Building Strong Digital Citizens: News and Media Literacy in the Classroom

Presented by Allie Niese, AP U.S. Government and Civics Teacher, Chicago Public Schools (IL); and Molly June Roquet, Education Librarian, Saint Mary’s College of California
Moderated by Kristi Hemingway, VP of Content and Creative Strategy, EdCuration; and Shaelynn Farnsworth, Senior Director of Educator Network Expansion, News Literacy Project

Sponsored by The News Literacy Project
Hosted by EdCuration

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Whether scrolling through social media or conducting research for term papers, students encounter a startlingly wide range of news and media daily. With the start of the school year, how can you set the stage in the classroom for your students to think critically about what they read, watch, and hear online? What steps can you take to help students understand and analyze their information landscape, and how can you lay the foundation for responsible digital citizenship?

In this edWebinar, hear creative ideas, advice, and solutions to these questions from some of the News Literacy Project’s NewsLit Nation ambassadors, educators who serve as community news literacy advocates. These educators share how they engage students in classroom discussions and activities that develop critical news and media literacy skills such as identifying credible information, seeking out reliable sources, and understanding the role of a free press in a democracy.

Along with examples to use immediately in your classroom, you also learn about the News Literacy Project’s free educator resources for integrating news literacy concepts into the classroom, including the NewsLit Nation educator resources and forum, the Checkology® virtual classroom, and The Sift newsletter.

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to K-12 teachers, librarians, school and district leaders, and education technology leaders.

About the Presenters

Allie Niese is a James Madison Fellow and a graduate of Northwestern’s MSEd program. She is committed to helping students learn to embrace and understand their roles in the American political system through civil dialogue and rich understanding of the Constitution. She teaches AP U.S. government, civics, U.S. history, and AP human geography in Chicago Public Schools.

Molly June Roquet (she/they) is the education librarian at Saint Mary’s College of California. A former public librarian and middle school history teacher, Molly holds a bachelor’s degree in history from San Francisco State University and a master’s degree in library and information science from Wayne State University. They have presented at the American Library Association and California Library Association annual conferences and have written for Computers in Libraries and Information Today magazines. Molly strives to add a critical, anti-racist lens to media and news literacy education and is a News Literacy Project ambassador.

About the Moderators

After serving many years as an elementary and secondary teacher, Kristi Hemingway transitioned to the role of instructional coach and professional developer, working with teachers to improve literacy practices and helping districts across the country implement new curriculum and instructional strategies. She is a journalist whose writing can be found in local and national publications, and has worked internationally to develop and deliver trainings, workshops and instruction for a wide variety of audiences and institutions. Using her communications background, she’s happy to be leading EdCuration’s podcast, Where We Reshape Learning, and spearheading Explorations and #EdTrustees.

Shaelynn Farnsworth is the News Literacy Project’s senior director of educator network expansion. Shaelynn has over 20 years of experience in education. She spent the first part of her career as a high school English teacher in Conrad, Iowa, where she reimagined teaching and learning in her classroom and became a leader in the convergence between literacy and technology. Shaelynn focused on developing student skills in information consumption, creating innovative ways for students to demonstrate understanding, and inspiring healthy skepticism in the digital age. She was recruited by a regional state education agency in Iowa, where she was a school improvement consultant for seven years. Shaelynn supported districts throughout Iowa in the areas of literacy, technology, AIW, and systemic change. She was a member of the state’s literacy, social studies, and technology leadership teams. Shaelynn holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English from the University of Northern Iowa.

Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

Join the News Literacy community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.

The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan, national education 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 participants in a democracy.

EdCuration’s mission is to get better resources into classrooms faster to increase student success. To this end, we run the Certified EdTrustees program, bringing together aspiring educational leaders to review and pilot instructional resources and provide feedback to the developers regarding how to improve those learning solutions. EdTrustees who love the piloted solutions advocate for their adoption by their school or district.