Curated OER
Using a Graphic Organizer to Critically Observe Televised News Broadcasts
Students compare two television news broadcasts. They discuss how to organize information when comparing two objects and read and discuss two books to create a Venn diagram to compare both books. After creating the diagram, they view...
Curated OER
The Junk Mail Explosion, Why You Buy and How Ads Persuade
Students increase their awareness of persuasion tactics used in "junk mail" advertising.
Curated OER
Comparing News Sources: Where Would You Turn?
Students follow the study of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and attempts to connect the thematic underpinnings of the novel to Students' own lives.
Curated OER
Communicating Through Pictures
Learners examine photographs, paintings and drawings convey meaning and mood. The ability to 'read' a picture is an important literary skill. This activity gives students the opportunity to tell a story through pictures by creating a...
Curated OER
Tobacco: Promotion Tactics and the Law
Youths aged 13 & 14 are most likely to notice and remember in-store tobacco promotions. Class members dissect tobacco advertising tactics and learn about relevant legislation by participating in guided discussion. Assessing...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Knowledge of Vietnam War
Kids compare and contrast knowledge of the Vietnam War. They consider what they know and how their knowledge has changed after listening to oral histories from the war. They compare the understanding of the war from the perspective of...
PBS
Analyzing Stop and Frisk Through Personal Stories and Infographics
How much can you learn about an important topic from a single image? High schoolers analyze an infographic that represents the number of stops performed during the Stop and Frisk police procedure. After building background information...
Curated Video
Policy - The Community Guidelines
Following a site's community guidelines is just one step toward being an excellent digital citizen. After a brief introductory video, small groups come up with their own community guidelines and present their ideas to come up with a...
Curated Video
Detecting Lies & Harmful Links
Who and what can you trust online? How do you know? After viewing a pair of introductory videos on positive and safe online conduct, learners discuss the content and put it into practice during an online search activity about alien...
Curated OER
State Issues: The Native People of Hawaii
Students research issues about their state and community. They work in groups to create a multi-media presentation highlighting the issues.
Curated OER
Adbusting: A Media Literacy Unit
High schoolers examine the ethical issues regarding the role of advertising in our society. They watch a series of ads, analyze the messages of the commercials, and in small groups create a counter-ad.
Curated OER
Media Literacy
Students watch a video a pre-taped TV commercials. They define propaganda and re-watch the video. Students choose a poster from Posters American Style and journal about their observations. Students use the computer lab to develop tape...
Curated OER
Massaging the Message: The Media Speaks
Students watch video of TV news clips centered on the House of Commons and then complete an information sheet.
Curated OER
The Junk Mail Explosion
Pupils read direct mail advertising critically, identify persuasion techniques, employ intellectual defenses against persuasive techniques and neatly organize junk mail by persuasive technique.
Minnesota Literacy Council
Introduction to Historical Thinking
Christopher Columbus: hero or villain? Prepare class members for the debate with activities that asks them to think critically about how history is reported.
Curated OER
A Better Class of Journal-ists
Young academics create a current events journal by skimming newspapers for articles that fit defined guidelines for informational texts. After cutting out two articles each week to add to their journals, they write a brief description of...
Personal Genetics Education Project
Claims of CRISPR Being Used to Edit Genomes of Twin Girls Born in 2018
Here is an activity that blends genetic technology, literacy skills, and critical thinking. Pupils review background information about cell lines and CRISPR by video and teacher-led discussion. Scholars collaborate to analyze two...
Museum of the Moving Image
Developing Critical Analysis
To gain an understanding of how images and sounds are used to influence viewers, class members analyze these features in Presidential campaign commercials from 1952-2012.
Sargent Art
Improvisation: Dada and Surrealism
Images of works by Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, and Man Ray launch a study of Dada and Surrealism. After critiquing works by these and other artists, class members gather their own images and arrange them into a cohesive composition.
Curated OER
General Lesson Plan for Documentary Lens
Use this general lesson guide to inform your instruction surrounding a documentary. The lesson is made up of five activities. The activities are intentionally general because they are designed to adapted for specific films. While the...
Curated OER
Press Freedom Versus Military Censorship
Eleventh graders explore the term terrorism. In this US History lesson, 11th graders participate in a press release on terrorism.
PBS
Climate Change as a Scientific Theory
Get your class thinking about climate change as a scientific theory. Guided by a handout, emerging earth scientists read articles and take notes about glaciers and sea ice. To conclude, they write an evaluation of the evidence for...
Curated OER
The Whole World is Watching: Iran, 2009
Students study the impact of social media. For this Iranian election lesson, students examine the outcome of the 2009 election and the public protests that followed it. Students determine how citizen journalism informed people around the...
Curated OER
Messages in Art Work
Observe images and discuss what messages they convey. In this critical thinking lesson plan, students determine whether works of art are trying to persuade their audience. They also consider the media and how they communicate messages to...