Presented by Adriana Lacy, Journalist, Founder and CEO, Adriana Lacy Consulting; Shane Harris, Staff Writer, Intelligence and National Security, The Washington Post; Indira Lakshmanan, Global Enterprise Editor, The Associated Press; Mindy Katz, English Teacher, JSU Sponsor, Abington Senior High School (PA); and Brittney Smith, Senior Manager of Education Partnerships, East, The News Literacy Project

Sponsored by News Literacy Project

Watch the Recording

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

News and media literacy is essential for people of all ages—especially students, who are growing up in the most complex information landscape in human history. It’s essential to teach students a deep understanding of bias as it relates to the news media so that they can accurately evaluate information and decide what to share with others. Journalists, professionals we depend on to gather, verify, and present credible information, can be key to this effort.

During this edWebinar, you discover best practices for teaching students news literacy by leveraging the News Literacy Project’s Checkology® lessons and Newsroom to Classroom visits to make news literacy tangible for learners. Newsroom to Classroom is a free program designed to demystify the practice of quality journalism by connecting students with vetted journalists or editors behind the headlines. Hear from Mindy Katz, an English teacher at Abington Senior High School in Pennsylvania who has used Newsroom to Classroom, as well as journalists Indira Lakshmanan, of The Associated Press, Shane Harris of the Washington Post, and journalist and digital consultant Adriana Lacy, as they reflect on their experiences and share the impact of the program on students. Brittney Smith, Senior Manager of Education Partnerships at the News Literacy Project, moderates.

Additionally, the presenters highlight some of the resources (including the News Literacy Project’s Understanding Bias lesson on Checkology) that are available to support educators as we all work to make progress toward a future built on facts.

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to middle and high school teachers, librarians, and school and district leaders.

About the Presenters

Adriana Lacy is an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur based in Boston, Massachusetts. As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Adriana Lacy Consulting, she leads a dynamic digital consulting firm, empowering publishers and businesses to grow their digital audiences. With prior newsroom experience that spans renowned media outlets such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Axios, she brings a wealth of expertise to her endeavors. In addition to her role as a leading consultant, Adriana serves as an adjunct lecturer in journalism, sharing her extensive knowledge with aspiring journalists. Her exceptional contributions to the field were acknowledged when she received the Forbes 30 Under 30 accolade in 2023.

Shane Harris has written about intelligence, security, and foreign policy for more than two decades. He is a staff writer with The Washington Post, covering U.S. intelligence agencies and national security. He was part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, for stories about the January 6th attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the presidential election. In 2019, he was part of the team that was a finalist for the Public Service award for coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Shane has previously been a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Beast, and National Journal. He is the author of two books, The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State (Penguin Press, 2010) and @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). He frequently appears on national and international television and radio. He is also a co-host of the weekly podcast Chatter. Shane graduated from Wake Forest University in 1998. He lives in Washington.

Indira Lakshmanan is an award-winning journalist who has reported from more than 80 countries. She leads the global enterprise team at The Associated Press. Previously, she was the senior executive editor and vice president for news and features at National Geographic Media. She has reported from six continents and Washington for newspapers, a wire service, magazines, radio, television, and podcasts.
Indira was the inaugural Newmark chair in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute, served on the PBS editorial standards committee, and is the host of the News Literacy Project’s lessons on understanding bias in news, used in schools across the U.S. She started her career on the foreign desk at NPR, and has guest-hosted national NPR shows, including “1A,” “Here and Now” and “Weekend Edition.”
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Indira graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in history of art and architecture, did graduate work in Latin America studies at Oxford University as a Rotary Scholar, and was awarded a Nieman fellowship at Harvard.

Mindy Katz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Abington, Pennsylvania. Mindy graduated from Abington Senior High School in 1999 and then studied at Muhlenberg College, where she graduated with a B.A. in English, a minor in Political Science, and a degree in Secondary Education. In college, Mindy played softball and rugby and was involved in Hillel. Mindy spent one year working in the School District of Cheltenham Township before she began her career at her alma mater, Abington Senior High School in 2004, teaching English. In 2019, Mindy wrote a Media Literacy course that she teaches to students in grades 9-12, a course that grew from her passion to show young people how to find the facts in media so that they can create their own opinions. Mindy and her wife Nikki live in the suburbs of Philadelphia with their one-year-old daughter, Stevie.

Brittney Smith is a Senior Manager of Education Partnerships (East) at the News Literacy Project. Brittney joined NLP in July 2022 after eight years of teaching life science in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a high school teacher to diverse populations of students, including English language learners. In her tenure as science department chair, she focused on building partnerships with community stakeholders to enrich and improve students’ educational experiences. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological science from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s degree in teaching science to adolescents and young adults from Mount St. Joseph University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in educational practice and innovation with a STEM focus at the University of South Carolina.

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.