Expanding Media Literacy

By Patrick Bohn, October 17, 2023

Two-year planning grant supports Project Look Sharp in training school librarians nationwide.

Project Look Sharp (PLS), Ithaca College’s media literacy program, was recently awarded a two-year, $150,000 Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program planning grant from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

As a result of this grant, PLS, in partnership with the American Association of School Librarians and in collaboration with the National Association for Media Literacy Association, with support from the Park Foundation, will develop a nationwide plan for school librarians to access the training, resources, and support they need to be more effective leaders of media literacy in their schools.

The grant will extend the work done through a grant PLS received in 2021 from the Booth-Ferris Foundation, with which they created the ML3 Initiative to train 19 librarians across New York State on working with teachers to integrate media analysis into their curricula.

“The response to the proposition that librarians be the leaders and practitioners of constructivist media decoding was beyond our expectation.”

Chris Sperry ’79, director of Curriculum and Staff Development, Project Look Sharp

“That initiative was so successful, that we used it as the model for expansion through this grant,” said Chris Sperry ’79, director of Curriculum and Staff Development at Project Look Sharp. “The response to the proposition that librarians be the leaders and practitioners of constructivist media decoding was beyond our expectation.”

The IMLS grant will result in a systemic plan for expanding ML3 to all 50 states.

“Thanks to our prior work, we’ve learned a lot about what resources are necessary, and how we can adapt this programming in other states,” he said.

There’s a lot of work in store over the next two years, Sperry added.

“The biggest challenge is to continue to support librarians as being the leaders of teaching media literacy in their schools,” he said. “To that end, we’ve developed new videos for administrators that advocate for the work of the librarians, as well as professional development materials for librarians themselves.”

“Our hope is that this grant positions us for a larger ILMS implementation grant which will set us up with effective strategies to spread it throughout the country.”

Chris Sperry

Other tenets of the project include outreach to school administrators to promote the benefits of media literacy and working with stakeholders in different states, such as New Jersey, which established the requirement of K-12 instruction on information literacy, and Washington, which has designated funding for media literacy.

And the goal, Sperry says, is to continue to grow the ML3 initiative.

“Our hope is that this grant positions us for a larger ILMS implementation grant which will set us up with effective strategies to spread it throughout the country,” he said.

Since 1996, Project Look Sharp, has worked to help K-12 educators teach students critical thinking and media literacy skills. A nonprofit, mission-driven outreach program of Ithaca College, Project Look Sharp’s mission is made possible thanks to many supporters, including the Park Foundation.