✏️ New resource hub: News literacy unplugged

🙌🏾 Checkology success stories

🗓️ Find us at an upcoming conference

Note: The Insider is taking the month of July off. We will return to your inbox on Aug. 5. Have a great summer!

We know what you are up against. Eight in 10 teens on social media encounter posts promoting conspiracy theories, and nearly half of 14-year-olds are navigating three or more platforms at once. The volume of misinformation students face is real, and so is the pressure on educators to address it, often with limited time and resources. What surprised us, though, is that students themselves are pushing back. Teens are increasingly trying to log off, seek out quieter spaces and make more intentional choices about their screen time. They are ready to think more critically. They just need the right entry point. 

We designed our News literacy unplugged resource collection for the moments that do not involve a device. A morning warm-up. A group activity between lessons. A family conversation at the dinner table. Going offline does not mean stepping away from the work. In fact, we have found that removing the screen can deepen engagement, spark richer discussion and give students a different kind of ownership over what they are learning. The tangible nature of a printed handout or a foldable zine invites students to slow down in a way that a digital lesson sometimes cannot. 

Our landing page brings together printable tools across the topics we hear about most from educators: understanding the information ecosystem, evaluating evidence and scientific claims, navigating AI and exploring First Amendment rights. Materials range from classroom posters and reading guides to bookmark sets and zines designed for both educators and families. Several resources are available in Spanish as well. Everything on the page is connected to our Checkology® virtual classroom, so you can use the printables as a lead-in to an interactive lesson, a follow-up activity or a standalone resource depending on what your students need that day. 

We built this page for you, and we hope it makes your work a little easier this summer. Take a look, download what speaks to you and let us know what your students think. 

In celebration of a great school year of news literacy learning, hear from a few educators about their most memorable moments using Checkology with students. 

“It is always great to see the things that Checkology teaches be applied in real life. For example, we discussed fallacies, and now students are able to pick out those types of fallacies in real life and call them out!” 

— Anjali Deitrick 

Social studies teacher, Iowa 

“At the beginning of the unit, my students were uninterested in media literacy. Now they understand it and use the terms ‘misinformation’ and ‘standards-based’ news as well as ‘lateral reading.’ It’s awesome!” 

— Christina Zubko 

ELA teacher, California 

“My students really enjoyed the ‘What is News’ and ‘Practicing Quality Journalism’ lessons. They were able to put together amazing news reports following the standards of journalism.” 

— Nachelle Thomas 

Journalism teacher, Georgia

We are dealing with the most challenging information landscape in human history. Digital tools, artificial intelligence and social media make it easy for anyone to spread misinformation and disinformation. The News Literacy Project believes education is the most effective method to address this challenge. Our free educator resources lay the foundation for students to learn how to think independently and evaluate and interpret sources. Join us during this breakout session to discover strategies for infusing news and media literacy into your classroom teaching! Click here to learn more and register for the conference. 

Discover how to integrate news and media literacy into STEM instruction using the News Literacy Project’s free educator resources, including the Checkology virtual classroom. Join us for this conference session to learn practical strategies to help students think independently, verify information and assess the credibility of claims in a data-driven world. Click here to learn more and register for the conference. 

Click here to take the poll and be entered into a raffle to win NLP swag! 

 Congrats to Chris Sharp for winning last month’s giveaway! 

Visit us at newslit.org, checkology.org and rumorguard.org.