Just because a story is on the news doesn't mean it's being presented fairly. Analyze news broadcasts with a lesson plan focused on evaluating television journalism. At home, kids watch a news show and note the stories presented,...

Do reporters write about what they see, or what they think? Examine the differences between investigative writing and opinion writing with a lesson from PBS. Learners look over different examples of each kind of reporting, and convince...

Engage your pupils in a seres of journalism activities. For this journalism lesson plan, learners practice with AP style, analyze an article, practice writing leads, work with organizing information, and take a stab at writing headlines....

Extra! Extra! Do your pupils know what it takes to be a good journalist? Young news hounds explore the world of journalism through a series of activities that focus on ethical reporting. Learners read, evaluate, and investigate popular...

Honor women in journalism with an online exhibit called Women with a Deadline. Class members demonstrate their understanding of the topic in a final assessment by writing a newspaper article on the information they learned in...

Pitch your best news story to your news team, or the peers in your journalism class, with a instructional activity about finding, reporting, and presenting a story. After watching clips of different examples, as well as...

Class members use the Investigative Reporting Article Planner they completed the first day of the unit to guide the development of an infographic that displays what they have learned about the topic they researched. 

Young journalists learn how to analyze word choice, context, and counterpoints to judge the fairness of a news story. They practice using these tools to judge a series of headlines for the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They...

Reporting the news is easy, right? Think again! Show young scholars the difficult choices journalists make every day through a lesson that includes reading, writing, and discussion elements. Individuals compare the language and sources...

Accuracy, transparency, trustworthiness, and impartiality are four unspoken rules of journalism. Scholars delve deep into the subject by discussing the pros and cons of relying on social media for news. They also play an online game to...

Mistakes happen. When they happen in news reporting, be it in print or on the internet, journalism ethics requires that the errors be corrected. Young journalists use an Accuracy Checklist to track how news organizations post corrections...

After analyzing newspaper articles portraying different perspectives of the explosion of the Battleship USS Maine, your young historians will take a stand on which position is the most believable in both discussion and writing.

Fake news is a hot topic right now ... but what is it? Intrepid young investigators track down the facts that separate journalistic mistakes and misinformation through reading, research, and discussion. Part three in a five-lesson series...

How do journalists balance bias and ethical reporting? The final instructional activity in a series of five from iCivics examines the different types of bias and how they affect the news we read. Young reporters take to the Internet to...

"Fake News" (stories that are entirely fabricated/fictional) is the subject of a case study of the search for Jestin Coler, the creator of some of the most famous fake news stories. After reading NPR's investigative report, scholars...

Verification of provenance and the original source of an image or video can be a long and winding process. Young journalists learn about the difficulty of finding the original source of a scrape, a copy of an original news story, and...

What are the elements of a good social media post? The 13th activity in the 16-part Social Media Toolbox incorporates all of the typical components found in a Facebook or Twitter post. Scholars work together to create great posts based...

Young journalists are presented with scenarios that involve media ethics. They must decide in each case whether to cover the story, what they would cover, and if covered, what the angle would be.

Big news isn't necessarily newsworthy everywhere! How do journalists decide what to cover with so much happening around them? A instructional activity on media literacy examines the factors that affect the media's choice of stories to...

If everyone is on Facebook, should the school's news publication be as well? Scholars study a social media giant in the 11th lesson from The Social Media Toolbox's 16-part series. The activity combines individual study and collaboration...

Provenance, source, date, location, and motivation. High schoolers learn how to verify the authenticity of news stories and posts by following a seven-step process. They then use the strategy to determine the original site that posted a...

Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women...

All sources are pretty much the same, right? If this is how your class views the sources they use for writing or research projects, present them with a media literacy lesson on smart source evaluation. Groups examine several articles,...

Dive your class into the novel The Pinballs by Betsy Byars with the support of this reading guide. Including short answer questions, a multiple choice comprehension quiz, and extension activities, a variety of materials are...