Test Your Digital Literacy

This digital literacy lesson plan was created by Stefanie Green as part of the 2020 NDE ELA OER Project. The attached Digital Literacy plan is designed for students in grades 9-12 and could be implemented in an English class or taught by a school librarian. The lesson will take approximately 45 minutes. View the interactive hyperdoc here: https://tinyurl.com/yxju58ku; © HyperDocs  Remixed by @CrystalDawnEd; Remixed by Stefanie Green

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Stefanie Green

Verifying Social Media Posts

 Verifying social media posts is quickly becoming a necessary endeavor in everyday life, let alone in the world of education. Social media has moved beyond a digital world which connects with friends and family and has become a quick and easy way to access news, information, and human interest stories from around the world. As this state of media has become the "new normal," especially for our younger generations, we, educators, find ourselves charged with a new task of teaching our students how to interact with and safely consume digital information.The following three modules are designed to be used as stand-alone activities or combined as one unit, in which the lessons can be taught in any order. "Who Said What?!" is a module focusing on author verification. "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words'' is a module devoted to image verification. "Getting the Facts Straight" is a module designed to dive into information verification. Lastly, there are assessment suggestions to be utilized after completing all three modules.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Unit of Study

Authors: Sandra Stroup, Amanda Schneider, Megan Shinn

News Literacy Project- Quiz on Social Media

A free quiz developed by the News Literacy project that focuses on combating misinformation on social media platforms.**This resource was published by the News Literacy Project.The News Literacy Project is identified as a “nonpartisan national educational nonprofit” designed to strengthen critical thinking skills and actively seek out credible information. NLP’s strategic framework highlights that in a Stanford History Education Group  research, 96% of high school participants “failed to challenge the credibility of a source.” Additionally, over 50% of high school participants “incorrectly classified evidence as ‘strong.’’ Based on this and other educational research findings, NLP’s aims to advocate and equip educators and learners with programs and resources to promote media literacy. Users have the option of subscribing to NLP to receive up-to-date resources and research that is conducted. Further information can be found here: https://checkology.org/Cost and other restrictions:  This is a free resource. However, to use it, educators and learners will need to provide an email address and other contact information.  

Material Type: Assessment

Author: Cyber Citizenship Initiative

How does the media impact our view of the role of government during times of national crisis

How does the media influence peoples’ opinion of the government during a national crisis? Students will read several articles on a current (or historical) national crisis and write an argumentative essay analyzing how the media influences the opinion of the people toward the government during a national crisis using relevant evidence from both current and historical resources.

Material Type: Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment

Author: Dawn Wood

Reading Media: Analyzing Logos, Ads, & Film in the ELA classroom

This media literacy unit was designed and piloted with junior English classes at the start of the school year. Activities can easily be adapted to suit secondary students at various levels. Within the unit, students analyze corporate logos, corporate advertising, movie trailers and stereotypes found in media related to Native American culture. Within the unit, students also learn how to consider the ways in which media appeals to ethos, pathose and logos and how to identify the tone of a piece of media. 

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Reading, Unit of Study

Author: Shana Ferguson

Artists, Information Literacy & Climate Change

This unit explores the various ways information and ideas about climate change are presented through a variety of media. This includes the evaluation of social media posts, research into climate change issues, and an exploration of contemporary art and artists. This was designed and taught in an honors 9th grade English Language Arts Classroom by Dr. Tavia Quaid in response to student interest in climate change and to reinforce key information literacy skills.

Material Type: Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading

Author: Shana Ferguson

Let's Get Social: Analyzing Social Media Platforms

This unit engages students in a variety of activities that analyze and reflect on the role of social media in our everyday lives. This includes options for collaborative group work, reading nonfiction articles, a design challenge and presentations to communicate ideas. The unit also includes a formal writing assessment option that aligns with the Common Core State Writing Standards. Activities can be adapted or combined in a variety of ways to support student reflection and analysis. These lessons were piloted in 9th grade English classes but are suitable or a range of secondary students. 

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Unit of Study

Author: Shana Ferguson

Understanding algorithms and big data in the job market

This interactive lesson helps students understand how companies use algorithms to sort job applicants. It also encourages students to reflect on how digital data mining also can contribute to the hiring process. Students examine resumes and digital data to consider the ways in which our data may open or close opportunities in an increasingly digitized hiring market.

Material Type: Lesson

Author: Shana Ferguson

Deepfakes: Exploring Media Manipulation

Students examine what deepfakes are and consider the deeper civic and ethical implications of deepfake technology. In an age of easy image manipulation, this lesson fosters critical thinking skills that empower students to question how we can mitigate the impact of doctored media content. This lesson plan includes a slide deck and brainstorm sheet for classroom use.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Lesson Plan

Author: Shana Ferguson

Propaganda & Animal Farm

This unit is designed to accompany the study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Resources encourage students to recognize a variety of propaganda techniques and to connect those techniques to media that they can find in their everyday lives. Resources also help students to understand the historical uses of propaganda by governments and political parties to influence public opinion. Resources can be used independently of the novel.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Lecture Notes, Lesson

Author: Shana Ferguson

Introduction to Visual Media Literacy

This social media literacy unit introduces students to foundational skills in analyzing images and social media posts. It also reenforces critical thinking questions that can be applied to various forms of media. This unit was taught to 9th grade students but is easily adaptible to a range of secondary classrooms. It was also taught in conjunction with another unit focused on social media platforms and content.

Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Unit of Study

Author: Shana Ferguson

Introduction to Civic Online Reasoning for Distance Learning

This collection of lessons represent adapted and remixed instructional content for teaching media literacy and specifically civic online reasoning through distance learning. These lessons take students through the steps necessary to source online content, verify evidence presented, and corroborate claims with other sources. The original lesson plans are the work of Stanford History Education Group, licensed under CC 4.0. Please refer to the full text lesson plans at Stanford History Education Group’s, Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum for specifics regarding background, research findings, and additional curriculum for teaching media literacy in the twenty-first century.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Interactive, Lecture Notes, Lesson Plan

Authors: Adrienne Williams, Heather Galloway, Morgen Larsen, Rachel Obenchain, Stanford History Education Group-Civic Online Reasoning Project

Does Science Fiction Predict the Future? Inquiry Bases Media Literacy Unit

Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions: Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity? Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic. Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality? Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Reading, Unit of Study

Author: Morgen Larsen

Digital Survival Skills Module 1: My Media Environment

The information revolution of the 21st century is as significant and transformative as the industrial revolution of the 19th century. In this unit, students – and by proxy their families – will learn about the challenges of our current information landscape and how to navigate them. This unit is split into four modules. These modules can be done sequentially or stand on their own, depending on students’ needs and teachers’ timeframes. In this module (1 of 4), students analyze their own use of online social media platforms and learn how filter bubbles and confirmation bias shape the content of their media environment. 

Material Type: Module, Unit of Study

Authors: Liz Crouse, Shawn Lee

Digital Survival Skills Module 2: Types of Mis/Disinformation

Authors: Liz Crouse, Shawn Lee

Digital Survival Skills Module 3: Fact-Checking

Authors: Liz Crouse, Shawn Lee

Digital Survival Skills Module 4: Teaching Digital Skills

Authors: Shawn Lee, Liz Crouse

Identifying Media Bias in News Sources

Identifying Media Bias in News Sources through activites using relevant news sources to answer the following essential question:Why is this important and relevant today?Students are engaging with a growing number of news sources and must develop skills to interpret what they see and hear.Media tells stories with viewpoints and biases that shape our worldviews.Students must become critical consumers of media which is essential for being an informed citizen.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Student Guide, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Sandra Stroup, Heidi Morris, Greg Saum, Sally Drendel

Evaluating News Sources in Social Media

With so many people getting their news from their social media newsfeed, how can they evaluate what is good and what might be fake?  With the help of a Youtube video on the subject, student do some evaluating.  This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?"

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Authors: John Sadzewicz, Dana John, Beth Clothier, Angela Anderson

Using Evaluation to Find Credible Sources

This lesson is a follow-up to learning the CRAAP strategy (or some other evaluation strategy) and allows students to put it into practice.  This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?"

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Authors: John Sadzewicz, Dana John, Beth Clothier, Angela Anderson