Menu

Listening guide: “Opinion creep: How facts lost ground in the battle for our attention”

Listening guides are designed to support educators in using NLP’s Is that a fact? podcast in the classroom by providing discussion questions, time-stamped episode outlines and classroom activities. Is that a fact? informs listeners about news literacy issues that affect their lives through informative conversations with experts working to combat misinformation. To listen to episodes, read episode descriptions, explore related links or view transcripts, please visit newslit.org/podcast/.

In Season 3 Episode 5 “Opinion creep: How facts lost ground in the battle for our attention” we discuss how the blurring of fact-based news and opinion has left the public more confused than informed. Our guest is Tom Rosenstiel, professor at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and co-author of The Elements of Journalism.

Listening guide: “Flagrant foul: Misinformation and sports”

Listening guides are designed to support educators in using NLP’s Is that a fact? podcast in the classroom by providing discussion questions, time-stamped episode outlines and classroom activities. Is that a fact? informs listeners about news literacy issues that affect their lives through informative conversations with experts working to combat misinformation. To listen to episodes, read episode descriptions, explore related links or view transcripts, please visit newslit.org/podcast/.

In Season 3 Episode 3 “Flagrant foul: Misinformation and sports” guest host Jake Lloyd digs into how misinformation manifests in the sports world with author and journalist Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and host of the Spotify podcast Jemele Hill is Unbothered. Hill discusses not only how sports falsehoods spread, but also how the nature of sports reporting makes it more resistant to manipulation than news coverage.

PitchIt! Student essay contest

PitchIt! Student essay contests happening in Colorado, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas 

Grades: 6-8, 9-12

About

Student voices are catalysts for positive change in schools and communities. You can empower them to be well-informed and civically engaged when you participate in the News Literacy Project’s PitchIt! contest.  

This is an authentic way to get middle and high school students to learn about and express their thoughts about current events from a news literacy perspective. In addition to exploring an issue important to them, they can help combat misinformation or work to protect freedom of the press.   

To have your students participate in PitchIt! and get the most out of it, use NLP’s free resources and curriculum guides. You choose the top essays from your class to submit for judging and prizes.

Click here for a printable, one-page guide to participating in PitchIt!

It is the ideal time to start using Checkology® and other free resources to prep your students. You can also email your questions to [email protected] for more information.

Not in one of these regions? NLP encourages you to contact your local news literacy ambassador or our staff ([email protected]) and adapt our contest rules to create a contest for your learning community.

 Curious to what participating teachers had to say? 

“PitchIt! utilizes news literacy curriculum to broaden the understanding of how media influences all of us every day. Students then analyze and learn for themselves the power of using information with and without bias. I highly recommend facilitating part or all of the curriculum in classrooms across the board in Social Studies, English, Science, and more. It shows students that language, facts, and biases impact us comprehensively.” 

— Renee A. Cantave, iWrite magnet educator, Arthur and Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts, Miami, Florida 

“PitchIt! was a great experience for my students. Not only did it raise awareness among them regarding the importance of good writing and of an important current issue in our community, the culminating event gave contest winners a chance to verbally express their positions, while receiving important feedback.”

— Rolando Alvarez, Coral Way K-8 Center, Miami, Florida  

 Tired of feeling like you’re working in a vacuum? Sign up for NewsLitNation and our private NewsLitNation Facebook Group to connect and share with other educators across the country passionate about news and media literacy. As a member of NewsLitNation® you’ll receive special perks and the NewsLitNation Insider, our monthly newsletter that keeps you up to date about all things news literacy! 

“Storm Lake” discussion guide on the importance of local journalism

This guide serves as a companion for adult learners and community members viewing the PBS documentary Storm Lake, a film about the struggles of sustaining local journalism and shows what these newsrooms mean to communities and American democracy overall. The guide has three main components: pre-viewing, during viewing and post-viewing activities.

The pre-viewing activities use one or more essential questions to focus on viewers’ engagement with news and their opinions about its relationship to their community and to American democracy. The essential questions are:

  • What is news?
  • What role does news play in your family members’ lives? In your community?
  • Is news important in a democracy? Why or why not?

The during viewing portion includes discussion questions that can be completed whole or in-part, individually, or in small groups. These questions include:

  • Is profit a motivation for the [Cullen] family? Why or why not?
  • Art Cullen: “A pretty good rule is that an Iowa town will be about as strong as its newspaper and its banks. And without strong local journalism to tell a community’s story, the fabric of the place becomes frayed.”
    • a. In your own words, what point is being made in this quote?
    • b. Do you agree? Why or why not?
    • c. How does this quote fit into your definition of news and its role in the community?

The post-viewing activities return to the essential questions raised prior to viewing and seek to extend engagement with local journalism. These options include keeping a news log for a week and evaluating a source (log included in the guide), interviewing family or friends about their news habits, engaging directly with local news organizations on social media or writing a letter or email to an editor with a suggestion for a story.

Classroom Activity: Is it “checkable”?

This upper elementary lesson introduces the concepts of fact-based and opinion-based statements using a group activity (with accompanying slides) called “Two Facts and a Feeling.” In small groups, students examine sets of three statements and decide which two are fact-based and which one is opinion-based (a “feeling”). Use the flow chart included in this lesson to guide students through characteristics of facts versus opinions. Then, each group composes its own set of two facts and one opinion to share.

Finally, students read a grade-appropriate news article and complete a graphic organizer to identify fact-based and opinion-based statements in an assigned text.

Essential questions

  • How are facts and opinions different?
  • What characteristics separate facts from opinions?
  • How can you “prove” whether a fact-based statement is true or false?
  • Why is it important to be able to distinguish between facts and opinions?

This news literacy classroom lesson is suggested for grades 4-6.

Key terms

  • Fact
  • Opinion