Curated OER
Information Overload: Looking at News
How do events reported in mainstream newspapers, on television news, blog posts, and social network sites differ? Ask your class to investigate the way the same news item is presented in the many information sources available. Groups...
Curated OER
Now That's Beautiful!
Your class experiences dozens of messages about beauty every day by reading magazines, watching movies, and listening to the radio. Have them analyze society's view of beauty in groups after discussing several resources, including Dove's...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Vanishing Newspapers
What is happening to our newspapers? In the context of the current trends of media and the ever-declining print news industry, this handout includes two political cartoons for pupils to analyze, both created by artists working for...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building Through Visualization of Word Meanings to Create Digital Art
Use online dictionaries to define vocabulary words and create a visualization of word meanings through digital art. Middle schoolers go online to define assigned vocabulary words. They visualize the meanings of the words in photo...
NPR
Distracted by Everything - Being Wired at All Times
This multimedia activity challenges media-savvy learners to look at the critical issue concerning the inundation of technology and multitasking in the classroom, and its effects on the education of themselves and others. The tasks...
Curated OER
Kids' Newsbreaks
Group learners together to identify a question relating to an issue and create a 60-second kids news break highlighting information that begins to answer the question. They research and answer issue questions in a news story format.Â
Curated OER
Promoting Ethical Behaviour Online — Our Values and Ethics
Students explore Internet safety practices. In this online privacy lesson, students examine their digital footprints in order to assess their online privacy and ethics.
Developing a Global Perspective for Educators
The Lorax - Language
First graders identify text features and how they communicate meaning to the reader. For this media literacy instructional activity, learners view the movie The Lorax and discuss how students from another country would respond to this...
Curated OER
Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe: What is Beautiful?
Students consider the notion of beauty and what impact the media and popular culture have on it. In this cross curricular instructional activity, students examine print ads, write down and share their thoughts on them. Then students form...
Curated OER
Harriet Tubman Vocabulary Matching
This matching exercise features 14 words and their definitions, including "Emancipation Proclamation," "dysentery," "rheumatism," and other vocabulary associated with Harriet Tubman and the Civil War. The worksheet most likely...
Curated OER
Behind the Camera
Scholars, in groups, gather information relating to community health care. Using video and digital cameras, they interview members of a health center staff. They then compile digital images, select music, and narrate a story about their...
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...
Curated OER
I Am a Person on Character
Sixth graders explore the portrayal of males and females in mass media. In this language arts instructional activity, 6th graders create a digital collage and write a description about themselves using similes and metaphors.
Curated OER
The Electric Experience
Students investigate the effects of television and radio on culture. For this journalism lesson, students consider how electronic media has shaped journalism as they create timelines that feature the changes and compare and contrast...
Curated OER
Administering the Survey
Students administer Media Violence Survey to family and friends locally, and to students in remote locations.
Curated OER
This Just in! Nile Network News Update
Have your young reporters research contributions of the ancient Egyptians, draft scripts, and broadcast their stories live on the Nile Network News. Depending on class size and age, topics may be brainstormed or assigned. The detailed...
Curated OER
Culture Creation vs. Culture Consumption - Finding Voice Through Digital Storytelling
Ninth graders explore the power of media in culture and Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. In this nonviolence and media lesson, 9th graders analyze Gandhi's nonviolent methods for social change and discuss the media's power to create...
Curated OER
Finding and Authenticating Online Information on Global Development Issues
Learners discover how to find authoritative resources. In this research skills instructional activity, students examine strategies for using the Internet effectively to research global development issues.
Curated OER
Idea-Noun Definition: Source Searching
A great idea for showing language arts pupils the universality of themes, even in the real world! Have class members choose an idea-noun (peace, justice, war, love, etc.) at the beginning of the year or semester. They complete weekly...
Curated OER
Postcards For Your Ears
Here is a great way to have your students make audio postcards to share by recording a message on the computer. They write and revise an appropriate message about an object from home, choose a background, and font colors for the...
Curated OER
Our Computers, Ourselves: Imagining the Digital Lives of Authors and Characters
The guiding question for this lesson is "Do computers and their contents shape who we are?" Open with a selection of Apple's commercials to introduce stereotypes and people's relationships with their computers. Then, read the attached...
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...