Search

In the world of alternative facts, media literacy is becoming an increasingly essential component for raising critical thinkers in the classroom. A recent movie promotional campaign highlights this need and offers a great teachable moment.

Filter bubbles? Signal boosters? Watch our short video on how these phenomena can drive the news cycle away from the truth.

A statement from a student about people “being fake” prompted this afterschool educator to talk openly about her own experiences with friendship and identity.

This week’s congressional hearings on Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election offer a great opportunity to teach about the larger implications of misinformation: the dismantling of democracy.

Thirty years ago, I heard the news that John Lennon had been shot. Every year since, the morning news on NPR reminds me again of that day. I was a young, second-year teacher then, with four sections of grade nine “World Cultures” and one section of A.P. United States history. Mine was a Catholic school, and we’d had Monday, December 8 off because it was a holy day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

In order to enhance my sixth-graders’ ability to connect personally with topics we read about in class, I assigned a writing assignment. I ask students to make real connections to demonstrate their understanding of the topic. There are three areas of connection. First there’s the connection to their lives, then to another piece of literature and finally—the most sophisticated connection—to the world.

Yesterday, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly appeared on the television show The View. There, he got into a heated discussion about building a mosque in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar. They eventually walked off the set in disgust.This morning on Fox & Friends, host Brian Kilmeade decided to weigh in on the matter, predictably calling Goldberg and Behar cowards. He then added, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” Later, on his radio show, Kilmeade said that this was simply a “fact.”