Students will be able to identify the Google is not a resource and determine that Wikipedia is not a credible source for research.  

Inquiry StructureThis synopsis is laid out in more detail in the outline and lesson suggestions in the following pages. Students are first introduced to the idea of personal primary sources through the linked article and whatever artifacts can be used in staging the question. After students have been introduced to this concept they will then, as homework, they interview relatives to learn what they can about their family history and whatever artifacts in the family connect to those stories. During class, students will be instructed in and practice the media literacy skills that will allow them to research in detail the historical context for their family history. This research into the historical context of their family history will be the summative performance task for the inquiry and is the second week of the unit.

The goal of this Framework is to organize the complex and interrelated content areas of Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship into manageable chunks. We hope that K-12 educators can use it as a starting point for a scope & sequence, or as a cataloged collection of recommended instructional resources. It is organized into themes, essential questions, and learning objectives, which are aligned with Washington State subject area standards. The Framework was initially created by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship Program in 2022. For more information, contact the Program Supervisor, Lesley James, lesley.james@k12.wa.us.

This guide walks you through the Checkology virtual classroom for grades 6-12 from the News Literacy Project. Students can move at their own pace through a wide variety of lessons that mostly focus on journalism and news literacy, but also cover misinformation, conspiracy theories, and other relevant topics.The lessons include videos of journalists and other experts, plus visually engaging interactive activities.

This unit is designed to accompany the study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Resources encourage students to recognize a variety of propaganda techniques and to connect those techniques to media that they can find in their everyday lives. Resources also help students to understand the historical uses of propaganda by governments and political parties to influence public opinion. Resources can be used independently of the novel.

The following unit offers multiple entry points into developing an understanding of media literacy. The unit framework and primary sources can be integrated into classrooms of grades 4-12. Each lesson has student objectives that can be accomplished within 40 minute periods over the course of several weeks. A midpoint writing assessment, whole class capstone debate, and final independentwriting assessment are included. Support materials are integrated into the lessons, and the primary source document pages can be found at the end of the unit guide.