Teachers looking for tools to educate middle school and high school students about important news literacy skills can check out The News Literacy Project (NLP). This nonpartisan education nonprofit offers consulting services, professional development opportunities for educators, a virtual classroom experience and other resources.
Here’s NLP’s mission:
The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a nonpartisan national education nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. NLP provides these students with the essential skills they need to become smart, active consumers of news and information and engaged, informed citizens.
News literacy teaches that all information is not created equal. It helps young people use the aspirational standards of quality journalism to determine what they should trust, share and act on. It also fosters an understanding of the importance of the First Amendment and a free press in a democracy, especially the watchdog role.
Through NLP’s original educational materials, which deliver news literacy instruction through classroom, after-school and innovative e-learning programs, students learn how to discern verified information from spin, opinion and propaganda — whether using search engines to find information about specific topics, browsing social media feeds, watching videos on YouTube or reading a news article or blog post.
Students are also encouraged to share and produce information that is accurate, fair and responsible and that empowers their voices. This is vital, because in an age of unparalleled access, in which unprecedented amounts and types of information can be shared with more people more easily than ever before, anyone can be a publisher — and everyone must be an editor.
NLP’s goal is to see news literacy embedded in the American educational experience as an essential skill, giving every student an appreciation of credible journalism and the skills to be an active participant in a robust democracy.
To learn more about The News Literacy Project, visit their website.
Video from The News Literacy Project.