Reel Diversity: A Teacher's Sourcebook - Revised Edition(474 Counterpoints)

The first edition of Reel Diversity: A Teacher's Sourcebook won the 2009 Phillip C. Chinn Book Award of the National Association for Multicultural Education. This revised edition is an updated resource guide for educators in secondary and university classrooms who desire to integrate mainstream and independent films into their instructional content about diversity and social justice. The book has transformed difficult dialogues in classrooms around the country by helping educators identify full-length films and shorter film clips to enhance, energize, and motivate student learning. Accessible and practical for both novice and advanced educators, the book provides a lexicon of twenty-five definitions that teachers and learners should understand about difference, awareness, and power. Assignments, classroom activities, and lecture notes highlight these definitions in ways that deeply impact students' multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Reel Diversity invites cross-cultural dialogue about films' mixed messages and how they enforce and reinforce cultural values. Students will emerge with a greater understanding of the educational value of this entertainment medium. The book is perfect for courses in mass media, film studies, American studies, mass communication, and media literacy.

About the Author :
Brian C. Johnson serves as a faculty member in the Department of Academic Enrichment at Bloomsburg University and is Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for Academic Excellence. He is a founder of the Pennsylvania Association of Liaisons and Officers of Multicultural Affairs, a consortium that promotes best practices for diversity in higher education. He earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in English from California University of Pennsylvania, and is currently in the final stages of the doctorate in communications media and instructional technology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on social dominance orientation in mainstream film. He is a professional speaker with Kirkland Productions.

Review :
«Reel Diversity has solidified Brian C. Johnson's reputation as one of the leading interdisciplinary scholars in the fields of diversity, media literacy, and film studies. Johnson offers a refreshing way to look at diversity and social justice through the critical analysis of contemporary film. A must-read for new and experienced diversity educators.» (James Felton, Chief Diversity Officer, Anne Arundel Community College) «...[T]his book is an excellent resource for educators, including EFL/ESL professionals, who are aware of and sensitive to diversity issues or want to become so. It not only illuminates the more subliminal messages projected through popular films, it also offers concrete strategies for challenging those messages in a classroom setting.» (Rosemary Chipley, Independent Educator) «Reel Diversity points to the idea that in classrooms that value diversity, cultural identities need to be affirmed, ethnocentric assumptions need to be challenged, and we need avoid the blame-game or trying to be politically correct. Political correctness is a form of passive aggressiveness and conflict avoidance, according to Johnson, that leaves unspoken misconceptions and biases to breed intolerance and hate.» (Yvette Prinsloo Franklin, in «(Un)Packing Your Backpack: Educational Philosophy, Positionality, and Pedagogy») «Reel Diversity has been a valuable resource in my design of a course of the same name for high school students. I utilize this sourcebook to supplement my social justice curriculum with lexicon, mini-lessons, and feature film clips to illustrate diversity concepts and media literacy. This book is perfect for beginners and experts alike as it breathes new life into the diversity curriculum by introducing unique ways of using film as text.» (Shanelle Henry-Robinson, Director of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Friends Academy, Locust Valley, New York) «No diversity educator should ever be without Reel Diversity. Reel Diversity provides a practical tool for educators and trainers to engage students and professionals in a dialogue about social justice issues through the use of film. Reel Diversity provides a valuable tool for novice and advanced diversity educators to inspire even those most resistant to understand the need for diversity education.» (Tchet Dereic Dorman, President, Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education) «In the general education course that is taught at SUNY Plattsburgh (which also serves as a student leadership and faculty professional development opportunity) Examining Diversity Through Film (EDTF), students are challenged every class to critically as well as creatively link two quotes from each assigned reading to the context of the film clips seen in the last class meeting. In class every day students are randomly called upon to share their chosen quotes knowing that they must articulate the connection between what they read for homework with what they saw in class. This assignment serves multiple purposes. It allows everyone to share in the intellectual diversity that is abundant in every classroom, though not always on display. It forces students to have to really engage the subject matter, pay close attention to the film clips, and them creatively marry two disparate pieces, which is easier written here than actually done, initially. Lastly, this approach of framing film clips with quotes, or framing quotes with references to film excerpts, better enables students to retain the lesson learned since they are provoked into considering possibilities that aren't necessarily a given. Reel Diversity's contribution to EDTF transcends its invaluable suggestions for developing a diversity course, but