In this lesson, students consider the idea that a news source can be “accurate but misleading” through the concept of framing. Students learn about the different ways that news stories may be framed, identify examples of framing in a news story, then find and evaluate examples of framing in news stories on a particular issue.
In this lesson, students will focus on how to understand and actively curate their digital news feeds to counteract the tendency for algorithms or single viewpoints to create a distorted perception of reality. Students begin by defining "news" as a genre and distinguishing its essential elements and tropes from related sub-genres like opinion and documentary. They then do a news audit to analyze their current habits, then learn to verify the reliability of both mainstream and independent journalists. The lesson ends with an independent assignment where they create a persuasive presentation to advocate for a reliable news source to their peers.
In this lesson, students are introduced to the idea of “reading media” through a medium’s rules of notice and the maker’s framing choices of what to include and what to emphasize. After a modeled and then guided introduction to these ideas, students analyze a work to identify how it uses rules of notice and framing and consider what meaning these choices communicate.
In this lesson, students learn what makes something an ad and how to distinguish advertisements from reviews, focusing on the key concepts of genre, tropes, bias, disclosure, and framing. Students begin by viewing and analyzing a video to prompt critical questions about the creator’s intent and visual style, then delve into the advertising genre by learning about its essential elements, like the presence of a product and brand. Students examine the differences between the “ad” and “review” genre and also use companion reading skills to evaluate the reliability and potential bias of a source by searching for undisclosed "brand deal" or "sponsored" content. Finally, students create two media pieces about the same product—one crafted as a persuasive ad and the other as an honest review—to demonstrate their ability to apply the genre elements and tropes learned throughout the lesson.
The British Columbia Mathematics curriculum has a number of expectations relating to digital and media literacy, primarily in connection with financial literacy and probability. Select a grade level under Mathematics for a list of media-related outcomes and links to supporting resources from the MediaSmarts site. (Note: as many of our lessons can be adapted to suit different grade levels, specific lessons may be listed for more than one grade.
The British Columbia Science curriculum has a number of expectations relating to digital and media literacy, primarily in connection with recognizing and correcting for bias, testing hypotheses, and using digital media for scientific investigation.
The Close Reading Genre workshop trains teachers to use genre as a tool to help students engage with media. It explores how genres can be identified and analyzed through their characteristics, tropes and industry practices and demonstrates how this can be done with key genres such as advertising and news.
The Close Reading Media workshop prepares educators to teach students how to analyze and evaluate the "rules of notice" that media makers use to draw and direct audiences' attention, how media works are framed, and how we all apply our own point of view when consuming media.
Many curricular expectations in B.C. Social Studies courses relate to media and digital literacy. The core historical and geographical thinking concepts include a consideration for evidence, perspectives, and ethics, all of which are required for teaching students to be digitally literate citizens. Thus, media and digital literacy skills and concepts can be found in many of the Big Ideas, Curricular Competencies and specific course content.