What's New:

NEWS LITERACY
NAMLE members help to set the agenda for civic engagement through news literacy. Read more in FLASH!

Easing Educators' Copyright Concerns
Read about it in FLASH!

We've Changed Our Name!
The AMLA has changed its name to NAMLE (pronounced name-lee). Read about the change in the FLASH!

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National Organizational Members

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Cable in the Classroom
www.ciconline.com

Cable in the Classroom (CIC) is the cable telecommunications industry's non-profit education foundation. For over 15 years, we have focused on improving teaching and learning in schools, at home, and in the community through the use of new technologies and engaging content. CIC focuses on five essential elements to ensure quality education in the 21st century:

visionary and sensible use of technologies
engagement with rich content
community with other learners
excellent teaching
the support of parents and other adults

With so much of our work involving media, CIC recognizes the importance of media literacy for schools and families. We support media literacy through our publications, the 'Media Smart' section of our website, and occasional CIC programs. In addition, CIC works with National PTA to provide media literacy information to parents and caregivers.

Contact: Frank Gallagher

Center for Media Literacy
www.medialit.org

The Center for Media Literacy provides leadership, training and curriculum consulting around the CML MediaLit Kit™ -- a national Framework for Learning and Teaching in a Media World with the Five Core Concepts and Five Key Questions of Media Literacy at its focus. You’ll find it all on our website along with:

Literacy for the 21st Century – a plain language explanation of media literacy theory and pedagogy.
Five Key Questions that Can Change the World -- 25 cornerstone lesson plans -- five for each of the Five Key Questions.
Media Literacy Works! – a growing collection of success stories and case studies.
CML Reading Room -- A collection of articles and original source documents, including a decade-by-decade history of media literacy in the US
Archive of Media&Values magazine (1977-1993) -- over 350 articles containing the seeds of today's US media literacy movement.

Contact: Tessa Jolls

Common Sense Media
www.commonsensemedia.org

Common Sense Media is a nonprofit, nonpartisan

organization dedicated to helping families find the media that’s right for them. Our “consumer reports” type guide is a free, one-stop resource for kids’ and family media. We have detailed reviews and ratings, recommended lists, and tips on how to talk to kids about Internet safety, body image, media violence, commercialism, and other critical media topics.

In addition to using the materials we’ve designed for educators, teachers can use the Common Sense Media website as part of an interactive media literacy curriculum that encourages students to think critically about media content.

Students can watch a movie or read a book reviewed on our website, discuss the content and messages conveyed, then write and submit their own reviews to our site. This is an engaging way for students to think critically about media, dialogue with their peers, and discuss media’s impact on youth and society.

Contact: Rebecca Randall

Just Think
www.justth ink.org

Just Think teaches young people to lead healthy, responsible, independent lives in a culture highly impacted by media. Through our work, young people learn to:

Gain leadership abilities
Improve their academic performance
Make sound and healthy behavior decisions
Acquire practical workplace tools
Enhance their consumer choices
Engage positively with their peers, parents, educators, and community
Think for themselves

Our innovative programs target underserved Bay Area communities and offer engaging workshops for classroom and after-school settings. We also develop dynamic curricula aligned with state/national standards that give educators creative tools to connect with youth. These include:

Changing the World Through Media Education, a best-selling media literacy guidebook
Hidden Heroes, an innovative approach to youth storytelling
Flipping the Script, a ground-breaking Hip-Hop curriculum kit

    Media Awareness Network
     www.media-awareness.ca

Media Awareness Network (MNet) is a Canadian organization that's dedicated to supporting and encouraging media and Internet education and its widest possible integration into schools, homes and communities. MNet's award-winning Web site features a wide range of media education resources - in English and French.

For an overview of everything MNet has to offer parents, teachers, librarians, researchers and others, take a site tour or check out the site directory. For educators, MNet's Teachers section provides "one-stop shopping" for the classroom - including a Lesson Library with links to hundreds of lessons, games and activities, an overview of media literacy that offers practical suggestions for making media education happen, a province-by-province overview of media education in Canada, a Web Awareness section to help teachers respond to Internet issues affecting youth, and a resource section that includes Barry's Bulletin - a popular culture digest written by Canadian media education guru, Barry Duncan.

Michael Cohen Group
www.mcgrc.com

The Michael Cohen Group, a research firm based in New York City, conducts studies with children and youth, their teachers and families, in order to understand all social and psychic dimensions of young peoples’ media-centric lives. MCG evaluators, representing a diversity of disciplines, including education, media studies and psychology, have earned the trust of clients such as Sesame Workshop, PBS, Disney, Girl Scouts USA, and the U.S. Department of Education.

MCG is currently the evaluator for Media Arts and Literacy Program (MEAL), a project with AMLA and Just Think, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The MEAL project simultaneously develops middle school students’ core academic skills through the use of media. The important preliminary results of MCG’s evaluation of this ground-breaking project are reported here. MCG is also the evaluator for the U.S. Department of Education Ready to Learn Media grant. The grant’s goal is to create effective media interventions to aid early literacy acquisition.

Pauline Center for Media Studies
www.paulinecenterformediastudies.org

The PCMS is a project of the Daughters of St. Paul. Its focus is to develop and encourage media literacy education for parents and teachers within the context of culture, education, and faith formation. In addition to seminars and workshops at national and local religious education and educational conferences, the director, Sr. Rose Pacatte, writes extensively on film and television. Her newest book, co-written with Gretchen Hailer, RSHM, is due out in March, 2007, from St. Mary’s Press: Media Mindfulness: Educating Teens about Faith and Media. Check out some of her reviews and essays:

"Eye on Entertainment" columns for St. Anthony Messenger
"Film Essays," published in the Tidings and other outlets.
"Sr. Rose's Movie Blog," informal snapshots of new and DVDs/videos/films
"National Film Retreat," a yearly event
Master Teacher/Specialization Certificate in Media Literacy

Academic Centers and Programs

Local/State/Regional Groups