Media Literacy Resources

Mathematics is deeply embedded in many aspects of daily life, both seen and unseen. These include modern communication systems, and the “big data” sets used increasingly to make decisions in many areas. Students should be able to identify, interpret, evaluate, and critique the mathematics that’s weaved into social, scientific, commercial, and political systems, as well as the claims made in the private and public sectors. See below for resources that can help empower educators to deploy literacy principles and media analysis.  

Webinars 

• Avoiding Data and Science Misinformation in Today's Messy Media Landscape
  This panel presentation and discussion will explore the role media play in building scientific and mathematical understanding and the impact misinformation is having on how young people navigate their roles as both students and citizens.  
  Presentation is part of Media Literacy Week.

• Using Math to Make Sense of Our World: Pandemics, Viruses, and Our Actions
  David Barnes, Beth Kobett, Jeff Shih, Sarah Bush, and Dan Teague
  

Elementary

• Making the Most of Children's Literature: A Context to Explore Math and Understand the World  
  Susan O'Connell 
  
  
• Hands Down, Speak Out: Exploring the Crossover Between Math and Literacy Talk  
  Kassia Omohundro Wedekind & Christy Thompson 
  
  
• Be Both Author and Illustrator of Mathematical Understanding  
  Jill Gough 
  

Middle

• Empowering Students in Math Through Entrepreneurship  
  Erin Krupa 
  

High

• Solving the Problematic: Creating Tasks, Lessons and Projects that Model Our Actual, Messy World  
  Carl Oliver 
  
  
• Creativity and Storytelling in Mathematics Lessons  
  Phillip Legner 
  
  
• The Mathematics of Game Shows, Anniversary Edition  
  Bowen Kerins 
  

Lessons and Resources

• Revealing the Story in Hydrographs from Hurricane Harvey
  
  
• The Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence in Popular Media
  
  
• Teaching and Using Mathematics to Understand our World: COVID-19, Coronavirus, and Pandemics
  
  
• Savvy Sellers and Spenders   

Journal Articles

• Media Literacy in Mathematics
  Mike Pacheco and Heather Glynn Crawford-Ferre
  
  
• Media Clips: Health Literacy
  
  
• Mathematizing Multilevel Marketing.
  Abassian, A., & Safi, F. 
  
  
• Numeracy as Cultural Practice: An Examination of Numbers in Magazines for Children, Teenagers, and Adults.
  Joram, E., Resnick, L. B., & Gabriele, A. J. (1995). 
  
  
• A High School Statistics Class Investigates the Death Penalty  
  Anastasia Brelias  
  
  
• Epidemics, Exponential Functions, and Modeling
  Sarah B. Bush, Katie Gibbons, Karen S. Karp, and Fred Dillon