District fellowship drives news literacy instruction at Colorado school

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For a few weeks last fall, the Crested Butte Community School library looked like a party venue. A balloon archway welcomed visitors. Posters brightened the room. Twinkling “chandeliers” caught the eye. Students chatted excitedly as they moved from one activity to the next.

But behind the Colorado school’s dazzle, something important was happening. A three-week-long initiative, “Think Smart, Spot Truth,” was helping students become more news-literate.

The event — and the professional development and news literacy instruction underpinning it — was made possible with help from the nonpartisan News Literacy Project’s two-year* News Literacy District Fellowship program. In 2023, the Gunnison Watershed School District, where the K-12 school is located, was accepted into the program, which provides districts with support and funding to develop news and media literacy instruction.

“When I first learned about the News Literacy Project, I was immediately attracted to the mission and what it stood for — that it’s a nonpartisan nonprofit and is teaching kids the skills to navigate our digital world,” said District Technology Integration Specialist Katie Gallagher, who submitted Gunnison’s application.

To start, she led professional development sessions to raise awareness about news literacy education and introduce NLP’s free resources. In spring 2024, Gallagher and K-12 Instructional Coach Keely Moran attended NLP’s annual gathering of fellowship districts. The sharing of ideas and resources galvanized them. Gallagher and Moran decided to create a program that would demonstrate how educators can weave news literacy into their teaching while also getting students excited about learning essential digital literacy skills.

“Meeting with other districts and hearing what they had done was really exciting. The work is important and relevant to kids’ lives. It was the moment that made me want to dive deeper,” Moran recalled.

Fellowship funding helped make program a success

They then joined forces with K-12 Library Resource Specialist Erica Young, who transformed the library into a lively student space with contests, quizzes, challenges and activities.

“Without the fellowship, we would not have had the funding to make it as big and exciting as we did,” Moran said.  She added that access to NLP’s free, nonpartisan resources was vital. “This adds to the credibility of what the News Literacy Project is all about, which is really a nonpartisan way of getting our kids to just think critically. It’s essential that it’s all free.”

The team developed resources and guidance that teachers could integrate without adding to their already-full plates. “It was helpful to be able to say to teachers, ‘I know every minute counts, and we are supporting your standards,’” Young said.

They also created a slide deck describing news literacy learning standards and how they intersect with different disciplines. They also tied each week’s events to classroom-ready resources.

Students in grades 6-12 focused on reverse image searching (identifying the original source of photo or other visual media) and lateral reading (verifying the credibility of information by consulting multiple, standards-based sources.) Activities for younger grades stressed digital citizenship skills.

“It was important for us to not have it be just a fluff, fun thing to do in the library, but relate it to [learning] standards,” Young noted.

Yet, they did not sacrifice fun. Students and educators who participated in meaningful ways were eligible for prizes. For example, students competed in a “rumor of the day” contest using NLP’s RumorGuard® digital learning tool that required them to explain why a post was false based on five factors for credibility. Teachers completed Bingo cards for each classroom activity they led, including a lesson from the Checkology® virtual classroom. As a final assessment, students were encouraged to create their own PSAs to showcase what they learned. Ninth grader Max Bostick’s entertaining and instructive PSA focused on lateral reading. Watch it here.

Building momentum, making a difference

Young later saw evidence that students retained what they learned. While helping ninth graders with a research project, she observed them use lateral reading skills to determine if their sources were credible.

The team intends to hold the event again in the fall and hope to weave news literacy learning throughout the school year with virtual visits from journalists participating in NLP’s Newsroom to Classroom program.

Gallagher hopes the momentum only continues to grow and helps make possible a future where news literacy is universal. “If this was in every classroom and every school in our state or in our country, it would literally change how our world goes around. I think the impact would be beyond significant.”

*Starting in fall 2025, fellowships will last three years.