ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how media literacy pedagogy and conceptual principles connect to contemporary approaches to reading/language arts education. It examines how a new vision of literacy can be incorporated into educational resources for students and teachers. Language is the most important element of our humanity, and yet, it is only one of a number of symbol systems which humans use to express and share meaning. Media literacy incorporates the theoretical traditions of semiotics, literary criticism, media studies, communication theory, research on arts education, and language and literacy development. Technology plays a greater role in American classrooms than in the schools of most other industrialized nations. The new vision of literacy has consequences for some of the most important issues that face American educators today. Multicultural education is education that values human diversity and acknowledges that “alternative experiences and viewpoints are part of the growing process”.
