Digital & Media Literacies

In today’s classrooms, literacy goes beyond reading and writing printed text—it includes the ability to analyze, create, and communicate using digital and multimedia tools. Students are not only consumers of content but also producers, learning how to communicate ideas effectively using images, sound, text, and design. This includes understanding how media choices influence meaning, recognizing credible sources, and considering audience when creating digital texts. In a classroom context, digital and media literacies encourage students to think critically about the media they engage with while also developing the skills to create purposeful, well-designed content of their own.

Activity: Create Your Own Approach to Respond to Literary Texts

This activity invites students to engage with a text, topic, or concept by creating a short video that communicates their understanding of a text in a creative and multimodal way. Rather than responding through traditional writing alone, students transform their ideas into a digital format that combines visuals, audio, and text.

Consider the following possibilities for student-created videos:

• Record a short video review or reaction to a text

• Create a book trailer or promotional video

• Act out or reinterpret a scene from a different perspective

• Write a letter to the author

• Design an alternate book cover

• Produce a mock interview with a character or historical figure

• Develop an informational video explaining a key concept or theme

• Create a modern-day connection using social media-style storytelling

• Create a photocollage of the novel/favorite part

• Create an artistic demonstration of important themes/ symbolism in the novel

Students are guided to:

• Use accurate and relevant information, drawing from the text or credible sources

• Plan their video with a storyboard or script before recording

• Make intentional design choices, including visuals, transitions, pacing, and audio clarity

• Consider their audience and purpose, adapting tone and content accordingly

This activity builds digital and media literacy skills by asking students to move beyond written responses and think critically about how meaning is constructed across modes. It also promotes creativity, engagement, and real-world communication skills, as students learn to present their ideas in formats they encounter and use in everyday life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn6pJaM7TKE

My example of a parody of a book I read for one of my college courses at NYU ("Integrating Children's Literature and Technology in Childhood Education"). We had to create a multimodal response to Feed, novel by M. T. Anderson, which is about a dystopian futuristic world where everyone is being fed information and buying into the consumerism culture.

How To Guide Your Students To Make a Short Video:

To support students in creating a short video, I would structure the process into clear stages—planning, production, and reflection—so that students are not just “making a video,” but intentionally communicating meaning through multiple modes.

Planning: Building the Foundation

Before students begin recording, I would guide them through a structured planning phase:

• Clarify purpose and audience: Students identify who their video is for (peers, younger students, general audience) and what they want the audience to learn or feel.

• Script or storyboard creation: Students draft a short script or storyboard outlining:

  • Key ideas or message

  • Sequence of scenes

  • Where visuals, text, or sound will appear

  • *Give immediate feedback or allow this step to be the first part for the project

• Model examples: I would show strong and weak examples of student videos (e.g., effective pacing, clear message vs. cluttered or unfocused content).

• Mini-lessons as needed:

  • How to write concise scripts

  • How storytelling structure works (beginning, middle, end)

  • How visuals support meaning

• Rubric: I would give them the rubric ahead of time, so that they know what is being asked of them and how they can get full credit.

Production: Creating the Video

During the creation phase, I would provide supports for both technical and design decisions:

• Tool support: Introduce user-friendly platforms (such as iMovie, Canva, Scratch, or Flip) and demonstrate basic functions (recording, trimming, adding text or images).

• Design guidance:

  • Keep visuals purposeful (not decorative only)

  • Use readable text and consistent formatting

  • Maintain clear audio and pacing

• Multimodal integration:

  • Combine narration, visuals, and text intentionally

  • Encourage use of images, props, or drawings to reinforce meaning

• Checkpoint conferences: I would circulate and provide feedback during production, focusing on clarity of message and alignment with purpose rather than technical perfection.

Accuracy and Media Literacy Checks

To ensure strong media literacy skills, I would build in structured checkpoints:

• Fact-checking step (if informational): Students verify key information using teacher-provided or approved sources.

• Peer review protocol: Students watch each other’s drafts and respond to prompts like:

  • Is the message clear?

  • Are the visuals supporting the content?

  • Is anything confusing or missing?

• Revision time: Students refine their video based on feedback before final submission.

Reflection: Thinking Like Media Creators

After completion, students reflect on their choices:

• Why did I choose these visuals/sounds/text?

• How did my design decisions affect meaning?

• What would I improve if I had more time?

• How is communicating through video different from writing on paper?

https://youtu.be/aeSxSXrgPn4?si=Tcmeko2uBSWtUvcz

This is what one of my multimedia projects looked like when I was in 7th grade. We used iMovie to create a fake interview with one of the characters from The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. We used events that happened in the book to curate questions for our antagonist.