We have exciting news to share with you. Two new ACME board members have been added to our team: Dr. Nolan Higdon is a professor of English, Communication, and History in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Higdon's academic work focuses on nationalism, propaganda, and critical media literacy education. Kendra Hodgson is the Director of Marketing & Distribution at the nonprofit Media Education Foundation (Northampton, MA). Ms. Hodgson has conducted media literacy workshops at various conferences and schools and served as a media literacy consultant for schools in Western Massachusetts.
Join us in welcoming them! On behalf of ACME, thank you for your continued activism and support. We hope you enjoy this issue, and as always, please share your news with us.
—Julie Frechette, ACME Co-President
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Plan Ahead for Scree-Free Week
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Join us in celebrating Screen-Free Week * April 29 - May 5, 2019
ACME is proud to endorse Screen-Free Week 2019! Here are some ideas you can start implementing now to make Screen-Free Week more meaningful this year:
- If you can host a Screen-Free Week event for children, families, or school groups, now is the time to start planning.
- If you cannot host an event, but can present a program at a local school, now is the time to reach out to schools in your area.
- You can already start spreading the news about Screen-Free Week! Be sure to add it to your social media calendar. Consider these sample posts that can be used now:
- Facebook: Unplug April 29-May 5 for @Screen-Free Week, the annual celebration where children, families, schools, and communities swap digital entertainment to enjoy life beyond the screen. @Screen-Free Week is a springboard for lifestyle changes to improve health and well-being all year round! Learn more at .
- Twitter: Rediscover the joys of life beyond screens. Celebrate #ScreenFreeWeek April 29-May 5!
We invite you to visit the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood website for more ideas and resources.
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For the second consecutive year, ACME was the proud co-sponsor of the 2019 International Critical Media Literacy Conference which took place on February 22 and 23 in Savannah, Georgia. An outstanding collective of educational leaders, future teachers, youths, and other concerned citizens joined together to share their scholarship and resources to promote critical media literacy, with a unified goal to address social inequalities and foster participatory democracy.
 
Dr. Sherell McArthur Dr. LaGarrett J. King
On Friday, Dr. Sherell McArthur, Assistant Professor of the Department of Education Theory and Practice at University of Georgia, presented the keynote: Hypervisible Invisibility: Centering Black Girls in Critical Media Literacy. In her compelling address, Dr. McArthur shared her research on how Black girls are hypervisible and invisible in society, media and educational research. She discussed the racist and sexist ideologies and practices that control Black girls' bodies along with structural barriers to their academic success. Drawing upon the voices of Black girls themselves, her lecture called on educational scholars and activists to center Black girls in research and community engagement.
On Saturday, Dr. LaGarrett J. King, Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Missouri, presented: So Now We are Fake: An Exploration of Fake News Throughout Black History. Dr. King argued that fake news has always been around, especially in how Black people were constructed through various media. He explored how the media is/was used as a racial apparatus to not only spread fake news about Black people, but to instill a sort of racial knowledge to infer that Black people were subhuman. By drawing upon “critical race media literacy,” Dr. King called upon educators to sift through and challenge the racial grammar used by media outlets.
Special thanks to Dr. Bill Reynolds, Georgia Southern University, and the ICMLC planning team, for organizing such a great conference.
Kudos to ACME members who presented their research:
Ben Boyington, ACME Vice-President: The Global Critical Media Literacy Project: A Network of Media Literacy Educator-Activists
Allison Butler, ACME Co-President: What's Needed Now: Critical Media Literacy in Teacher Education
Natasha Casey, ACME Member: Critical Media and Information Literacy in the Classroom: Practical Applications and Theoretical Foundations: A Panel Discussion with ACME Members Spencer Brayton, Jeff Share, Ralph Beliveau & Julie Frechette
Julie Frechette, ACME Co-President: Public Opinion Formation in the Digital Age: How Tribalism and Political Fury are Manufactured through Social Media Micro-Targeting
Nolan Higdon, ACME Board Member: Post-Truth Democracy: Learning to Live with Fake News
Mark your calendars for next year's conference, February 28 & 29, 2020!
 [Photo left to right: Spencer Brayton, Natasha Casey, Jeff Share, Julie Frechette, Ralph Beliveau, ICMLC 2019]
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SLAM School Feb 2019 - Finding Common Ground in Troubled Times
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We are excited to share the first SLAM [Studies in Literacies and Multimedia] School of 2019, which features the amazing educators Ben Boyington, Jeff Share, and Sarah Bonner in conversation with Nicole Mirra. Every month, SLAM will introduce a new multiliteracies challenge to current and aspiring teachers, educators, learners, etc. Each challenge will include directions on how to engage in authentic literacies practices for teaching and/or learning purposes using a variety of multimedia. SLAM is an assembly through NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) that convenes around issues related to digital literacies instruction in today's educational realm. For more information, contact Ben Boyington.
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The 2018 Northeast Regional Media Literacy Conference was held November 2018 at the University of Rhode Island’s Providence campus to address media literacy in times of uncertainty. Among the varied ACME members in attendance, Dr. Bill Yousman, ACME board member and Associate Professor of Communication at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut delivered a compelling address. He explained how "...the twisting of real news and fake news, and talk about a “post-truth” world, has deadly serious consequences. There have been many dark eras in world history, but we have to recognize this is one of them.” Highlights of his presentation were featured in The Providence Journal. To read more, click here! Special thanks to NRMLC program chair Carolyn Fortuna, Ph.D., and the NRMLC planning team.
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UCLA Teacher Education Program Critical Media Literacy Course
Teaching Youth to Critically Read and Produce Media
A wealth of links to resources and media about timely civic topics, including race and racism, gender and sexism, advertising and consumerism, photography and visual literacy, climate change and environmental justice, and more!
Link: http://guides.library.ucla.edu/educ466
National Literacy Trust - Fake News and Critical Literacy Resources
Lessons, informational handouts and discussion resources for parents, primary, and secondary teachers (aligned with recommendations from the Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills in Schools)
Link: https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/fake-news-and-critical-literacy-resources/
Common Sense Education - News & Media Literacy Educator Toolkit
Teaching tools and lessons by grade level & topic, take-home student activities, videos and interactive educational games, supplemental materials for family engagement
Link: https://www.commonsense.org/education/toolkit/news-and-media-literacy
BBC Teach - Help Students Spot Fake News
Video, website, and article resources (with a journalism spin) for fighting fake news
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4fRwvHcfr5hYMMltFqvP6qF/help-your-students-spot-false-news
PBS NewsHour Extra - Lesson Plan: How to teach your students about fake news
One common-core aligned lesson plan for 7-12 graders (subjects: Social studies, U.S. government, civics, journalism) addressing media literacy skills
Link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons-plans/lesson-plan-how-to-teach-your-students-about-fake-news/
Julie Smith, Professor of Media Communications & Digital Literacy at Webster University
Fake News Resources for Teachers
Compilation of resources for combating fake news (how to spot fake news, fake news sites, lesson plans, misc articles, tools for evaluating online info, Twitter handles to follow)
Link: http://heyjuliesmith.com/2017/03/16/fake-news-resources-teachers/
Jordan Catapano (High School English Teacher in a Chicago suburb) at TeachHub
Teaching Strategies to Detect Fake News
Teaching strategies, lesson plans, resources, and ideas for teaching students to evaluate fake news.
Link: http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-detect-fake-news
Bucks County Community College - Teaching Resources for Fighting Fake News
Videos, suggested reading, infographics and discussion starters for analyzing and combating fake news.
Link: http://bucks.libguides.com/c.php?g=683583&p=4830920
Teaching Kids News (Collaboration of Canadian Educators and Journalists)
Resources to help you Avoid Fake News and foster Critical Thinking
Grab bag of fake news-related articles, infographics, studies, videos, and website tools.
Link: https://teachingkidsnews.com/fakenews/
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