Project Look Sharp’s curriculum is helping students across the country make meaningful social change. Featured in the 2012-2013 social justice lesson plan book, Planning to Change the World, Project Look Sharp’s curriculum will help young activists think critically about the women’s rights movement.

Planning to Change the World is “designed to help teachers translate their vision of a just education into concrete classroom activities.” The 2012-2013 edition highlights significant 10- year anniversaries and birthdays like Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday, or the 520th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in the “New World.” The historical tidbits are used as a sounding board for critical class discussion about visionary leaders and historical events in social justice. Created by the New York Collective of Radical Educators and the Education for Liberation Network, Planning to Change the World helps teachers turn daily lesson planning “into [a] strategy for teaching toward democracy, fairness and peace.”

The plans book uses Project Look Sharp’s curriculum kit, “Media Construction of Social Justice,” to talk about the second wave of feminism and the book, Feminine Mystique. Written by Sox Sperry, Program Associate at Project Look Sharp, the kit “explores how social justice movements over the past 180 years have been perceived by people in the United States and how the U.S. media have constructed that public perception.” The kit’s subject areas range from LGBT studies to criminal justice studies, and each unit includes three lessons devoted to a different media form.

Planning to Change the World has been praised for its “transformative” teaching techniques and Howard Zinn, author of “A People History of the United States,” affirms that the plans book is “an imaginative and innovative idea in the field of education.” It is “something that teachers all over the country who have social consciences will find useful because it will give them an opportunity and a framework for putting into practice what they believe.”

Sox Sperry, the kit’s author, notes that the “documents referenced in Planning to Change the World are concerned in part with extending discussions about women’s oppression into the mainstream of society by creating a community context for women to speak publicly and honestly about their experience. Project Look Sharp appreciates Rethinking Schools for highlighting our media literacy approach to extend Betty Friedan’s community dialogues into the 21st century in this new collection.”

Planning to Save the World is for sale at www.rethinkingschools.org. To download Project Look Sharp’s “Media Construction of Social Justice” and other media literacy teaching kits, visit www.ithaca.edu/looksharp. Kits are available online free of charge or print copies may be ordered through the Ithaca College Bookstore for a small fee.

The mission of Project Look Sharp is to support the integration of critical thinking through media literacy in school curriculum and teaching. This is done through developing and providing lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for educators at all education levels.

Project look Sharp is Ithaca College’s Media Literacy Initiative. From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Science and Human Performance,

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Cyndy Scheibe, co-founder and executive director of Project Look Sharp presented a panel discussion at the National Council for Teacher’s of English (CTE) Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 16th. Her presentation was titled: Visual Literacy: Reading for Meaning in a Multimedia World. Her co-presenters were Faith Rogow and Frank Baker.

The focus of her interactive discussion was to extend literacy skills beyond print by using curriculum-driven approaches to media literacy education and inquiry-based methods that build visual literacy and ELA skills.

The 21st century demands that educators become proficient in teaching visual and audiovisual texts in addition to print, highlighting the need for new and interactive approaches using new media technologies.

Her presentation focused on how teachers can use inquiry-based media literacy approaches to help student build visual literacy and critical thinking skills. Her presentation was interactive and invited participants to use laptop computers provided by ISTE using a host of visual materials on designated websites that will also be accessible after the conference.

The presentation engaged presenters with ideas of visual decoding, while providing handouts to help educators put these techniques into practice immediately in their own classrooms in ways that don’t require additional time or resources.  The discussion followed-up with including the benefits of using visual media and popular culture content to engage underserved populations and disinterested students, while solidly addressing core standards and deepening both reading and writing skills.

Project look Sharp is Ithaca College’s Media Literacy Initiative. Project Look Sharp supports the integration of critical thinking through media literacy in school curriculum and teaching. They do this through developing and providing lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for educators at all education levels. The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens in today’s world.

From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Science and Human Performance, and Music.

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For more information, please email Media Outreach Intern Jen Segal at

looksharp-mktg@ithaca.edu.

New York State teacher and media literacy director at Project Look Sharp, Chris Sperry, presented at the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference in Seattle, WA on November 16, 2012 at the Washington State Convention Center. The mission of National Council for the Social Studies is to provide leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators.

Founded in 1921, National Council for the Social Studies has grown to be the largest association in the country devoted solely to social studies education. Organized into a network of more than 110 affiliated state, local, and regional councils and associated groups, the NCSS membership represents K-12 classroom teachers, college and university faculty members, curriculum designers and specialists, social studies supervisors, and leaders in the various disciplines that constitute the social studies.

The title of Sperry’s presentations was Media Construction of Sustainability: Food, water and Agriculture

Directed at a secondary to high school level. This presentation focused on media decoding strategies and free online materials to integrate critical thinking into teaching about sustainability at the high school level. Sperry presented an overview of core content and resources related to teaching about the sustainability of food, water and agriculture in the United States and identified classroom methodologies and materials for integrating inquiry-bases teaching, media literacy and document-based analysis into the teaching of sustainability.

The goal of the presentation was to introduce lessons that address: definitions of sustainability, credibility of information, creative visions, economic systems, farming and community, food security, water, the Green Revolution, bio fuels, cultural perspectives, and transitioning to a sustainable future.  Additionally, it introduced the themes of social justice, climate change and the energy economy that run through these lessons. The workshop introduced participants to a free online kit that includes 19 lessons, a 400+ page teacher guide with student handouts, assessments and rich media documents for teaching about sustainability related to food, water and agriculture at the high school level.

Project look Sharp is Ithaca College’s Media Literacy Initiative. Project Look Sharp supports the integration of critical thinking through media literacy in school curriculum and teaching. They do this through developing and providing lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for educators at all education levels. The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens in today’s world.

From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Science and Human Performance, and Music.

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For more information, please email Media Outreach Intern Jen Segal at

looksharp-mktg@ithaca.edu.

ITHACA, NY-Director of Curriculum and Staff Development at Project Look Sharp, Chris Sperry, wins first place in the University of Arizona’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies Lesson Plan Competition. The title of his lesson plan, Middle East Debates, focuses on a lesson plan for high school students and includes materials necessary to teach a 9-week elective course on the contemporary Middle East.

Winning lesson plans are shared widely with educators throughout the institute’s outreach program. First place winners received a cash prize, certificate, and a collection of resources for use in the teacher’s school.

The initiative for integrating media literacy and critical thinking into curriculums is a collaboration between Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College. They do this through developing and providing lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for educators at all education levels.

Project Look Sharp now has 16 media literacy kits that include detailed teacher guides and lessons for classroom decoding of historic documents for K-12 classroom teachers through the college level. All kits are available free online with hard copy kits sold at cost through Ithaca College bookstore.

Project Look Sharp is an initiative of Ithaca College. From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Science and Human Performance,

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For more information, please email Media Outreach Intern Jen Segal at

looksharp-mktg@ithaca.edu.

ITHACA, NY-Cyndy Scheibe, Executive Director and Founder of Project Look Sharp, presented at Longview Care Community in Ithaca, NY. Scheibe’s presentation was on Media Constructions of Presidential Campaigns:  What We’ve Learned from the Past and How We Can Make Sense of the Present. Project Look Sharp offers an online document-based critical thinking and media literacy kit for teaching the history of presidential campaigns from 1800 to 2008. This kit, Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns, is an engaging document-based multi-media kit for integrating critical thinking and media literacy throughout the US history curricula.

This high interest multi-media kit gives upper level middle school, high school, and college teachers the materials and training to lead students through engaging classroom analysis of 180 campaign documents including, newspaper articles, political cartoons, election songs, TV ads, and more.  This kit will help to develop essential critical thinking and media literacy skills while delivering and reinforcing core American history knowledge.

Project Look Sharp now has 16 media literacy kits that include detailed teacher guides and lessons for classroom decoding of historic documents for K-12 classroom teachers through the college level. All kits are available free online with hard copy kits sold at cost through Ithaca College bookstore.

Project look Sharp is Ithaca College’s Media Literacy Initiative. From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Science and Human Performance, and Music.

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For more information, please email Media Outreach Intern Jen Segal at

looksharp-mktg@ithaca.edu.

Thursday, October 8th from 8:30am-3:30pm Chris Sperry, Coordinator of Curriculum and Staff Development for Project Look Sharp, will be presenting at the Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES  on teaching 21st century skills and United States history content through collective analysis of primary source documents. Sperry received a grant for Integrating Teaching with Primary Sources into Media Literacy Education from the United States Library of Congress.

The funding for this project is part of the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) grant that provides educators from New York the ability to integrate media literacy into their various curriculums. Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, critically evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms. It is similar to information literacy and involves many components of technology literacy as well.

Mr. Sperry has taught middle and high school social studies, English and media studies for over 30 years in Ithaca, New York. He is the author of numerous curriculum kits related to global studies and U.S. history and articles about integrating media literacy and critical thinking into the curriculum. He is the recipient of the National Council for the Social Studies 2008 Award for Global Understanding, and the 2005 National PTA and Cable Leaders in Learning Award for Media Literacy.

Project Look Sharp now has 16 media literacy kits that include detailed teacher guides and lessons for classroom decoding of historic documents for K-12 classroom teachers through the college level. All kits are available free online with hard copy kits sold at cost through Ithaca College bookstore.

Project Look Sharp supports the integration of critical thinking through media literacy in school curriculum and teaching. They do this through developing and providing lesson plans, media materials, training and support for educators at all education levels. The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens in today’s world.

Project look Sharp is Ithaca College’s Media Literacy Initiative. From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Science and Human Performance, and Music.

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For more information, please email Media Outreach Intern Jen Segal at

looksharp-mktg@ithaca.edu.