ReadWriteThink: August 4, 2009: Barack Obama was born today in 1961.

August 4, 2009

		Americans made history in 2008 by electing Barack Obama as the nation’s first African-American President. In addition to his work as a community organizer and Senator, Obama also wrote two books, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, before being elected President.

Barack Obama was born today in 1961.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

In his memoir Dreams from My Father, Obama describes an incident in which he, as a young boy, "came across the picture in Life magazine of the black man who had tried to peel off his skin" (51). Seeing the devastating effect negative messages about being African American had on this man, Obama "began to notice that [Bill] Cosby never got the girl on I Spy, that the black man on Mission Impossible spent all his time underground. [He] noticed that there was nobody like [him] in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog ... and that Santa was a white man" (52).

Share this passage expressing Obama's experiences with media messages and his understanding of his identity. Then encourage students to engage in an examination of the ways they are portrayed in the media. Point them toward print, online, and television portrayals of people who share their age bracket, race, gender, and any other relevant aspects of their identity.

Adapt activities from the lesson plans below to supplement their research and organize their findings.

Lesson Plans

Critical Media Literacy: TV Programs
This middle school lesson provides a platform in which students can critically analyze popular television programs. By looking at the media critically, students develop an awareness of the messages that are portrayed through the media.

Media Literacy: Examining the World of TV Teens
In this lesson, middle school students compare how characters are portrayed in different forms of media (i.e., books, television shows, and movies) and analyze characters, motivations, problems, and solutions from a television series of their choosing.

Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising
In this middle school lesson, students develop a critical eye toward advertising and investigate the hidden messages that are presented.

Comic Makeovers: Examining Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Media
High school students explore representations of race, class, ethnicity, and gender by analyzing comics over a two-week period and then re-envisioning them with a "comic character makeover."

Web Links

Media Literacy: Getting Started
Supporting both media analysis and production and recognizing the value of teacher-created combinations of activities, rather than off-the-shelf curricula , this PBS Teachers resource provides ideas, resources, and links for media literacy education across the curriculum.

Center for Media Literacy
These resources promote media literacy education as a framework for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating and participating with media content. Visitors will find readings, lesson plans, and samples of student-produced media.

A Different World: Children’s Perceptions of Race and Class in Media
This online article presents a summary of recommendations from a study that links young people’s understanding of their identity to ways they are portrayed in the media. Included is a link to the full research report.

New Mexico Media Literacy Project
Nationally recognized as a leader in media literacy education, the New Mexico Media Literacy Project provides resources that promote critical thinking and activism to build healthy and just communities. In addition to teaching and learning resources, visitors will also find information about media-based contests for students.

Texts

Obama, Barack. 2004. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. Three Rivers.
Obama wrote this account of his coming of age as a child of a white American mother and black Kenyan father when he was president of the Harvard Law Review.

Obama, Barack. 2007. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Vintage.
Based on themes he presented in a speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, this book offers Obama’s views on faith and values and his vision of the future of America.

Christel, Mary, and Scott Sullivan, eds. 2007. Lesson Plans for Creating a Media Rich-Classroom. NCTE.
This book offers a collection of lessons and resources for the secondary English classroom that can be used to support student investigation of race, gender, and class in the media.

Hobbs, Renee. 2007. Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English. IRA.
This accessible, practical resource provides information for teachers attempting to bring media literacy into their classroom, including lesson plans and activities