Analyzing Multiple Media

In most of todays classrooms, books are analyzed the most out of any forms of media. Books are great, the words paint a picture that is up to the reader to fill in the blank spots. The thing is, where are poems, songs, articles, and even movies in todays classroom? Books are still important, but there are definitely other media that is often avoided in classrooms.

Other media doesn't have to replace books, but they can become a critical part of any classroom, not just English. One very universal media is the article. There are articles for everything imaginable. Articles can take up maybe 30 minutes, and can give a quick scoop on a current issue in the given field. In one of my previous classes, we started off class analyzing a poem or song in a collaborative manner and open discussion. This forced students to think on their feet about not the surface level meaning, but the deeper meaning. I personally fell in love with these, and they brought together the deep themes and concepts of a book, but compacted it into a rapid fire discussion of not only the poem/song, but also the comparisons drawn between the poem/song and our current world. They were not only thought provoking, but also eye opening, revealing important morals within life. Almost every media can do this, creating an environment where ideas are thrown back and forth at lightning speed, while key revelations are made. There are so many different media, it would be impossible to list them all. I do have a few favorites though...

• Movies, short films, etc.
• Paintings, drawings, sculptures
• Pictures of famous events, times, people, etc.
• Poems
• Songs
• Articles
• Books

The thing when analyzing shorter media, is that amble time is needed. One can't expect students to look at a poem and in five minutes, articulate a rational meaning behind it. It takes at least 30 minutes for a complete discussion to take place. Sometimes a little extra time can greatly increase the quality of the discussion. For things like movies, it may require at least an entire class block to watch/read and additional time to analyze the media. Analyzing different media, but still analyzing books, can create a fun intriguing learning environment. Making sure these media have important life lessons can teach students not only how to analyze different things, but can also teach them important life lessons that will stick with them.