciate the similarities and differences between their own cultures and other cultures

4. MOVIES MAKE YOU SMARTER - Movies Make You Smarter is a comprehensive program that challenges children to recognize and use key concepts from media literacy in their schoolwork across the curriculum. Using the best multi-cultural short films for children as springboards to discussion and study of the influence of media, this program also emphasizes an understanding of communication, visual messages, and the role of media in society. Age-appropriate activities help program participants grasp the learning opportunities in actively viewing and critiquing media. As well, Movies Make You Smarter provides film-based exercises that teach, apply and improve children's understanding of 5 out of the 8 core concepts needed to succeed in taking the IOWA Basic Skills tests.

Pricing: Media Smart Program available for field trips and in-school sessions.
$15.00 per child, 30 child minimum

To schedule the Media Smart Program at your school/organization or to receive more information, please contact "Kidsfest" at (773) 281-9075 or email kidsfest@facets.org.

Directors in the Schools Program.
In 2004 with the support of the Academy Foundation, the Festival launched a new initiative to bring directors into the schools following their screenings. Speaking to groups of 100-150, these in-school seminars focus on helping children see the links between the artistic representations of the films and the larger social and educational issues that these films address. Following their interactions with Directors in the Schools, students submit written reports, undertake research projects and/or create their own artistic responses to the films they viewed. The CICFF also tracks the academic achievements of children involved in the program.