All resources in Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship

Media Literacy and SEL through K-5 Book Boxes

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A team of teachers at Centennial Elementary School in Olympia, WA, developed book boxes to share across the school each month centered on identifying feelings and developing empathy for others. Each month one or two picture book titles are paired with a Word of the Month. The media literacy teacher team developed materials, including a presentation slideshow, a video read-aloud, and discussion questions. The principal and teachers share the books with students, facilitating discussions for students to identify their own feelings and develop a toolbox for regulating emotions. Students use a Likert scale, developed by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins, to identify emotional responses and develop vocabulary to describe and deal with their feelings. Titles and SEL connections are shared with families through the school newsletter.Centennial Media Literacy Teacher Team:Heather Slater, teacher-librarianJennifer KnightLuci StaffordAdam PearceShannon Ritter, principal

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Authors: Sharyn Merrigan, Jamie Sproul

Media Literacy Symposium

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Staff at Avanti HS in Olympia, WA, organized and full-day media literacy symposium for their students. They invited community members to present on various aspects of media and communications. Students signed up for 45-minute sessions throughout the day. At the end of the day, students gathered in their advisory classes to debrief and share highlights.The project was part of the Digital Immersion Initiative 2.0 in the Olympia School District and funded in part by a Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.The materials provided here were posted with the permission of the AHS staff members who created them.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Sharyn Merrigan, Jamie Sproul

Responding to Media Triggers

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In this 5th grade library lesson, students examine three images about year-round school and identify their initial emotional responses using a Likert scale, developed by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins. They are then given the opportunity to read more about each image and discuss how that changes their response. In part 3, they write a paragraph about how the addition of information changes their emotional responses and whether or not they would share the image and why.Shared by the LPBrown Elementary Media Literacy Teacher Team:Brandi Appelgate, teacher-librarianCarolyn Balderston, instructional coachErin Bernier, 1st grade teacher Nina Woodhouse, 2nd grade teacherTony Perez, 5th grade teacherSean Shaughnessy, principal

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Sharyn Merrigan, Jamie Sproul

Getting Started with Digital Agency

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As we move forward in an age of generative Artificial Intelligence, it's more important than ever to ensure students develop positive habits that keep them informed, safe, and responsible when interacting with technology. Beginning with Washington State education standards, our Digital Literacy team curated learning materials for teachers K-12 to integrate into their curriculum. The linked resource provides classroom teachers with standards-aligned resources for teaching digital agency by grade level. Linked resources are a specially curated list of free lessons available to anyone. We have also suggested a content area connection for each lesson to foster integration across the content areas rather than a stand-alone focus on digital agency.   

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Natalie Boyle, Angela May, Donna Squires, Stacey Martin

Media and Literacy Curriculum by Grade

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Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship Curriculum by Grade. Curriculum created for grade level and content area teachers that have limited knowledge in these topics. Lessons are for one hour or less and include small blocks of material. Topics include Cyberbullying, Media Literacy, Digital Footprint, Privacy, and Media Balance.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Brian Saul

Ancient Egypt Inquiry Unit

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An inquiry-based unit that teaches the use of primary source analysis through artifacts from Ancient Egypt.  Students are asked to analyze artifacts from their own family, analyze artifacts from King Tut’s tomb, and then create hypotheses about what we can learn from ancient artifacts.  Finally, students will construct an argument and create a press release. 

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Beky Erickson

Analyzing Historical Documents over Time: Fishing Rights 1854-Present

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This inquiry provides students the opportunity to analyze the attitudes and beliefs of different time periods using Treaties made between the Territory of Washington and Native American tribes. Students will investigate the intentions behind the treaties of 1854-1855 to determine if the ideals were met or not.  Then they will look into how Native Americans used the treaties in 1960-70’s to establish themselves as different from Washington State citizens and as a way to remain “Indian.”  This inquiry is meant to challenge students to analyze the intentions of documents and to predict how they could be seen or used in the future. Students will need to have a solid background on native American cultures and traditions as well as an understanding of manifest destiny to accurately comprehend the results of the treaties recommendations are written below on how this might be done and focusses. The unit will come to a close when students write an argumentative essay using evidence and counterargument to address how documents can be used differently throughout time. 

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Elizabeth Allen

Analyzing The Roots & Effects of New Imperialism Though Historical Documents of Different Perspectives

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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. 

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Emily Wilson

Familial Artifacts

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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.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Ethan Whitney

Lenses of Vietnam: Protest in a Democracy [Inquiry Design Model (IDM) Unit Plan]

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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.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Primary Source, Reading, Unit of Study

Author: Adam MacDonald

How is being a citizen online like being one in real life?

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The inquiry helps students examine the responsibility of  being a citizen both in the real world and the online world. In answering the compelling question “How is being a citizen online the same as being one in real life?” students will identify the attitudes and actions necessary to be a good citizen. The unit offers 12 lessons with formative performance tasks for educators to choose from depending on the age and needs of their students. Each provides students with opportunities to collect evidence and an understanding of how online behavior and boundaries are comparable to those necessary in the real world. At the end of the inquiry, students create an explanation and identify examples of the correlation between online and real life communities.  Unit created by NCESD teachers: Sara Bedient, Sasha Dart, Brittany Jones, Krystina Nelson, Julia Spanjer, Keirstin Stansbury, Brittney Therriault   

Material Type: Unit of Study

Authors: Anne Stewart, Sasha Dart, Sara Bedient, Krystina Nelson, Julie Spanjer, Brittney Therriault, Keirstin Stansbury

How does the media impact our view of the role of government during times of national crisis

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How does the media influence peoples’ opinion of the government during a national crisis? Students will read several articles on a current (or historical) national crisis and write an argumentative essay analyzing how the media influences the opinion of the people toward the government during a national crisis using relevant evidence from both current and historical resources.

Material Type: Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment

Author: Dawn Wood

Verifying Social Media Posts

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 Verifying social media posts is quickly becoming a necessary endeavor in everyday life, let alone in the world of education. Social media has moved beyond a digital world which connects with friends and family and has become a quick and easy way to access news, information, and human interest stories from around the world. As this state of media has become the "new normal," especially for our younger generations, we, educators, find ourselves charged with a new task of teaching our students how to interact with and safely consume digital information.The following three modules are designed to be used as stand-alone activities or combined as one unit, in which the lessons can be taught in any order. "Who Said What?!" is a module focusing on author verification. "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words'' is a module devoted to image verification. "Getting the Facts Straight" is a module designed to dive into information verification. Lastly, there are assessment suggestions to be utilized after completing all three modules.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Unit of Study

Authors: Sandra Stroup, Amanda Schneider, Megan Shinn

Our On-line Identities

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This lesson invites students to use multiple forms of media, including their own Instagram accounts, to explore their on-line identities.  The lesson culminates in a personal, visual essay.  In the essay, students will use their own images as evidence. Then, students will reason about that evidence to compare what they see on their Instagram posts to their “real world” self. Using information from resources explored in class, students will include a discussion of “authenticity” and properly weave in quotes from those resources.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan

Author: Lauren McClanahan

Identifying Media Bias in News Sources for Middle School

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Every media source has a story to tell--a driving purpose. The media that people consume largely shapes their world views. The US public is becoming more divided partially due to the consumption of increasingly biased news. As a critical consumer of media, It is important to be able to separate fact from opinion. In this unit, adapted from the high school version, students will become critical consumers of news, by identifying media bias in order to become better informed citizens.  NOTE: This unit has been adapted for use at the middle school level from the resource Identifying Media Bias in News Sources by Sandra Stroup, Sally Drendel, Greg Saum, and Heidi Morris.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Game, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Student Guide, Unit of Study

Authors: Amanda Schneider, Megan Shinn, Heidi Morris, Sally Drendel, Sandra Stroup