With media sources being so divided – many favoring either the left or the right in American politics – it’s more important than ever for kids to learn skills that will help them to evaluate their sources. And for teachers, there is so much to teach – so many things that we want our kids to know on the subject of media literacy.
Recently, I’ve collected my media literacy resources in one location – a Media Literacy pin board on my Pinterest page. I’ve pinned ready-to-use resources from my store and posts from my blog, anything I had that I think can be useful to middle school or upper elementary teachers when planning lessons on this topic. Here are some of the items you’ll find pinned there:
BLOG POSTS
Fake News – What Do Kids Need to Know?
An overview of teaching ideas for this big (and growing) topic.
Freedom of the Press Quote Activities
A blog post with a list of quotes about freedom of the press – very useful for class activities, discussions, or writing prompts.
Good Inferences, Sound Conclusions
Since media literacy is all about kids’ ability to draw informed conclusions about what they read or see, I’ve added this reading skills pin to this group. The post includes ideas for teaching inferencing skills plus the free poster shown below that you can download from the post.
TEACHING RESOURCES
Freedom of the Press Close Reading
A set of five articles and follow-up activities for real close reading lessons. The article topics include: 1. The First Amendment, 2. Investigative Journalism, 3. Fake News, 4. Newspapers from the Start, 5. What Should a Journalist Do? (Journalism Ethics)
Freedom of the Press Task Cards
This set includes 30 cards in both print and digital formats. The topics of the cards include:
· The First Amendment
· Disinformation
· Pioneers in Journalism
· News Sources
· Social Media
· Misinformation
· Local News
· Political Cartoons
· and more
Media Literacy FREE Activities
This free set includes three ready-to-use activity sheets.
Media Literacy – Finding Real News Among the Fake
A set of activities and readings to teach students to become informed consumers of the news.
Election Mania
Informational text articles and activities give kids factual information about what goes on in an election.
