Some ideas:
- Have students share current events they have heard of
- Ask them how they heard about these current events (hopefully the answer will be
through their friends. Could rephrase the question asking students to discuss current
events they have learned through their friends)
- discuss why/why not this is a reliable way to find out what is happening
- discuss why it might be important to find out about current events
- discuss more concrete/reliable, yet still relevant ways to find out what is happening in the
world
- twitter, BuzzFeed, etc.
- Show youtube clip or article to show some current events
- walk them through the process of finding them
- discuss what stood out to them about this particular video or article
- find a way to relate it to their lives
Lesson Overview/Prompt: “Scan the news environment - news is wherever you get your
current information from, so could be twitter, facebook, instagram. But encourage teens to look
outside of their usual media environment too - what other cool news sources can they check
out? Think alt weeklies, al jazeera, vice, DNAinfo, etc.”
Stage One-Desired Results
Transfer
● Students will explore unusual news sources
● Students will scan news sources (other than/including social media) more frequently
● Students will develop a better understanding of current events
Meaning
● Students will understand that different media sources have different viewpoints/levels of
expertise
● Students will understand that scanning news sources regularly will help increase their
world knowledge and expose them to other viewpoints
● Students will ask “how do I know what political/socioeconomic/cultural perspective the
writer has?”
● Students will ask “how do I become a more informed person?
Acquisition
● Students will know many news sources
● Students will be skilled at finding articles through Google
● Students will know current events
● Students will read news sources as part of daily or regular habit
Stage 2- Evidence
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●
Performative evidence
○ Task 1: Read several articles on different topics from distinct news sources
○ Task 2: Find several articles on the same topic from different news sources
○ Task 3: Write or discuss the articles with a partner or in a group setting
■ Focus on comparing how articles approach the topic differently
■ Focus on how the articles are different stylistically
○ Task 4: Formulate a preliminary opinion on the articles
Other evidence
○ Students report that they read the news more often
○ Students demonstrate increased knowledge of current events in school
Stage 3- Lesson Plan/Activity Plan
●
Step 1: Read two articles from one news source from each category
○ Daily Traditional (Print) News Sources
■ The Chicago Tribune
■ The Chicago Sun-Times
■ The Wall Street Journal
■ The New York Times
■ Los Angeles Times
■ The Washington Post
■ The Boston Globe
■ The Christian Science Monitor
■ USA Today
■ The Guardian
○ 24 Hour News Websites
■ CNN
■ MSNBC
■ Fox News
■ Al Jazeera
■ BBC
■ ABC
■ NBC
■ CBS
○ News Magazines
■ The Economist
■ TIME
■ Newsweek
■ The New Yorker
■ The Atlantic
○ “Alternative” News Sources
■ Quartz
■ The Daily Beast
■ Vox
●
●
●
■ Andrew Sullivan
■ NPR
■ Slate
■ Factcheck.org
■ Reddit
○ Pop Culture
■ Buzzfeed
■ Rolling Stone
■ Vanity Fair
■ GQ
■ Esquire
■ Grantland
■ Jezebel
■ xoJane
(Could really expand on all these lists, might be useful for the future)
Step 2: Pick one topic and look for articles about the topic from four different news
sources
Step 3: Compare and contrast these articles. Answer discussion questions…
○ Are there any differences in reporting between the articles?
○ Do the authors have different perspectives? Explain.
Step 4: Discuss your articles with a partner