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Digital Survival Skills & MisinfoNight (Updated)

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In this unit students will reflect on their own media environment, understand how cognitive bias and social media algorithms influence that environment, and learn how to investigate new sources and claims online. These activities culminate in a student-led "social science fair" MisinfoNight event where they present their new skills and knowledge to family members to help them become more savvy information consumers. 

Material Type: Lesson, Unit of Study

Authors: Liz Crouse, Shawn Lee

Digital Survival Skills Module 1: My Media Environment

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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

Introduction to Civic Online Reasoning for Distance Learning

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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

How a Medium Changes Discourse

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OverviewThe medium we choose to communicate a message can affect how that message is conveyed and how well the message will be understood by the receiver of the message.  This lesson gives the students a concrete way of seeing the effect a medium has on a message.  This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?"

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson

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

Don't Be Fooled By Food Messaging!

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 Description: Don’t be fooled by food messaging is a media literacy embedded health unit that takes the health goals of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and adds some critical thinking skills and communication skills. In food marketing young people are surrounded by persuasive claims meant to influence and manipulate their eating behavior. Students will explore some of the techniques and strategies food marketers use to influence their eating behavior to better understand how it impacts their own food choices. Within the PE program students will discuss how food choices, levels of consumption and physical activity levels influence health and wellness. Body image/healthy weight will be incorporated into this content. The culminating projects require students to work collaboratively to synthesize their new learning while using a variety of strategies to create their own healthy choices messaging production projects.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Game, Lesson, Module, Unit of Study

Authors: Shawn Sheller, Barbara Soots, Kimberlee Swan, Julie Cantrell, Jill Minkiewitz, Mark Friden, Kirsten Lewandowski

Ancient Egypt Inquiry Unit

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An inquiry-based unit that teaches the use of primary source analysis through artifacts from Ancient Egypt.  Students are asked to analyze artifacts from their own family, analyze artifacts from King Tut’s tomb, and then create hypotheses about what we can learn from ancient artifacts.  Finally, students will construct an argument and create a press release. 

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Beky Erickson

Native American Mascot Debate Inquiry Design Model (IDM)

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This inquiry takes students through analysis and evaluation of the Compelling Question “Should Washington State Ban the use of Native American mascots in their schools?” Students will be learning about the persuasive techniques of Political Cartoons, analyzing articles and images, reading interviews, and watching YouTube videos. The summative performance task is writing a letter to the Washington State Board of education stating their claim on whether or not they should or shouldn't allow schools to use Native American mascots.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Authors: Michele Haerling Fancher, Alicia Tonasket

Familial Artifacts

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Inquiry StructureThis synopsis is laid out in more detail in the outline and lesson suggestions in the following pages. Students are first introduced to the idea of personal primary sources through the linked article and whatever artifacts can be used in staging the question. After students have been introduced to this concept they will then, as homework, they interview relatives to learn what they can about their family history and whatever artifacts in the family connect to those stories. During class, students will be instructed in and practice the media literacy skills that will allow them to research in detail the historical context for their family history. This research into the historical context of their family history will be the summative performance task for the inquiry and is the second week of the unit.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Ethan Whitney

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

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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

Let's Get Social: Analyzing Social Media Platforms

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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

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

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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

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