POSTPONED: Chicago educators: NewsLitCamp® with Block Club Chicago, The Better Government Association, The Chicago Reporter and ProPublica Illinois

This event has been postponed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Please check back later for information on a new date.

Join the News Literacy Project, Block Club Chicago, the Better Government Association, The Chicago Reporter,  ProPublica Illinois and Chicago Public Schools, for a highly engaging, teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with local journalists.

Register today at this link (it’s FREE!) to reserve your seat: http://bit.ly/ChicagoNLC20.

Space is limited. Sign up today to reserve your seat!

NewsLitCamp is a day-long professional development experience based on an “edcamp” style of continuing education. It features topical sessions (selected with input from participants) and educator-driven planning and development time to empower you to teach news literacy. This format gives education professionals an opportunity to come together for a day of conversations with journalists and news literacy experts.

Details

Educators will meet at the Chicago Literacy Alliance on Friday, Apr. 17, for a full day of free workshops and interactions with experts from the News Literacy Project and journalists from Block Club Chicago, The Chicago Reporter, the Better Government Association (BGA) and ProPublica Illinois.

Breakfast and networking begin at 8 a.m.; NewsLitCamp starts promptly at 8:30 a.m. Lunch will be provided. The Chicago Literacy Alliance is located at 641 W. Lake St. in Chicago.

Why attend?

As an educator, you directly influence how your students process what they read, watch and hear. At the end of our NewsLitCamp, you’ll leave with new ideas, skills and resources to help your students navigate today’s complex information landscape and beat back a rising tide of misinformation. Our goal is to develop teachers’ and librarians’ expertise in news literacy education, share specialized teaching resources and provide a behind-the-scenes view of the news reporting process. These sessions aim to demystify and explain what distinguishes quality journalism.

Check out our NewsLitCamp video for a quick look at what the day can offer you and your students.

Who can attend

NewsLitCamps are designed primarily for middle school and high school teachers and media specialists. Space permitting, we welcome other educators and school administrators. Chicago Public Schools educators can receive CPDUs if they register via the Learning Hub in addition to Eventbrite (code provided after registration); participants from other schools may apply for credit within their districts.

Bonus: You’ll learn about our Checkology® virtual classroom, a cutting-edge comprehensive news literacy e-learning platform that complements educators’ lesson plans. The topics it examines include:

• Misinformation.
• Bias.
• The practice of quality journalism.
• The First Amendment.
• Watchdog journalism and its contributions to democracy.
• Press freedoms around the world.

About The Chicago Reporter

Founded on the heels of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, The Chicago Reporter confronts racial and economic inequality, using the power of investigative journalism. Our mission is national but grounded in Chicago, one of the most segregated cities in the nation and a bellwether for urban policies.

About Block Club Chicago

Block Club is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Our reporters don’t parachute in once to cover a story; they are in the neighborhoods they cover every day, building relationships and amplifying positive stories. We believe this ground-level approach not only builds community but also leads to a more accurate portrayal of a neighborhood.

About the Better Government Association

The Better Government Association is a nonpartisan nonprofit news organization and civic advocate working for transparency, efficiency and accountability in government in Chicago and across Illinois.

About ProPublica Illinois

ProPublica Illinois is an independent nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. Headquartered in Chicago, we are the first regional publishing operation of ProPublica, dedicated to stories about big issues that affect people living and working in the state of Illinois. ProPublica Illinois was founded in 2017 as a vehicle for leveraging ProPublica’s collaborative model at a regional level, with the goal of making a meaningful difference across the state. With a team of 12 reporters, editors and technologists, we are pursuing stories that hold powerful institutions to account, from politics to government to business.

About the Chicago Literacy Alliance

CLA is an association of more than 120 organizations (including NLP’s education team) that work across disciplines, age groups, education levels, and neighborhoods across Chicago to create crucial literacy services and educational programs that improve lives. The alliance provides work and meeting space and offers professional development and programming tailor-made to increase capacity, foster collaboration, and ultimately, expand the impact of these organizations.

This NewsLitCamp is presented by the News Literacy Project and is supported by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

Photo Caption: Educators at our NewsLitCamp at NPR in Washington, D.C., August 2019. Photo Credit: Andrea Lin/The News Literacy Project.