Newseum
'The Press and the Civil Rights Movement' Video Lesson
Scholars watch a video featuring journalists who covered the civil rights movement, then respond to questions on a viewing guide. The video features interviews with participants and original news footage from the 1950s and 1960s. In...
Newseum
Is This Story Share-Worthy?
Young journalists use a "Is This Story Share-Worthy?" flowchart graphic to decide whether a story is worth sharing online. Instructors provide groups with fake news, poor quality stories, opinion pieces, biased news, and high-quality...
Curated OER
Can I Be Swayed?
High schoolers identify loaded words and examples of bias in print media. They describe how media can be used to manipulate public opinion. Students identify examples of interest groups that use media to sway public opinion in order to...
Curated OER
Slanted Sentences
Students examine biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning.
Curated OER
Newspaper Writing on Flight in History
Students read about important events in history through newspaper articles. For this newspaper lesson, students look at different writing styles and author's bias in different articles about the same event. They write their own articles...
Southern Poverty Law Center
Evaluating Online Sources
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,...
Curated OER
Television Newscasts
When we watch news broadcasts on television, we receive a much more visual perspective than when we read the newspaper. How do sets, clothing, and music contribute to our understanding of the story? Compare American and Canadian news...
Curated OER
The Eye of the Beholder: A Media Literacy Activity
Students explore the impact the news media have on shaping perceptions and opinions in general and in their coverage of the presidential campaign.
Curated OER
News Coverage
Learners compare and contrast methods of media coverage. In this media awareness instructional activity, students keep track of news regarding a world or national issue for the period of 1 week. Learners collaborate to describe the type...
Curated OER
Exploring Media: Understanding and Identifying Editorial Perspective in Television and Radio News
Students research the topics Boat People: A Refugee Crisis, Dr. Henry Morgentaler: Fighting Canada's Abortion Laws, and CANDU: The Canadian Nuclear Reactor on the CBC Radio and Television Archives Web site.
iCivics
Lesson 2: Misinformation
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-instructional...
Curated OER
Reporting in Letters
Students investigate the cultures and politics of different countries and write radio letters to listeners in those countries modeled after Alistair Cooke's "Letter from America."
Curated OER
Examining newspapers
Students compare and contrast tabloid and broadsheet papers. In this journalism lesson plan, students examine how techniques and form differs from one type of publication to the other. The culminating activity is for students to take...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
Cell Phone Use and Cancer
The cell phone you're using is making you deaf: news at 11:00. Oftentimes, the media uses fear tactics and other techniques to increase its audience base. In an intriguing look at the difference between scientific journals and...
Curated OER
Journalism: Potential Bias
Students investigate a current event involving the United States from different journalistic viewpoints. They compare a Western newspaper with one from the Middle East and submit written evaluations noting agreements and disagreements in...
Curated OER
World Media: Comparison of Iraq War Accounts
Students are introduced to the concept of news/media bias from region to region. Upon reading differing articles, students answer source questions on the structure/content of each article.
Curated OER
Spanish-American War
Students view a video called Battling Beyond the Borders about the Spanish-American War. They discuss the role of newspapers in the war and then analyze political cartoons of the time, writing explanatory sentences about them.
Curated OER
A Tale of Two Schools
Students create different photographs using photographic techniques of camera angles, lighting, and composition. They write non-fiction stories about people they interview and create two school newsletters that portray a fictional...
Curated OER
Effective Photojournalism
Students determine what makes a quality photo and take and edit appropriate photos that relate to their assigned articles. They select good pictures for their publication.
Curated OER
The Media
Students explore political advertising. They discuss what informed voters should know about upcoming elections and identify the four main types of ads and view a video to identify the types of ads. Evaluating the ads, they identify...