To effectively teach news literacy, school districts need a clear roadmap of how concepts, skills and dispositions develop as students progress through grades PreK-12. The News Literacy Project developed this living document to accompany our Framework for Teaching News Literacy as a guide of scaffolded skills, content knowledge and dispositions for schools and districts seeking to implement news literacy curriculums. It’s designed to foster cross-curricular connections and complement already established benchmark requirements.

This lesson ties into both ELA and Journalism standards asking students to critically analyze online news sources. Students will read Stephen Glass's famously fabricated article "Hack Heaven" and use their understanding of the methods of the CRAAP test to analyze its overall credibility. This lesson can be used in-person and online, synchronously, as well as asynchronously, and ties into a research project where students conduct research to research, report, write, and edit their own news article on a topic of their choosing.

This week, we talk to data reporter Emilie Munson of the Times Union, a local news organization based in Albany, New York, with a coverage area that includes the state’s Capital Region and Hudson Valley. Munson sheds light on the Times Union’s decision to publish a guide explaining how the news organization covers elections and politics — and the role of journalism standards in its news decisions. We also discuss the Times Union’s strict policies on the use of anonymous or unnamed sources. Grab your news goggles!

Part of being NewsLit Fit means understanding how standards-based journalism works. Take this quiz and see if you are a true newshound!

In this unit, students will learn about major standards of quality journalism and why news matters. Through a series of five main lessons, they will distinguish fact from fiction, zone different types of information into their primary purposes, recognize elements of quality journalism, gauge the newsworthiness of topics and stories and identify key journalism terminology. It’s meant to be a starting point for conversations about and interest in journalism.

This guide serves as a companion for adult learners and community members viewing the PBS documentary Storm Lake, a film about the struggles of sustaining local journalism and shows what these newsrooms mean to communities and American democracy overall. The guide has three main components: pre-viewing, during viewing and post-viewing activities.