All posts by nelsonmr@illinois.edu

Making Media for a Healthier U

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BACKGROUND

This project started with a partnership between the Waukegan Public Schools and researchers at the University of Illinois / Illinois Extension to improve the health and media literacy skills of students in elementary schools in Waukegan.

GOAL

Pepsi lesson 4 classroom   Lesson 4 Orange Food Label

The goal of the project is to improve the health of every student through increasing nutrition knowledge and gaining media literacy skills while learning core curriculum in the classrooms.

Children today are exposed to more and more media than ever before. Yet, research shows just because children consume media does not mean they are able to think critically about the media messages. We developed this curriculum so that children can understand and think critically about media so that they can make more informed consumer choices. The curriculum is designed to introduce students to health and nutrition content while they are learning about media and advertising and they learn, review and apply skills from the Common Core curriculum.

WHAT HAPPENS

lunchroomwallofposters   cerealpackageactivity-1

Students become Media Makers to understand, analyze, critique and create media messages to promote healthy behaviors. Media literacy and nutrition information are incorporated into Common Core lessons for elementary school children.

RESOURCES

IMG_0193   Teachers from the Waukegan School District

Lesson plans created by classroom teachers and experts in advertising literacy are provided here as well as examples and links to additional information.