21st Century Learners Choose the Write Media
My children are still young, and have not yet been bombarded by the barage of advertisements that froth and bubble in local radio and television. In our house, we do not idly watch television. We make deliberate media selections.
We download specific programs, and make weekly choices for our “Movie Night” Fridays and Saturdays. Everyone takes turns and watches one another’s choices politely. If bored, they retreat to a puzzle, book, art box or favorite toy.
We watched Fat Albert, 1972 “OG” style. You know the one, where the gang realizes they don’t have enough money for instruments, so they get creative in the junkyard by fashioning those masterpiece instruments we all have manufactured in our private moments.
A classic case of creativity at its best.
The author’s message is delivered by a hip looking cat named Bill Cosby (with only a fraction of the lines he would wear when entertaining the world with The Cosby Show a decade later) who breaks it down for the audience to apply to their own life’s ups and downs.
The best part of the show is always the opening when Bill sets the stage with intelligence, embedding figurative language and an idiom into an expertly crafted joke. “Looks like there’s going to be a change in the weather for the guys.” Cheeky grin, big eyes, and rattling a cup of change and holding a red umbrella, we all giggled at the literal sense of his words and how well he timed the joke to make us smile.
Note to self: This is a teachable moment for later.
Short bursts of animation from the old school such as Popeye, Looney Tunes, Smurfs (please come back), Totoro (Japanese animation is the best!), Handy Manny, My Little Ponies and anything Einstein, Dora or Diego are all wonderful. Each has ample story elements, a clear author’s message, and yes – excellent writing.
Help your child be their best 21st century learner.
Be selective. Our children are 21st century learners. Pulling the best from them means we design their media with intelligence rather than let it drown them. Choosing appropriate media and viewing it as a family is a great visual equalizer, connector and discussion piece for intelligent conversation at the dinner table, around a game board, in the big bed with books, driving in the car, or in the moment of rude behavior to illustrate a point.
Use subtitles. Clicking on the subtitles is a terrific way to passively add the word count of a daily paper to your child’s vocabulary. Let them gaze at the manuscript as the text comes to life and gives meaning to the motion. Pictures = Understanding. The magic of media.
Empower. Allow each member of the family to choose a favorite piece of appropriate media. Mix it up by choosing 10-12 minute bursts of your favorite part. Discuss what you saw. It is delightful to witness the perspective of each family member from their place and station in life. Record the observations in a family journal. You will be glad you did in some future once upon a time, when you look back and see your consistency.
Cindy
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“Pulling the best from them means we design their media with intelligence rather than let it drown them.” Wisdom so many parents could learn! Shout this out to the world!
I would have never thought of the subtitle idea. Cindy, that is brilliant!
I too was struck by the suggestion about subtitles. Will be particularly helpful as my son enters jr. high school in full french immersion.
Thanks for putting your actions into thoughts for us.
Lori and TrinaMb: Yes. Subtitles rule. It is an unobtrusive way to embed more language into everyone’s day. Trina, with your son entering a full French immersion program you all will find this is a truly fun way to gain more language. Our Mia and Max attend a Spanish Dual Immersion program and they request English or Spanish subtitles. It’s enough to make this teacher’s heart go pitter patter. Cheers and thanks for stopping by.
Lori: Thanks for spreading the word and celebrating the quote.
So good to see you getting this message out there, Cindy! We did this with our kids, and amidst barely disguised disdain at how much TV and film we let them watch (some of our friends tried very hard to pretend their kids weren’t even in the 21st century!) our kids have wonderful imaginations and the innate ability to structure powerful, compelling narratives, based on years of absorbing Disney and Pixar as well as good books.
We chose the range of films and movies they watched from, monitored and guided, discussed and expanded on what we viewed. The kids loved drawing film characters, acting out wee plays afterwards and writing their own ‘episodes’. They loved doing jigsaws of their favourite films and on holidays and long road trips, they listened to talking book versions of Pixar films borrowed from the library and took puzzle books and colouring books with their favourite characters in. My daughter used to invent the most wonderful dialogues in the back of the car between Flik and Atta from Bug’s Life using her hand held toys! Merchandising, I know, but simple pleasures nonetheless.
…And the subtitles work for all of us!
Suggested using the subtitles is excellent. It is something we did from the very beginning when watching dvd’s or videos. It really helped with language skills. My son became so used to subtitles that when he got older, we would watch a Japanese movie together (Godzilla) in the original language with english subtitles. Fascinating way to watch a movie.
Janice: So many people can learn from your depth of experiences rearing wee ones into young adults. It is obvious from JD’s knack to write well that all of her early language experiences had a profound effect on her as an adolescent. Thank you for sharing your rich experiences as a mum.
Robin: I love subtitles. Just like Janice said, “the subtitles work for all of us.” It is amazing to hear other people share stories about how they started this with their young children and what a testimony to share that your son is now older and still enjoys subtitles. High Five on Godzilla Japanese version. Classic.
I agree with the subtitle thing…only that subtitles should not be rolling in too fast which means the dialogues are not so fast that all the subtitles could give to our dear babies are headaches and dizziness.
But all in all, indeed it is very very important to incorporate technology to the different learning strategies.
yeah – Subtitles, but I would prefer that they not be at bottom of the screen (conventional) – rather that they, in some realistic manner, engage with the object, situation or speach they represent.