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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fighting Fake News

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Fake news. Alternative facts. Internet trolls. In an age of Newspeak, it's increasingly important to equip 21st century learners with the skills needed to determine the legitimacy of claims put forth on social media, in print, and in...
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Lesson Plan
The New York Times

Evaluating Sources in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning about Fake News

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
The framers of the United States Constitution felt a free press was so essential to a democracy that they granted the press the protection it needed to hold the powerful to account in the First Amendment. Today, digital natives need to...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

How to Teach Your Students about Fake News

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What media literacy skills do people need to evaluate a news source? Scholars listen to and discuss an NPR story about how fake headlines often dupe young people and adults alike. Next, they study news stories, using a fact-checking...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Facing History and Ourselves

The Importance of a Free Press

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
"Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;. . ." Why is this guarantee of free speech and a free press the First Amendment to the US Constitution? Why are these rights so essential to a democracy?...
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Lesson Plan4:49
TED-Ed

How to Choose Your News

For Teachers 9th - 12th
How do you get the truth unfiltered by middlemen? Tune into various sources and note the differences is the suggestion in a short video that begins by providing examples of how media gatekeepers have manipulated information and how those...
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Activity
News Literacy Project

News Goggles: Covering a Newsworthy Trial

For Teachers 7th - Higher Ed
The trial of Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd, is the focus of a lesson that asks pupils to compare how local, nationial, and international news organizations reported the testimony of...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Fake News — What's the Big Deal?

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
In a time of fake news and alternative facts, young people must have the ability to identify it and its role. Scholars watch a video of teens reflecting on the concept of fake news and the impact of sharing fake news stories. They then...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

The Speed of News: Where Do We Get the News?

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Times are changing. One change is the way people get and share the news. Class members pair up and interview one another to find out how their peers get news. After compiling their findings, young reporters interview an adult, compile...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Covering a Catastrophe: Press Conference Simulation

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young journalists have an opportunity to experience the challenges of covering a catastrophe by staging a mock press conference. Half the class acts as reporters while the others act as officials from the mayor's office.
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Interactive
Reporters Without Borders

2017 World Press Freedom Index

For Students 6th - 12th
Freedom of the press was seen as a right so important that the Founding Fathers listed it as part of the first amendment to the United States Constitution. Americans pride themselves on this freedom, but just how free are American...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

E.S.C.A.P.E. Junk News

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Fair, balanced, and reputable information? There's an acronym for that! Scholars learn the E.S.C.A.P.E. method for evaluating news sources. Then, pupils work in small groups to read and analyze a news story and discuss the activity to...
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Lesson Plan
2
2
Facing History and Ourselves

Citizen Watchdogs and the News

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
To conclude their case study of media coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, class members consider the role of citizen watchdogs in a democratic society, develop strategies for combating...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Fake News Through History: Analyzing Historical Sources

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Unfortunately, fake news, fuzzy facts, and bogus news stories are not new phenomena. Class members use a "Fake News Through History" worksheet to analyze historical examples of false, invented, made-up news. Researchers share their...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

The Fundamentals of News

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
A short video introduces middle schoolers to different media-related news terms. Viewers then complete a worksheet and discuss the differences between news and journalism, between facts and opinions.
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Free Press Challenges Through History: Analyzing Historical Sources

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The debate over the integrity of stories in media is not new. Young journalists analyze historical sources that reveal freedom of the press controversies and draw parallels to challenges freedom of the press faces today. 
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

The Press and the Presidency: Friend or Foe? How the President Is Portrayed

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
In theory, news reports should be fair and unbiased. Young journalists test this theory by selecting a current news story covered by various media outlets about the President of the United States. They then locate and analyze five...
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Activity
News Literacy Project

News Goggles: Identifying the News Source

For Teachers 7th - Higher Ed
A 25-slide presentation teaches viewers how to identify the source of stories in newspapers and online news sites. The slides show how to locate the byline where either the reporter's name or the wire service that provided the story can...
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Activity
News Literacy Project

News Goggles: Tracking Developing Stories

For Teachers 7th - Higher Ed
A 28-slide presentation introduces viewers to the process reports go through to track and verify developing news stories. Using the reports of the attacks at Atlanta, Georgia, massage parlors as an example, viewers are taught what to...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

When the News Media Make Mistakes

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Mistakes happen. When they happen in news reporting, be it in print or on the internet, journalism ethics requires that the errors be corrected. Young journalists use an Accuracy Checklist to track how news organizations post corrections...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Facing History and Ourselves

Free Press Makes Democracy Work

For Teachers 9th - 12th
A unit study of the importance of a free press in a democracy begins with class members listening to a podcast featuring two journalists, one from a United States public radio station and one from Capetown, South Africa. The...
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Activity
News Literacy Project

News Goggles: Chasing Scoops and Verifying Raw Information

For Teachers 7th - Higher Ed
A 23-slide presentation teaches young media analysts how to identify a scoop or exclusive first report of a breaking story, how these reports become verified, and how subsequent reports in other news sources add information or refocus...
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Activity
News Literacy Project

News Goggles: Ad or News?

For Teachers 7th - Higher Ed
Ever seen the labels "sponsored content," "native advertising," "advertorial," "paid post," "#ad," or "#sponsored?" If so, then you are looking at advertisements that are designed to appear as news stories. Learn how to tell the...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Is It News?

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Is it news or not? That is the question young journalists must consider in a lesson about newsworthiness. Class members watch a short video that details five key characteristics of quality, credible news. Individuals then use these tips...
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Breaking News: Tracing the Facts

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Breaking news reports can be short of facts. Young journalists select a pair of news articles about a disaster; one published within hours of the event and the second published the following day. They examine whether facts in the report...

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