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Professional Development offerings

The News Literacy Project offers engaging, interactive in-person and virtual workshops and webinars for educators nationwide who are interested in deepening their skillset in teaching news literacy.

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Educators who attend one of these topical sessions will gain an understanding of how to verify the accuracy of information and evaluate the credibility of sources, news and other online content. They will also receive guidance on free news literacy tools and resources to use in their classrooms.

NLP’s current professional learning offerings include:

Teaching News Literacy: Where do I start?

This session provides an overview of news literacy education that touches on all five of NLP’s standards. We’ll explore key concepts, skills and dispositions that students need to effectively and responsibly navigate the information environment. This includes the ability to identify credible information, recognize and avoid misinformation, and appreciate the role that a free and independent press plays in a robust democracy. We’ll explore the differences between news and other types of information; learn an effective approach to evaluating bias; and review several core fact-checking and digital verification techniques that are quick and easy for students to apply.

Key objectives

  • Define news literacy and develop an understanding of the field’s core competencies.
  • Learn the importance of teaching students to distinguish between different kinds of information according to primary purpose.
  • Analyze signs of credibility in news sources.
  • Evaluate online claims using verification skills.
  • Discuss how to help students reflect on and cultivate healthy media habits.

A Framework for curriculum mapping: Teaching news literacy within and across grade bands

We’ll provide an overview of core news literacy concepts and skills through the News Literacy Project’s framework and grade bands for teaching news literacy for individual classroom and districtwide use. In this session, you’ll review core competencies to identify essential questions, knowledge and skills for unit planning; you’ll also review a scaffolded approach to developing a news literacy curriculum for K-12 using NLP’s news literacy standards.

Key objectives

  • Examine NLP’s Framework for Teaching News Literacy and the grade band expectations for teaching news literacy to map concepts into pre-existing or new curricula.
  • Identify elements from the News Literacy Project’s Framework for Teaching News Literacy that you can use in your educational setting.
  • Assess how grade band expectations fit with other educational standards.

Characteristics of Credibility: Teaching the standards of quality journalism

Today, addressing news coverage and current events – including claims students encounter online – can quickly become entangled in perceptions of partisanship. Cut through polarization by focusing on the characteristics of credible information and the standards and guidelines that are used in journalism and other communities of practice.

In this session you’ll take a deep dive into journalism standards and ethics. These include aspects of verification — such as the practice of gathering and comparing information from multiple credible sources — and ideals such as fairness, transparency, independence and accountability. We’ll address how journalists work to avoid bias, as well as the importance of context and balance. Finally, we’ll demonstrate how students can apply an understanding of these standards to judge the credibility of news and other information.

Key objectives

  • Describe signs of credibility in journalism.
  • Analyze how “red flags” that violate standards of quality journalism appear in questionable sources.
  • Consider resources for incorporating standards of quality journalism in learning experiences.

Evaluating News Media Bias: A nuanced approach to a vital topic

People frequently perceive and allege bias in news coverage, but what does this really mean? What makes a piece of news biased, and who decides? What role do our own biases play in our perceptions of bias? In this session we’ll help you teach this vital, controversial and complex topic in ways that empower students to meaningfully evaluate the fairness and impartiality of news coverage.

Key objectives

  • Reflect on the ideal of avoiding bias as a standard of quality journalism.
  • Analyze actual examples of news and other information and reflect on the nuanced, highly subjective nature of perceived bias in news.
  • Learn an approach for helping students evaluate potential bias in news by recognizing different types of potential bias and the forms they can take in coverage.
  • Explore the limitations of popular media bias charts and rating systems.

Algorithms and Generative AI: Pitfalls and possibilities for students

Your students spend a lot of time on social media, but do they know why certain content appears on their feeds? Algorithms are powerful but often invisible forces shaping our online experiences — but whose interests are they designed to promote? This presentation will help you dive into the world of algorithms and generative artificial intelligence so you can teach students to consider the civic and social impact of these technologies. You’ll preview NLP’s “Introduction to Algorithms” Checkology lesson to gain an understanding of how search and social media algorithms work; explore the opportunities and pitfalls of large language model chatbots, such as ChatGPT; and learn about the evolution of AI image generators, such as DALL-E. We’ll also take a look at where these technologies are heading, including the rapid development of AI video, and discuss their implications for civic discourse, student research and pedagogical practice.

Key objectives

  • Review how algorithms shape the information we see and find online.
  • Explore the impact of social media companies’ use of data and algorithms to personalize information and online experiences to sell targeted ads in today’s “attention economy.”
  • Understand key concepts in generative AI, including large language models (chatbots) and image generators.
  • Detect AI-generated content and verify authentic content with various resources and examples that you can use directly with students.

Cost

In-person (includes travel expenses)

We also offer virtual trainings. Cost varies for time and need, ranging from $500-$1,750. We provide trainings for district partners for reduced or no cost. We also have grants that might apply to your district. Contact  [email protected] for more information.