Abstract
As we enter the new millennium, new strategies are needed to meet the educational needs of our young people. Media exerts an enormous influence on them, while at the same time often undercutting young people’s interest in and competency with, traditional language literacy. Rather than pitting the new “language” of media against the traditional language of English, Say It!, a literacy/arts program sponsored by Adelphi University to serve at-risks schools in lower Manhattan, has evolved curriculum that addresses both media literacy and English literacy, using each language to enrich the other through media and language arts. This presentation will offer an overview of the program and its successes. It will include screening of student work. Say It!’s workshops are built around comparing a novel with its movie version. The workshops conclude with students using their English writing skills and media writing skills in consort with the dramatic arts to detail family stories which are then translated into “spiced up” (dramatized) family stories. The program enriches classroom curriculum and improves student self-esteem.