In this activity, students examine some of the techniques political campaigns use in ads to persuade voters, including assertions of fact and appeal to emotion. Students evaluate these techniques over time by comparing and contrasting historic and contemporary political ads.
Fake News – What’s the Big Deal?
Students watch a video in which teens reflect on the concept of fake news, and then discuss their own experiences with misinformation.
The Fundamentals of News
Students learn why news matters and how to distinguish between the different media-related terms they might hear being thrown around.
Source: Can I Trust the Creator?
Students dig into an article to determine whether they can trust the story by investigating its producers and the sources within. In doing so, they gain tools for evaluating news articles outside of class for accuracy and reliability.
Weed Out Propaganda
A bold digital poster outlines a simple acronym — S.E.E.D. — to help students learn to spot propaganda by recognizing four of its key techniques. Students analyze historical propaganda and understand that it is a marketing tool used to promote a variety of causes.
Evidence: Do the Facts Hold Up?
This Common Core aligned lesson plan for middle and high school asks students to dig into an article to determine whether they can trust the information by verifying the evidence it presents.
Is This Story Share-Worthy? Flowchart
Students use an infographic to gauge the value of a news story and weigh what they should do with it. This also teaches students about their personal responsibility to evaluate news articles before passing them on.
E.S.C.A.P.E. Junk News
Students learn a handy acronym to help them remember six key concepts for evaluating information, then test the concepts in teams.
Defenders of Liberty: The People and the Press
This lesson plan is based on the Annenberg Classroom video “Freedom of the Press: New York Times v. U.S.,” which explores the First Amendment’s protection of a free press as well as the historic origins of this right and the ramifications of the landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case in which the Supreme Court ruled that prior restraint is unconstitutional.
Freedom of the Press: New York Times v. United States
This documentary examines the First Amendment’s protection of a free press as well as the historic origins of this right and the ramifications of the landmark ruling in New York Times v. United States in which the Supreme Court that prior restraint is unconstitutional. The federal government could not prevent newspapers from publishing the Pentagon Papers. A lesson plan, Defenders of Liberty: The People and the Press, accompanies the video.