Everyone is talking about real and fake news. Even first graders are hearing their parents, teachers and journalists talking about it. Teachers should begin teaching media literacy skills as soon as students begin using the Internet. In the first grade, students will be visiting approved sites that most likely will still have advertisements. The students will learn how to distinguish between the advertisements and the actual content they are supposed to be using.

A list of organizations that support media literacy and the resources they provide for educators. (1)

These professional learning resources support educators in their understanding and implementation of media literacy programs. (5)

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, pathos and logos and how to identify the tone of a piece of media.

This site contains curated resources related to teaching digital literacy and digital fluency.

This course explores the potential impact of modern technologies on the school reforms debate. The first part of the course provides an overview of the current state of the school reform debate and reviews the ideas in the progressive school reform movement, as well as examining the new public charter school in Cambridge as a case study. The second part of the course requires critical study of research projects that hold promise as inspirations and guidelines for concrete multidisciplinary activities and curriculum for progressive charter schools. The course concludes with a discussion of the challenges in scaling the successful innovations in school reform to new contexts.

The REMC Association of Michigan, in collaboration with organizations across the state, has created a number of valuable resources to support you in teaching media literacy. (6)

In this lesson, students explore issues of culture and identity and learn about Navajo culture by examining the perspectives of those portrayed in the film, Return of Navajo Boy.

In this lesson, students examine the role of women in the media; critique and discuss different portrayals of women in popular culture and focus on how these reflect larger societal and cultural values.