"All types of educators are bound to find something of use on KQED Education. Browse the classroom resources for access to high-quality videos, lesson plans, media creation ideas, and other standards-aligned content. Or read stories written and shared by other educators, and get inspiration and ideas for your classroom. Activities focus on creative use and analysis of media. For example, one teacher-created post describes how she used memes to teach media literacy. Another wrote about having students share their culture through media creation. While the site contains a mix of structured plans and ideas, it's easy to find activities that inspire forward-thinking instruction and encourage the development of a 21st century learning environment.

Check out the free professional development (PD) offerings as well: Teachers can earn certification as a PBS Media Literacy Educator by completing eight of the available modules. The site's pages are densely populated with activities, links to more KQED resources, and partner sites, but if you're willing to spend some time looking around, you'll find lots of high-quality materials." (Common Sense Media Review)

"Use Kialo to help students get to the core of the issues they’re discussing To put their knowledge into action.

To sharpen their critical reasoning skills

To demonstrate their understanding

To engage constructively with each other

Take your classroom discussions online, break down complex subjects for students, and shake it up with new types of assignments."

This education version is free for teachers to use!

This is the most recent version of the chart, updated August 2018.
See this post explaining the updates.

MediaSmarts has been developing digital and media literacy programs and resources for Canadian homes, schools and communities since 1996. Through our work we support adults with information and tools so they can help children and teens develop the critical thinking skills they need for interacting with the media they love.

Resources are available for the following areas:
Crime Portrayal
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Media Literacy 101
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Recently on MediaSmarts
Knowing My Password
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Reality Check: The Game

You are constantly surrounded by media, so the question is: how does your brain handle all of that? The unfortunate answer is that our brains have a lot of processes that not super helpful for media literacy, but hopefully with a little self-awareness, we can work around that.

Newsela provides high-interest, printable news articles from a wide range of subject areas. Teachers can adjust the reading level of news articles to meet the needs of students. Within each article, power words are identified. Students can click on these and see the definition in student-friendly language. Newsela also provides writing prompts and questions about the articles. You can sign up for free access to the end of the 2019-20 school year. Although the site is American, there are lots of applicable news stories that align with Saskatchewan curricula and context.

Heterodox Academy is a group of educators, administrators, and graduate students who believe diverse viewpoints and open inquiry are critical to research and learning. This resources listed on this document are intended to provide K-12 educators with materials to create classrooms that welcome diverse people with diverse viewpoints and that equip learners with the habits of heart and mind to engage that diversity in open inquiry and constructive disagreement.

"PBS NewsHour Extra's lesson plans are outstanding and clever. For example, a lesson on unions asks students to watch a few short videos and then get into teams to resolve an imaginary labor dispute based on what they've learned about negotiation. Beyond the provided lesson plans, there are many videos with resources to help students process what they're watching -- like an essential question and key vocabulary -- as well as discussion questions to kick off post-viewing conversations. Plus, the majority of the lesson plans are tied to STEM-related issues, so they're ideal for cross-curricular collaboration.

Because the daily videos include transcripts, supporting links, questions, and an extension activity, they could be assigned as independent work, group work, or both. For instance, part of the class could work on their own with the video -- assuming individual internet access -- and then, as they finish, they could move into small groups to tackle the extension activity.

For journalism, media studies, or ELA classes, make sure to check out the Student Voices samples. They'd serve as great models for editorial writing. For classrooms that want do dive deeper into media creation and production, the Student Reporting Labs website has a great curriculum and supporting resources, including video tutorials for things like audio recording and lighting." (Review from Common Sense Media)

In this lesson, students consider the ways in which misinformation can have an impact on history and politics. After discussing a number of historical examples of misinformation, they examine the ways in which news sources may be biased and use an interactive online game to practice skills in getting more context on a story. Finally, students read a current news story and use what they have learned to find the context they need to understand it.

In this lesson, students consider the meanings of the term “fake news” and learn facts about the news industry that will help them recognize legitimate sources of news. They use an educational computer game to learn how to track a news story to its original source before evaluating its reliability, then practice the same skills “in the wild” with actual news stories.

"Teachers can use the site as in-class reading material to supplement units in science, math, and language arts. The readings are streamlined, age-appropriate versions of articles on the adult Science News site and provide helpful tools for tackling the task of reading scientific texts. The Going Deeper link for each article takes students to a related article on the companion Science News site with more detailed information. Kids can also use the simpler readings on Science News for Students as support articles to build their basic understanding before moving on to more complex text of the same topic. If you scroll to the bottom of the articles, many of them contain “Power Words” and their definitions. Reviewing the words in advance can help kids better understand the text. Some articles also contain questions for kids to answer while reading." (Common Sense Media)

This site offers readable, teachable news that students in grades 2-8 would be interested in. Teaching Kids News posts weekly news articles, written by professional journalists. It’s free to read and use in the classroom. Please also use TKN’s Search feature to search the more than 1,000 articles in our archives. There are sections on news, arts and entertainment, science (technology, environment, animals, health), sports, politics, and even "Fake News Resources". Read about how to talk to kids about difficult news as well. There are also tips on how to use the site for parents, teachers and students.

Dynamic site harnesses creative young talent to speak truth to power

"YR Media has strong politically and socially progressive content that will speak to students' interests and inspire them. Yearbook and journalism advisers might model part of their program on YR Media. ...

Check out the DIY guides. These tutorials offer colorful visuals, detailed explanations, and student samples on topics from ethics to writing opinion pieces to social media reporting and more. There has to be at least one idea in these guides that can be incorporated into your curriculum. Media classes from film to journalism to graphic arts can use YR Media's work as a springboard for discussion and then creation. ELA classes can analyze the arguments put forth in articles (especially in the Opinion section), videos, or podcasts. Students could use this analysis to create their responses in a similar or different format. The videos on compelling topics like hate speech, social media influencers, and parental pressure will definitely spark discussion and can be structured in a Socratic seminar or four-corners format. Double-entry journals might be more fitting for student responses on more sensitive subjects, such as deportation, mass shootings, LGBTQ or straight pride, and housing. Health and psychology classes will also find surprisingly suitable content in teen-friendly language on important issues like reproductive health, mental illness, and anxiety. " (Review from Common Sense Media)

This site offers news that is relevant for kids. Categories include:
World News
Science
Technology
Our Earth
History
Society/Arts

"YourCommonwealth would be an excellent supplement to classroom learning, especially for middle and high school students. With its focus on global current events and social issues, the site is a great resource for students to find out what kids like them consider important and reflect deeply on their own thoughts about the world's big ideas. Exercises and debates can be created around the opinions expressed on YourCommonwealth through text and video.

YourCommonwealth is an international site created by young people for young people who are interested in addressing global concerns such as injustice, poverty, and the environment. On the site, students from the 54 countries of The Commonwealth of Nations submit articles and videos to share their stories, experiences, and opinions. U.S. students can read about global social issues from a personal point of view –- and from someone around their age. Kids will have the opportunity to make up their own minds about pressing topics and, through discussion with parents and peers, learn how to express opinions.

It's organized by continent: Click on Africa and you'll get all the content relating to that area of the world. Young people from all over the world contribute articles and video to the site, which are then posted in a news-like format. By reading articles, kids can view opinions and timely issues from their global peers. Offsite, kids can get involved in Twitter chats and Facebook discussions on “the present, past and future of the planet.”" (Common Sense Media review)