Teacher Resources
The following are links to resources and materials that educators and organizations are willing to share to promote student civic literacy.
Some additional resources regarding the candidates are available on the See the Candidates page.
Media Literacy
If students are to become the engaged and effective citizens necessary to sustain our democracy, they must first be well-informed. In today’s complicated and partisan Internet and social media environment it is crucial that students become media literate.
- Facing History and Ourselves offer a variety of resources, some of which are referenced in a separate tab below. For media literacy, try Where Do We Get Our News and Why Does It Matter? | Facing History and Ourselves. A site search for media literacy will turn up multiple resources at Our Collection | Facing History and Ourselves.
- For grades 3-5, Scholastic presents “Is That a Fact?: Understanding Persuasive Strategies in Election Campaigns”.
- How Schools Can Address Fake News looks at the current issue of “fake news”, the history of the problem, and provides web sites and information to help students become more media literate.
- PBS provides a high school lesson on “Media Literacy for Elections” that looks at the effect of “dark money” on campaigns.
- The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national educational nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged partners in a democracy.
- The Clemson University Media Forensics Hubs offers Spot the Troll, a quiz where students can practice with actual social media content to determine if it is from a legitimate account or an Internet troll.
- The Stanford History Education Group helps students evaluate online information with the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum. Lessons include verifying sources of information, detecting bias, and other skills.
- For more advanced students interested in monitoring the media narratives promoted by the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments, the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States offers the Hamilton 2.0 Dashboard.
- NewseumEd offers materials for teachers and students concerning the First Amendment and media literacy.
- PBS offers a guide for parents on ”Helping Children Learn What’s Real on the Internet”.