Now more than ever, the skills encompassed in News Literacy
have become monumentally important. The flood of information that is being
disseminated on a daily basis can be intimidating for most adults, let alone
our students. By instructing our students on the importance of analyzing news
sources for the agenda of who is writing the article, where they received their
information and deciding which articles can be trusted and which cannot.
As we’ve seen in recent years, disinformation and opinion
articles with no basis in fact can be catastrophic. By learning how to ignore
false news and properly educate themselves on current events and trends, our
students can not only safeguard their own well-being but that of our society as
a whole.
Could you expand on what articles and resources you explored from the lesson? This is a good start, but please share what new resources and ideas your gathered from exploring the material.
ReplyDeleteI liked the readability of Teaching Kids News. Being able to select a topic of their own choice(art, sports, science) immediately gives the students choices. A drawback though is not being able to sort the articles by reading level. Any one class can have a very wide range of readers and it would be very helpful to be able to sort the articles so as not to frustrate the kids.
ReplyDeleteI just looked at WorldBook Online and they have a section that highlights breaking news stories and provides links to related background information in World Book. This might work better for the needs of my students and also provide a platform more conducive to collaboration with other teachers. The articles are less politically charged so probably less opinionated.
ReplyDelete