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Engaging Media Literacy Activities for Middle School Speech-Language

Align IEP goals with Common Core Standards to enhance media literacy in your middle school speech-language students. Engage them with higher order thinking activities that they'll love!

MIDDLE SCHOOL SPEECH THERAPY

3/15/20254 min read

common core media literacy speech therapy

Connecting Common Core to Speech-Language IEP Goals

Are you struggling to write engaging IEP goals for your middle school speech-language caseload? Hoping not to repeat goals they have already had for years but need to target language skills?

Look no further than the media literacy common core standards, which help you align targets with grade level goals.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) may not get direct training in Common Core standards, but they are a useful guidepost when you are writing IEPs.

Check out the target areas below and how you can connect common core areas to speech-language goals that you can use across activities and formats. These ideas are great for students who are working on figurative language, social pragmatics, inferences, or comprehension!

What is Expanded Literacy?

Literacy is in our scope of practice as an SLP. Jurich (2019) encourages us to expand our definition of literacy to include text formats that are “shared, networked, and digital.”

Here are some useful terms if you want to meet students where they are, which is largely online and digital.

Print Literacy- Traditional format that presents lines of text on paper to engage readers (adapted from Kent, 2018).

Media Literacy- Engaging in reading and writing across digital and print formats while critically analyzing perspectives between author and audience. (Kellner & Share, 2007).

Multiliteracies- Print and digital formats that present writing to promote civic engagement (adapted from Mirra & Garcia, 2021).

Below are three areas you can target with common core standards that connect. IEP goals related to media literacy and multiliteracies are a fantastic way to keep your older students engaged in sessions and learning lifelong skills.

Area 1: Self-Advocacy

Self-advocacy is skill we all need to develop! Helping our speech-language students target this life skill is perfect for your middle school caseload.

Common Core Standard: CCSS.RI.6.7

Integrate information presented in different media or formats as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

Sample IEP Goal: The student will develop two scripts to communicate boundaries or explain neurodiversity to others in a multimedia format over 12 weeks within a group format.
Sample Activity: Anti-ableism Videos

Help your middle school speech-language students learn and educate others about ableism.

Ableism is discrimination against people with different abilities, promoting belief that disabled people are less worthy than non-disabled individuals.

You and your students can read more here.

Then help your student create a script or even a video to promote anti-ableism and educate others on why equality matters.

Area 2: Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship means learning how to interact online safely and courteously. Although we may want to shelter our students with learning differences from any online content, this does not teach them how to operate in a digital world.

Common Core Standard: CCSS.W.6.6

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

Sample IEP Goal: The student will practice sharing personal opinions about media content in group discussions, using “I think…” and “I hear you saying…” statements at least 3 times per group discussion in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

Sample Activity: Product Reviews

Review the genre of product reviews together as a group. What is the format and what is allowed? Then try a product (like a food or drink) to review as a group and share opinions.

Area 3: Cognitive Flexibility

Taking different perspectives and thinking about issues from different sides is critical to executive functioning.

Common Core Standard: RI.7.7

Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).

Sample IEP Goal: The student will identify common persuasive techniques (e.g., exaggeration, anecdotes, or specific hashtags #ad) in social media posts, with moderate support, doing so accurately in 3 out of 4 sessions.
Sample Activity: Compare Vintage vs. Modern Ads

Search vintage advertisements and print out for your students. Compare these with modern ads and influencers online.

How do influencers today persuade you to buy and ask students if they have purchased items they saw on social media or online. Review how hashtags (e.g., #ad) can help you know if it is an ad or not.

Conclusion

These activities are great for middle school speech-language students across your caseload. Both neurodiverse and neurotypical kids at this age need support with perspective taking and critical thinking.

Create goals that align to Common Core standards, and use that to develop engaging, student-led projects that carryover across sessions!

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