Take Action: Putting News Literacy into Practice – Middle School

How can students take their news literacy learning into the real world? In this activity, students explore this question as they examine all five of NLP’s news literacy standards and reflect on their civic responsibility as participants in a democracy.

Students work through a fictional scenario and develop a personal code of ethics for the information they seek, share and produce. The scenario focuses on a zebra escaping from the local zoo during a storm. Students must investigate what happened as rumors circulate online and offline.

Intended for grades 6-8, this capstone experience can be assigned at any time but is designed as a culminating activity at the end of students’ Checkology learning. It can be completed in a single class period.

NLP standard 5: Students express and exercise civic responsibility by seeking, sharing and producing credible information as effective participants in a democracy.

Essential Question
– What does it look like to apply news literacy skills as a responsible participant in a democracy?