The nonpartisan, nonprofit News Literacy Project (NLP) has launched a tool for teachers to help them fight disinformation and strengthen news literacy. The tool is aimed in part at highlighting the importance of the First Amendment and value of the free press.
The NLP Framework for Teaching News Literacy supports educators in working toward this mission by providing common standards, essential questions, and knowledge/skills objectives, along with suggested performance tasks and learning activities. Teachers can use the tool to integrate news literacy into existing curricula or as the basis for creating standalone courses or units.
The framework is organized around the three-stage “backward design” process of Understanding by Design, which focuses on building the conceptual understandings associated with becoming news literate and preparing students to apply their learning in authentic ways.
The effort helps students understand the standards of quality journalism and use them to identify credible sources, as well as sharpen their verification skills. In addition, a campaign called Care Before You Share helps youth take responsibility for the information they put into the world.
I am completely unmoved by the debate over the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools. I fully understand that CRT is an esoteric theory that’s used in law school and doctoral programs as one of many frameworks of analyzing historic and present policies and phenomena. But I understand what people really mean when they argue that CRT should not be present in schools: schools should not talk about things that make children feel uncomfortable, like antiracism. Schools should not indoctrinate children or make them feel bad about what they learn in school, especially if school is teaching them to feel guilty about being the big, bad, evil, privileged white oppressor.
Sponsored by the National Center for Women and Information Technology, the Aspirations in ComputingEducator Award celebrates high school educators who encourage girls’ interest and participation in technology pursuits.
Pedagogue is a social media network where educators can share advice, strategies, tools, hacks, resources, and more, and work together to improve their teaching skills and the academic performance of the students in their charge.