The New York Times
Evaluating Sources in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning about Fake News
The framers of the United States Constitution felt a free press was so essential to a democracy that they granted the press the protection it needed to hold the powerful to account in the First Amendment. Today, digital natives need to...
News Literacy Project
Fighting Falsehoods on Social Media
It's time to stop misinformation in its tracks. Scholars take an online quiz to see how well they understand social media platforms' policies on spreading false information. After taking the quiz, pupils receive a score with an...
Teaching Tolerance
Social Media for Social Action
Engage in activism, not slacktivism! Scholars discuss social media and the Internet as tools for social change. Next, they engage in a close reading strategy called Thinking Notes as they read an article about social media activism.
ReadWriteThink
Defining Literacy in a Digital World
What skills are necessary to interact with different types of text? Twenty-first century learners live in a digital world and must develop a whole new set of skills to develop media literacy. Class members engage in a series of...
Common Sense Media
Digital Compass
Time to make some real world decisions in an interactive digital citizenship game. Choose a story and help the characters make the right decisions regarding Internet safety, cyberbullying, copyright, media literacy, appropriate online...
Southern Poverty Law Center
Evaluating Reliable Sources
A lesson plan instills the importance of locating reliable sources. Scholars are challenged to locate digital sources, analyze their reliability, search for any bias, and identify frequently found problems that make a source unusable.
Teaching Tolerance
You Are the Product
What does it mean for a product or service to go viral? Scholars explore the topic by reading an article about the economics of social media. After reading, they complete a 3-2-1 data chart with information they learned from the text and...
Teaching Tolerance
Understanding How Digital Information Comes to You
Google, Yahoo!, Bing ... so many choices, so little time! Using the resource, scholars explore how different search engines affect the way they find information. After reading a handout on the topic and engaging in small group...
English Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Media Literacy with Focus of Strategies for Collaboration
Introduce your class to literary analysis with a series of activities that has them examine book and movie reviews. Groups then draft their own review of a text, select a digital medium, and craft a presentation.
News Literacy Project
Should You Share It?
Sharing isn't always caring. Scholars learn how to reduce the spread of misinformation on the Internet. They take an online quiz of example posts targeted to a specific audience. Using critical thinking skills, they see if they can tell...
Teaching Tolerance
Evaluating Online Sources
Newspapers, television, social media ... how do people get their news? Using the informative resource, scholars locate and verify credible sources of information. Working in small groups, they discuss strategies for evaluating the...
The New York Times
401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing
Sometimes the hardest thing about an argument essay writing assignment is coming up with a question. A four-page list of prompts includes a range of topics, from social media and smart phones to video games and sports. The list is a...
Newspaper Association of America
Critical Thinking through Core Curriculum: Using Print and Digital Newspapers
What is and what will be the role of newspapers in the future? Keeping this essential question in mind, class members use print, electronic, and/or web editions of newspapers, to investigate topics that include financial literary,...
EngageNY
Gathering Information about Screen Time: Assessing and Reading Internet Sources, Day 1
What's the best way to evaluate a source's accuracy and credibility? Pupils discuss the question with a partner and then share their ideas with the class. They also conduct Internet research, looking for an article that answers a chosen...
Teaching Tolerance
Advertising on the Internet
Believe it or not, everyone plays a role in Internet advertising. Scholars explore the topic with a podcast about Internet advertising and personal identity. Next, partners plan and produce their own public service announcements to...
Teaching Tolerance
Understanding and Evaluating Online Searches
With billions of options to choose from, how can people determine which online sources are reliable? Using an informative resource, pupils first discuss and evaluate a sample search result handout. Next, partners create a checklist for...
Smithsonian Institution
Singing for Justice: Following the Musical Journey of “This Little Light of Mine”
Scholars go on a musical journey to discover the origin, importance, and evolution of the song, "This Little Light of Mine". Class members boost their voice talents and clap to the beat while learning the lyrics in both English and Zulu....
Shutterfly
Photo Story Lesson Plan
After reading Loree Leedy's There's a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me, kids create and illustrate their own poems that convey the meaning of an idiom. The poems are then transferred into Shutterfly's Photo...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Poetry Aloud/Poetry Out Loud
To appreciate the value of seeing and hearing a poetry performance, groups prepare readings of selected poems and then compare and critique their interpretations and videotaped versions of the same poem. Included in the resource are...
Shutterfly
Shutterfly Photo Story Lesson Plan
A reading of Peggy Parish's Amelia Bedelia launches a study of idioms. Groups then select several idioms, write the meaning of the expressions, draw or select images, and use GIMP or Photoshop to create an idiom book.
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss and Read Across America
What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class members write a...
Curated OER
Lesson 2- Spanish Greeting
Break down a quick conversation in Spanish. After the teacher presents the vocabulary, the class heads to the computer lab, where class members can watch a brief interactive video. The visual is one clip separated into four clearly...
Channel Islands Film
Dark Water: Lesson Plan 3 - Grades 6-12
After watching the documentary Dark Water about a traditional Chumash ceremony and reading a Chumash origin story, viewers are asked to create a coat of arms and to craft an essay that details a family tradition or their own origin story.
Global Oneness Project
Deconstructing Consumerism
To increase awareness and launch a discussion of consumerism, class members view What Would It Look Like, a 25 minute film of images that capture the global effects of the consumption of goods. Viewers make a list of the images that they...