PBS
Decoding Media Bias
Alternative facts? After watching the We The Voters film, "MediOcracy," viewers compare how cable news outlets CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC report the same story about politics or public policy. After a whole-class discussion of their...
PBS
What Makes A Good Video Report?
As part of a media literacy unit, class members establish criteria for good video reporting, and practice giving both positive (warm) and constructive (cool) criticism.
Curated OER
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Students create a presentation in which they retell the events of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In this A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court lesson, students are introduced to Mark Twain in a PowerPoint, then...
Curated OER
Character Education Podcasts
Students study character traits. In this character education lesson plan, students create podcasts highlighting a particular character trait. Students broadcast one podcast per week.
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Using the Commentaries in Class
Students examine language and communication by listening to a commentary radio show. In this communications lesson, students listen to Michael Josephson's radio broadcast using the Internet and analyze his words and their meaning....
Common Sense Media
Identifying High-Quality Sites
Use a Huffington Post article focused on false pictures of Hurricane Sandy to launch a discussion about the reliability of online information. Groups compare and contrast how print and broadcast media regulate data gathering with the...
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Electronic Media
Students compare forms of electronic media. They watch a news broadcast and take notes on the content being conveyed. After viewing the broadcast, they read newspaper articles or news magazines to locate articles with similar content to...
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News Coverage
Young scholars compare and contrast methods of media coverage. In this media awareness lesson, students keep track of news regarding a world or national issue for the period of 1 week. Young scholars collaborate to describe the type of...
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Weather
Students create a daily weather forecast including present temperature, high temperature, moon phase, sky watch, and occasional special reports dealing with weather phenomenon.
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"And That's The Way It Is..." Today in History
Students research an event in history from different perspectives. They discuss the characteristics of a nightly news broadcast and create their own based on the history event they researched. They work together to produce this...
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Watching the Clock: An activity to build media-savvy students
Learners analyze time constraints on broadcast news. They apply data collecting and data display skills. They identify the difference between news progams and the evening news.
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The War of the Worlds
Students discover the concept of media based on literature. In this War of the Worlds lesson, students read the novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and listen to the 1938 radio broadcast adaptation by Orson Welles. Students then...
Curated OER
A Movie in Your Mind: Persuasive Text
Students listen to a broadcast of War of the Worlds and illustrate what they hear. In this persuasive text instructional activity students prepare for making a movie poster intended to persuade a director to make a film based on a short...
iCivics
Mini Lesson A: Monetization
Advertising is everywhere! Does your class know that their attention span is for sale, even when they're watching a simple news story? The second installment in a five-part series from iCivics examines the relationship between news...
Classroom Law Project
Should we believe everything we read? Becoming a discerning consumer of media
Class members investigate the role media should play in a healthy democracy. As part of this study, groups analyze political advertising, use FactCheck to assess not only the veracity of but the persuasions techniques used in candidates'...
American Press Institute
Media Literacy: Where News Comes From
What actually happens at a press conference? Make sense of the mayhem with a mock press conference activity designed to promote media literacy. Individuals participate as either members of the press or the governor's office to examine...
Curated OER
Glacier Presentations
Students research news articles relating to global climate change. In this earth science lesson, students create a news broadcast using the information they gathered. They present this in class and each student gives their peer...
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Telegram from Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Harry S. Truman
Students research the McCarthy hearings to determine the following: time frame of hearings, how they were broadcast, how the press reacted, and how the American people reacted in light of the Korean Conflict and the Cold War.
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All About Poe
Students use an online database to research the life and words of Edgar Allan Poe. Using the information they collect, they write a newspaper article or obituary about the famous writer. In groups, they work together to develop a radio...
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Broadcasting the News Lesson 6
Young scholars practice news reading at three words per second. They produce a news program while working as a team of reporters. They watch news clips of current reporters making a list of news reading tips. They play an online game...
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Walter Cronkite: Witness to History
Students brainstorm a list of news sources. They interview people about today's media and discuss their results. After watching segments of a film about Walter Cronkite, they role play as reporters and subjects from an historic period...
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NOVA Online/Einstein Revealed
Welcome to the companion Web site to the NOVA program "Einstein Revealed," originally broadcast in October, 1996. This two-hour special presents a penetrating profile of Albert Einstein, who contributed more than any other scientist to...
ReadWriteThink
Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Help your 21st century learners develop their media smarts with this resource that has them examine the persuasive techniques advertisers use to influence specific demographics and then to use these techniques to craft their own ads.
Mikva Challenge
Deconstructing Campaign Messages and Perceptions
Target audience, covert message, explicit and implicit appeals. As part of an investigation of rhetorical devices used in campaign ads, class members examine and deconstruct the appeals in logos from the 2008 election. They then use the...