Media Literacy Working Group

“ELA educators are responsible for preparing students for a future with an evolving media landscape. As society and technology change, so too does literacy (NCTE, 2019b). While some instructional practices of media education can be generalized across disciplines, many areas are unique to disciplinary literacy within ELA education. Because English teachers have a professional responsibility to prepare students for work, life, and citizenship, media education must be an essential component of the professional identity of teachers. We believe that ELA educators are creative individuals who are familiar with the power of digital media authorship in their own lives.” – NCTE Position Statement, Media Education in English Language Arts

Calling secondary and college members! Interested in real-world media literacy for your students? NCTE is partnering with AverPoint to lead a Media Literacy Working Group (MLWG) in the autumn of 2024 and the spring of 2025. The group of English educators and scholars will collaborate with AverPoint to produce an effective, living, cognitive media literacy playbook that includes:

The metric(s) of cognitive media literacy
Scaffolded learning goals and lessons for each level
Content including sample lesson plans with curated articles, research prompts, and writing prompts
Interaction and measuring tools through AverPoint
AverPoint software and personal guidance to get started
Clear connections to existing classroom goals

MLWG members will receive free access to and training on AverPoint software starting in November 2024. Educators will develop, execute, and assess lesson plans using AverPoint in the winter and spring of 2025, meeting monthly to share their progress and collaborate with their peers. Lesson plans will use NCTE’s ReadWriteThink framework and be peer-reviewed as part of the cognitive media literacy playbook.

Sardia L. Anderson is a high school English teacher with over a decade of experience. She is the founder and CEO of Scholarly Quarters, LLC, a literacy program dedicated to serving urban communities and addressing the literacy gap one student at a time. Anderson has also been involved in transnational literacy initiatives in the Caribbean. In 2023, she donated hundreds of books to various schools in Jamaica. Additionally, she has conducted workshops at Kingsborough College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Urban Dove Charter School.

Anderson is also a fellow with the United Way of New York City, where she participates in the Read, Write, and Code program. This initiative aims to equip English language arts teachers with the skills necessary to integrate computer science into their curricula. She also works as an educational consultant, literacy coach, poet, author, and curriculum developer. Her research interests include multiculturalism, literacy, coding, intellectual capital, and diasporic identity. In the fall of 2023, she co-instructed a poetry course at Arizona State University with Elisa New, a prominent Harvard professor, exploring themes such as the Reconstruction Era, the Jim Crow Era, and Manifest Destiny through poetry and prose. In the summer of 2022, she published her second book, Post Pandemic Classrooms: 10 Core Principles Every Teacher Needs to Adapt. Anderson has received awards and recognition for her outstanding leadership in education from both Arizona State University and the National Equity Lab. She is currently pursuing her PhD in literacy at St. John’s University. Anderson currently resides in New York.

Katherine Echols is an instructional professor in the College of Marine Sciences & Maritime Studies, Texas A&M University, located on the Galveston campus. Areas of interest and publication include digital literacy and AI in higher education. Research topics include American radio plays as adaptations broadcast between the 1930s and 1950s. She teaches a variety of literature courses.

Natalie Leake is a secondary English teacher from West Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut and higher ed leader with local and national universities on emerging educational technologies. Leake is passionate about advocating for the augmentation of curriculums with media literacy education, especially as we work to transform how we achieve core skills in the humanities in the face of AI integrations and the need for new digital literacies. Leake has been a media literacy advocate for 15 years in the classroom, self-designing and implementing ELA courses at the secondary level that augment and transcend CCSS with skills-based, student-driven classes fueled by media literacy principles for authentic and relevant applications. Leake is trained for AI augmentation in educational settings, including receiving a Critical AI Literacy microcredential through the Media Ed Institute with URI and an AI in K–12 Education microcredential through EdAdvance with Central CT State University. Leake is partnered with national educational organizations for MLE, recently having presented for NAMLE and local AI task forces for shifts in literacy education. Leake is a motivated and forever curious explorer, honored to be part of the literacy revolution, following the path to provide what students need to thrive in their futures.

Grace Lee is a dedicated educator and policy advocate with a rich educational and cultural background shaped by her experiences living and studying in South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Currently, she teaches English language arts at Hinckley-Big Rock Middle School in Illinois, where she brings a global perspective to her classroom, enriching her students’ learning experience. Now in her twenty-first year of teaching, Lee is passionate about fostering an enriching literacy environment for her students.

Lee holds two Master of Science degrees in education—one in curriculum and instruction and the other in educational administration, along with a principal’s license. She also earned a Master of Arts in public policy and administration from Northwestern University, focusing on policy impacts across different levels. From 2018 to 2020, she served as a Kent D. Williamson Policy Fellow with the National Council of Teachers of English, contributing to important policy initiatives.

Currently, Lee is a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois where her dissertation centers on multicultural literacy and educational practice. As chair of the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship, she is committed to advancing global citizenship and literacy, empowering students with the critical skills needed to engage thoughtfully in today’s interconnected world.

Quang Ly is a lecturer in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Miami. He holds a PhD in English from Ohio University and a master’s degree in education from Florida Atlantic University. With eight years of experience teaching undergraduate composition, he skillfully integrates diverse literacy practices and multimodal writing techniques into his pedagogy to enrich learning experiences and enhance student engagement. Dr. Ly’s research interests include collaborative writing and first-year writing. Building on these interests, his current research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence in students’ writing processes. Furthermore, he has been an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication for the past two years.

Lacey Reynolds is a high school English teacher in rural Ohio. In her nine years in the classroom, she has taught seventh through ninth grade, twelfth grade, and dual-credit college-level composition. She holds a BS in secondary English education from Olivet Nazarene University and an MA in teaching writing from Johns Hopkins University. Although she became a teacher to inspire a love of literature in students, she realized that her true passions are writing instruction and affecting meaningful change in education at large. She implemented a middle through high school writing strategy in her district that is now shared across content areas, presented PD sessions to her colleagues on Writing Across the Curriculum, is currently drafting an AI policy for the high school, and is a member of the district Grading and Assessment Committee. She strives to help her students take ownership of their learning through inquiry, empathy, and metacognition. She believes that media literacy is the most important topic in education today and is instrumental in preparing students for a just and global-minded society.

Emily Andrea Sendin is a professor of English, literature, and creative writing at Miami Dade College in Miami, Florida, with twenty-five years of teaching experience. She is a two-time Endowed Teaching Chair, Fulbright Scholar and Specialist, and Florida College System Publications Association Hall of Fame Inductee; she has also earned a Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Engaged Faculty Impact Award, Associated Collegiate Press Pioneer Adviser Award, College Media Association Distinguished Adviser Award, Dan Reimold Student Media Champion Award, and National Council of Teachers of English Media Literacy Award.

Her areas of expertise are feminist, gender, postcolonial, and media studies. She teaches global sustainability and Earth literacy studies, service-learning, and Honors College courses. She is the founding advisor of the award-winning Urbana Literary and Arts magazine, and, most recently, of StoryBytes Media, a student-led initiative sharing stories through digital innovation such as film and podcasts. She is also the founding advisor of two Sigma Kappa Delta National English Honor Society chapters.

Sendin is the cofounder of FNE International’s Tengo un Sueño and Hermandad MaryKnoll High School supporting the educational journeys of youth in rural Nicaragua. In addition to her role as director and principal investigator of the Climate Stories Stevens Initiative virtual exchange grant, she has several publications and has presented in a myriad of conferences.

Her life’s passions are teaching, writing, traveling, and serving.

Kimberly White-Glenn, PhD, is an assistant professor of secondary reading/literacy at Alabama A&M University. White-Glenn has expertise in secondary reading, reversing academic underachievement, hip-hop literacies, the African American intellectual tradition, and cutting-edge AI instructional strategies. Her lifelong commitment to education includes instructional coaching, and she is an advocate for Teaching in the Spirit paradigm. She is also an author of the groundbreaking book Secure the Bag and an award-winning educator whose innovative approaches have transformed countless lives. As the visionary founder of EDU 4 Life, an educational service dedicated to uplifting underachieving students, White-Glenn’s impact extends far beyond the classroom. A dynamic and sought-after speaker, White-Glenn captivates audiences with her inspiring insights and unwavering commitment to educational equity and excellence.