Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Chart It: Grades 6 8
Middle schoolers will learn to assess people's intentions and the impact of their words and actions, both positive and negative, in online environments. Requires free membership.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Digital Citizenship: Grades 3 5
Young scholars will establish group norms to create a positive online community that promotes responsible and respectful digital behavior within their classroom. Requires free membership.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Secret Sharer Grades 6 8
Students look beyond protecting their own privacy to respecting the privacy of others online. Students read and analyze case studies about students who have compromised the privacy of someone else online by tagging, copying, and...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Staying Safe Online (K 2)
Students understand that they should stay safe online by choosing websites that are good for them to visit, and avoiding sites that are not appropriate for them. They learn about the similarities of staying safe in the real world and...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Trillion Dollar Footprint: Grades 6 8
Students learn that they have a digital footprint, which can be searched, shared, and seen by a large, invisible audience. They then learn that they can take some control over their digital footprint based on what they post online. They...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Cracking the Gender Code: Grades 6 8
Students explore "boy codes" and "girl codes," and discuss the extent to which they shape people's online identities and relationships. Requires free membership.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Rings of Responsibility: Grades 3 5
Young scholars explore what it means to take on responsibilities in both their offline and online communities as a way to learn how to be good digital citizens. Students sit in circles, which depict the "Rings of Responsibility," in...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Scams and Schemes: Grades 6 8
Students learn strategies for guarding against identity theft and scams that try to access their private information online. Students learn what identity theft is, what kinds of information identity thieves want, and what can be done...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Strategic Searching: Grades 6 8
Students learn that to conduct effective and efficient online searches, they must use a variety of searching strategies rather than relying on a single source. Students learn a five-step method for planning and carrying out an online...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Advertising Detectives
Students learn to recognize five different kinds of online ads prevalent on children's sites. They learn how to distinguish advertising content from other content on a website. Free membership required.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Going Places Safely: K 2
Young scholars learn that they can go to exciting places online, but they need to follow certain rules to remain safe. By taking a virtual field trip, students experience the power of the Internet to take them to places they might not be...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: What's Cyberbullying? Grades 3 5
Students discuss positive and negative aspects of interacting with others online. They learn the definition of cyberbullying and help the teacher fill in a Venn diagram that compares in-person bullying with cyberbullying. They then read...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Keep It Private (K 2nd Grade)
This lesson plan for young students will teach them the basics of staying safe online. Students review what information is private and should not be shared without a trusted adult's permission. Students then view sites that ask them to...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Private and Personal Information (3 5)
As students visit sites that request information about their identity, they learn to adopt a critical inquiry process that empowers them to protect themselves and their families from identity theft. They learn the difference between...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Strong Passwords (3 5)
Students learn how to create secure passwords in order to protect their private information and accounts online. They learn tips for creating safe passwords. They explore scenarios in which two characters choose passwords, and they use...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Who's Looking at Your Digital Footprint?
Our digital footprints can have a powerful impact on our future. This can be a scary thought, given that what's in our digital footprint isn't always in our control. Teach learners that digital footprints are an opportunity to showcase...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Lesson: A Creator's Responsibilities: Grades 6 8
Students reflect on their responsibilities as creators and users of creative work. Requires Adobe Reader.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Using Keywords (K 2)
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students understand that keyword searching is an effective way to locate information on the Internet. They learn how to select keywords to produce the best search results to meet their goals. Then they...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: The Change You Want to See
Research shows that happiness in life is less about what you do and more about why you do it. When your actions have purpose, they lead to positive results -- both for you and the world. Help learners use the power of the internet to...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Lesson: The Key to Keywords: Grades 3 5
Students learn strategies to increase the accuracy of their keyword searches. They compare the number and kinds of sites obtained and make inferences about the effectiveness of the strategies. Free membership required.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: A Creator's Rights and Responsibilities
It's common for kids to use images they find online, for school projects or just for fun. But kids don't often understand which images are OK to use and which ones aren't. Help your students learn about the rights and responsibilities...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Privacy Rules: Grades 3 5
Students learn that children's websites must protect their private information. They learn to identify these secure sites by looking for their privacy policies and privacy seals of approval. They discuss a scenario in which their private...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Sticky Sites: Grades 6 8
Students learn about some of the features that attract and retain visitors to websites. They also learn to recognize the commercial motives that sometimes lie behind these "sticky" sites. Free membership required.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Crawling the Web: Grades 6 8
Faced with a large and ever-changing array of options about how to find information they need, middle schoolers learn to make informed choices about which search sites to use for different purposes. They also learn to use multiple search...