This paper compares frameworks in recent critical media literacy scholarship with trends found in eight semesters of media literacy community action outreach assignments to explore how these frameworks can function as curricular tools for media literacy practitioners. Besides potential tools for media literacy pedagogy, this examination of recent literature uncovers new considerations and directions for the field of media literacy education. These include tensions present in the practice of teaching from a critical perspective, observations about student use of newer technologies for social change, and concerns to include in critical media literacy literature.