All resources in Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship
Digital Survival Skills Module 1: My Media Environment
(View Complete Item Description)The information revolution of the 21st century is as significant and transformative as the industrial revolution of the 19th century. In this unit, students – and by proxy their families – will learn about the challenges of our current information landscape and how to navigate them. This unit is split into four modules. These modules can be done sequentially or stand on their own, depending on students’ needs and teachers’ timeframes. In this module (1 of 4), students analyze their own use of online social media platforms and learn how filter bubbles and confirmation bias shape the content of their media environment.
Material Type: Module, Unit of Study
The Terra Cotta Army and Qin Culture
(View Complete Item Description)This inquiry asked students to answer the compelling question: What does the terra cotta army teach us about Qin culture? In order to answer the compelling questions students will analyze China's terra cotta warriors. Students will first formulate their own definitions of the terms: culture, artifact, afterlife, primary source, and secondary source. Once a working definition is found students will conduct an analysis of the terra cotta warriors. While analyzing the warriors and other sources, students will to question what was important to the Chinese during the Qin dynasty, what skills they valued, and what beliefs they had. While students work, they will also question the sources. Who wrote/made the source, why was it create, who is was/is the audience of the source, and if the source is biased. This mixture of looking over artifacts, reading texts, and questioning source material are all things good historians do.
Material Type: Module, Unit of Study
Ancient Egypt Inquiry Unit
(View Complete Item Description)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
Analyzing Historical Documents over Time: Fishing Rights 1854-Present
(View Complete Item Description)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
Native American Mascot Debate Inquiry Design Model (IDM)
(View Complete Item Description)This inquiry takes students through analysis and evaluation of the Compelling Question “Should Washington State Ban the use of Native American mascots in their schools?” Students will be learning about the persuasive techniques of Political Cartoons, analyzing articles and images, reading interviews, and watching YouTube videos. The summative performance task is writing a letter to the Washington State Board of education stating their claim on whether or not they should or shouldn't allow schools to use Native American mascots.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Communicating Successfully in the Workplace: What It Takes
(View Complete Item Description)What does it take to be successful in the workplace? This unit provides students with the opportunity to examine this question, evaluate what others say and form their own voice, and finally to express and share what they find. The materials are for the instructor and provide options to adapt to specfic students. learning needs, and time frame.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Analyzing The Roots & Effects of New Imperialism Though Historical Documents of Different Perspectives
(View Complete Item Description)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
Familial Artifacts
(View Complete Item Description)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
Lenses of Vietnam: Protest in a Democracy [Inquiry Design Model (IDM) Unit Plan]
(View Complete Item Description)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
Don't Be Fooled By Food Messaging!
(View Complete Item Description)Description: Don’t be fooled by food messaging is a media literacy embedded health unit that takes the health goals of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and adds some critical thinking skills and communication skills. In food marketing young people are surrounded by persuasive claims meant to influence and manipulate their eating behavior. Students will explore some of the techniques and strategies food marketers use to influence their eating behavior to better understand how it impacts their own food choices. Within the PE program students will discuss how food choices, levels of consumption and physical activity levels influence health and wellness. Body image/healthy weight will be incorporated into this content. The culminating projects require students to work collaboratively to synthesize their new learning while using a variety of strategies to create their own healthy choices messaging production projects.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Game, Lesson, Module, Unit of Study
How is being a citizen online like being one in real life?
(View Complete Item Description)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
How does the media impact our view of the role of government during times of national crisis
(View Complete Item Description)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
Verifying Social Media Posts
(View Complete Item Description)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
Identifying Media Bias in News Sources for Middle School
(View Complete Item Description)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
Deepfakes: Exploring Media Manipulation
(View Complete Item Description)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.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Lesson Plan
Understanding algorithms and big data in the job market
(View Complete Item Description)This interactive lesson helps students understand how companies use algorithms to sort job applicants. It also encourages students to reflect on how digital data mining also can contribute to the hiring process. Students examine resumes and digital data to consider the ways in which our data may open or close opportunities in an increasingly digitized hiring market.
Material Type: Lesson
How a Medium Changes Discourse
(View Complete Item Description)OverviewThe medium we choose to communicate a message can affect how that message is conveyed and how well the message will be understood by the receiver of the message. This lesson gives the students a concrete way of seeing the effect a medium has on a message. This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?"
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson