Process Skills

A primary goal of the federal grant was to have children learn how to examine and interpret media messages. To accomplish this, SMARTArt's training workshops and classroom activities involved teachers and students in developing and strengthening four basic thinking process abilities:^[8]

• Access - the ability to collect useful information and comprehend it
• Analyze - the ability to examine a message's form, structure, and sequence
• Evaluate - the ability to relate a message to personal experience, and judge if the message is accurate and relevant
• Create - the ability to use words, sounds and/or images to communicate ideas, and to use technology in making and sharing your ideas with others

When lesson plans and activities are organized to combine these process skills with the four steps of the Empowerment Spiral it creates "a powerful matrix that transforms both learning and teaching."^[9] The Spiral, also called "action learning," is useful for breaking down complex concepts using four learning steps. Each step stimulates different aspects of the brain, enhancing one's ability to evolve new knowledge from past experience:

• Awareness - "ah ha" moments that unlock a spiral of critical inquiry
• Analysis - figuring out how a message was produced and understanding what it means
• Reflection - looking deeper to see if the information is accurate and complete; and to judge the implications of the message
• Action - formulating ideas to take constructive action, to "learn by doing"

To cultivate children's abilities in interpreting media messages and in using media to express ideas and information, SMARTArt's integrated curricula gives students multiple opportunities to develop and practice thinking process skills. "The five media literacy core concepts and key questions in the CML MediaLit Kit™ provide the key integration piece for pulling together the different curricular areas," says CML President and CEO Tessa Jolls. "If you say to a teacher 'We want you to teach children process skills; we want you to teach them to be able to access, analyze, evaluate and create media,' that's enormous. That is an 18-year job," says Jolls. "But if you say, 'I want you to help the children understand and use these Five Key Questions,' it sounds like something doable."

Louis Carrillo, Principal at Leo Politi Elementary School agrees. "Most teachers initially see media literacy as, 'Oh no, one more thing to do.' But if as you're showing it you say, 'Look, not only does it go along with your literacy series but it is enhancing it,' then they're doing two in one, and the more that can be overlapped the better."

"Especially in today's environment with so many pressures on teachers," Jolls says, "we have to give them something they feel they can handle on an everyday basis. So it's a powerful approach."

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