We’ve had a busy few weeks! Last month, we shared our events for National News Literacy Week (NNLW), which included over 30 participating news organizations. Also, nearly 800 educators pledged to teach a news literacy topic this semester, and we provided resources tailored to the skills they’ll be focusing on. If you are among them, and new to the News Literacy Project, welcome to our community! By the way, curious about what everyone’s teaching? The top three skills our pledge respondents said they’re emphasizing are: evaluating evidence and sources (45%), identifying misinformation and conspiracy theories (27%), and understanding news media bias (11%).
In addition, we unveiled our new guidance for teaching news literacy and are excited to look toward the future with this important development. The Framework for Teaching News Literacy is designed to support educators who want to teach news literacy by providing common standards, essential questions, and knowledge/skills objectives, along with suggested performance tasks and learning activities. It can be used for integrating news literacy into existing curriculum, or as the basis for creating stand-alone courses or units. Learn more about the framework by watching this recording of our introductory webinar from National News Literacy Week, which features special guest Jay McTighe, co-author of the bestselling and award-winning Understanding by Design® series.
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WHAT'S NEW
PitchIt! student essay contest: Miami and New York City
The PitchIt! student essay contest is an opportunity for students to write about some of the most important topics of our time and explore how they can help combat misinformation or protect freedom of the press. Essay finalists receive detailed feedback from a panel of journalists, and the winners (student and teacher) receive prizes! Details for Miami-area submissions can be found here (with a deadline of April 6) and details for NYC are here (deadline April 25).
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
March 18: NewsLitCamp® Illinois
Illinois educators, this one’s for you! Mark your calendars for NewsLitCamp Illinois, a free, virtual, teacher-centered professional development event where you can learn critical news literacy skills to take back to the classroom. Register here.
Recordings and resources from National NewsLitCamp: Misinformation
Our National NewsLitCamp on Jan. 27 was a tremendous success! Over 500 educators attended virtually for a deep dive into critical news literacy concepts. Couldn’t make the full day of programming? No problem – we’ve got you! To access the recordings, visit our official NLP YouTube page. For presentation PDFs and other accompanying resources, click here. Questions or feedback are always welcome; contact us at [email protected].
Check out The Conspiracy Chart, an interactive infographic created by TikTok disinformation researcher Abbie Richards and presented during National NewsLitCamp. Watch the session recording and use this resource to help students understand the different types of conspiracy theories, analyze the connections between them and start a deeper conversation about how conspiratorial ideas can spread.
Reminder: Change-Maker award nominations close soon!
Do you know a classroom teacher, librarian or other educator who is passionate about ensuring students know how to sort fact from fiction in today’s complex information landscape? Do you know an outstanding BIPOC/AAPI young woman who has particularly benefited from learning and practicing news literacy? If so, NLP would like to consider them for this year’s News Literacy Change-Maker awards. To nominate an educator for this award, please complete this form. (Educators may self-nominate.) To nominate a student for this award, please send the student this form and prepare a written endorsement for them. Deadlines: Feb. 25 (educator nominations) and March 1 (student nominations).
Reminder: Checkology® “Analogy Art” contest closes on Feb. 28
Encourage your students to submit to Checkology's "Analogy Art" contest before the end of the month. Students pick a vocabulary word from the Checkology Word Wall, come up with an analogy for it and then create either a video or an illustration to explain their analogy. Learn more about contests in the Checkology Help Center.
