Description: The attached unit has incorporated Media Literacy for Social Studies by scaffolding a variety of primary source document activities of varying perspectives on New Imperialism (1850-1914) which allow the studnt to identify possible bias or misinformation. The guided questions which accompany the primary sources ask the student to explain differing responses and to think critically about why those responses may be different depending on the context. 

This unit explores the various ways information and ideas about climate change are presented through a variety of media. This includes the evaluation of social media posts, research into climate change issues, and an exploration of contemporary art and artists. This was designed and taught in an honors 9th grade English Language Arts Classroom by Dr. Tavia Quaid in response to student interest in climate change and to reinforce key information literacy skills.

We may be leaving out information or disregarding it because it doesn't conform with our own beliefs.  Students will learn about confirmation bias, different perspectives and how to avoid confirmation bias.  This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?". 

This lesson gives students a strategy for evaluating sources.  This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?".

The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.

This guide walks you through the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum from the Stanford History Education Group. Their extensive suite of lessons and assessments helps students acquire skills for thinking critically about the information they find online. The target audience is high school but some lessons can be adapted for younger students. 

Students examine what deepfakes are and consider the deeper civic and ethical implications of deepfake technology. In an age of easy image manipulation, this lesson fosters critical thinking skills that empower students to question how we can mitigate the impact of doctored media content. This lesson plan includes a slide deck and brainstorm sheet for classroom use.

This resource provides a description and links to the original materials for a multi-day unit created by teacher-librarians at Highline Public Schools. The unit shows 9th grade students how to access, analyze, evaluate, and cite information sources.

This resource provides a description and links to the original materials for a multi-day unit created by teacher-librarians at Highline Public Schools. The unit shows 9th grade students how to access, analyze, evaluate, and cite information sources.

Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions:

Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity?

Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic.

Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality?

Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

This 6 1/2 minute video introduces students to the pros and cons of using Wikipedia as an information source. There's a Google Form that can be used to check for understanding. Created by Lesley James, Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship Program Supervisor, Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

This collection of lessons represent adapted and remixed instructional content for teaching media literacy and specifically civic online reasoning through distance learning. These lessons take students through the steps necessary to source online content, verify evidence presented, and corroborate claims with other sources.

The original lesson plans are the work of Stanford History Education Group, licensed under CC 4.0. Please refer to the full text lesson plans at Stanford History Education Group’s, Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum for specifics regarding background, research findings, and additional curriculum for teaching media literacy in the twenty-first century.

This social media literacy unit introduces students to foundational skills in analyzing images and social media posts. It also reenforces critical thinking questions that can be applied to various forms of media. This unit was taught to 9th grade students but is easily adaptible to a range of secondary classrooms. It was also taught in conjunction with another unit focused on social media platforms and content.

This inquiry takes students through an analysis and evaluation of the Compelling Question “Is protest important in a democracy?” using the Vietnam War as a lens to approach the topic. To accomplish this, students will become more media literate through evaluating sources, biases, perspectives, and the goals of creating media. Throughout the inquiry, students will engage in activities designed to promote and develop media literacy while analzying the Compelling Question and learning about the historical protests of the Vietnam Era.This inquiry is expected to take two weeks (10 periods) to complete: one 45-minute class period to stage the question, introduce the inquiry, and to review media literacy; two 45-minute class periods for each of the three supporting questions; and then three 45-minute class periods for students to write and research their argumentative thesis. If students are as of yet less familiar with media literacy, the instructor should add at least another class period, or more, introducing them more fully to this.The full unit, along with all materials and resources, is available as a PDF attachment.

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.

In this lesson, students will define their dominant roles online, explain the benefits of each type of online role and discuss the responsibilities and risks inherent in each type of online interaction. This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website entitled "Who Am I Online?"