News is all around us, yet many high school students lack the skills necessary to differentiate between real and fake news, recognize sponsored content, or use social media to responsibly consume and distribute news content.
This is where news literacy comes in. News literacy involves teaching our students to think critically about the news they hear, read, and/or view to determine if it comes from trustworthy sources and if the information is credible, so they can make informed decisions, formulate opinions, and knowledgeably discuss newsworthy topics (not to mention share them on social media). This means our students must know to approach news with a healthy dose of skepticism.
As a teacher, you may feel you don't possess the skills necessary to guide students through the maze that is news consumption in the 21st century. Combine that with the demands of pacing guides and standardized test preparation, and you may also feel you don't have time to incorporate news literacy into your curriculum.
This handbook can help. You'll find information and resources here to help you develop the confidence to add news literacy instruction to your courses with minimal loss of content instructional time, an addition that can result in your students gaining a set of foundational skills that will benefit them for a lifetime.
Adapted from
Fleming, J. (2014). Media literacy, news literacy, or news appreciation? A case study of the news literacy program at Stony Brook University.
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Vol. 69(2), 146-165. doi: 10.1177/1077695813517885
