Results
Benefits to the Elementary School Students
The second research question asked how much the elementary school students benefited from the project and how to assess their participation in the program. César Chavez Elementary School's principal and the teachers involved in the workshop strongly believe the students' participation in the project was extremely beneficial for them. In our post-workshop meetings, the principal was very emphatic about that positive impact. In her opinion, CCES students benefited from the course by gaining direct, useful knowledge on the impact of media literacy through small group class activities; by being involved in organized analysis of the impact of media through small group weekly activities; by applying those newly developed skills at home through homework activities; and by sharing key learning in class through integration into other class activities. The principal also believes the presence of CSUMB students on the elementary school campus and their direct interaction with the children for the duration of the workshop provided CCES students with positive role models and might prove crucial for those students' future decisions about attending college.
Teachers involved in the project noticed that participating CCES students shared their newly learned media literacy skills with non-participating children throughout the week. During class discussions and other class activities, these students often brought up examples drawn from the previous workshop session and many times discussed the content of what they had learned at some length with non-participating students. This sharing of information was also observed by CSUMB students. One student wrote in her final essay that she thinks the course made a difference in the children's lives not only because CCES students remembered at the end of the workshop every type of violence they had discussed in previous sessions, but also because they told her they were sharing that information with peers and family members:
By the end of the course, all of our students were able to remember the types of violence and how they affected each one of them. One of the students mentioned that he already was sharing what he learned with his parents, and that every time he watches TV or movies, he tries to identify what kind of violence is being used, and the production elements employed to make the programs or commercials more visually attractive.
In their journals and final essays, CSUMB students made a very positive assessment of CCES students' participation in the project. If in the beginning of the semester some university students were feeling frustrated because they were not sure CCES students were "getting it," after a few workshop sessions they felt that they had established a connection between them and the children, which in turn facilitated the elementary students' comprehension of the material.
One student registered this process in her journal:
My first reaction after doing the first readings and class discussions was: "These children are never going to understand this stuff." The very first visit [to CCES] proved me wrong. Even though my group members and myself felt nervous and unprepared, the children did not seem to mind. They jumped right into the conversation without any inhibitions. They shared personal experiences and related them to the material we were discussing. They were able to give examples of different types of violence, and shows that were not violent.
The same student, however, noted that she is not sure the children will retain the knowledge and skills they developed: "The children picked up on the material quickly, but I do not believe they know quite what to do with it. They understood what we were trying to teach them, but did not understand why we were teaching it to them."
CSUMB students also observed that workshop sessions were most effective when CCES students brought up examples that were relevant to their own daily lives and personal experiences. The university students were very happy to use those as "teachable moments" that they believe will have a much greater impact on the elementary students' lives. One student registered in his journal one of those moments: a discussion about "real life violence" sparked by a 12-year old girl's statement that she knew a boy in her class who brought a knife to school. The university student responded to her by telling the group about a stabbing murder that happened on his high school campus:
They all listened and we did really connect. They told us about the violence in their lives. We totally strayed from the lesson plan, but I believe we learned more [from this discussion] than in any other session we had. It was probably the most important thing we learned all day. We were all being honest, and they "got it."
The third research question asks if the outcomes of the project and the goals of the class were generally met. I believe that the parameters to answer this question were set by the two previous research questions. The students' feeling of having benefited from the program is, in my opinion, the best indication of its success. Except for the shortcomings, which will be discussed in the next section, I do believe that, based on the students' assessment, the program generally succeeded in achieving its stated outcomes.
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