📑5 Great Resources for Media Literacy Week (and one spooky poster) 🎃
Who made this? Can I trust it? Why is it showing up in my feed?
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the inaugural News Literacy Project convention, and I came away thinking about the deep connections between digital literacy and media literacy, and what those connections mean for our classrooms.
With Media Literacy Week coming up October 26–30, I wanted to share a few great resources I brought home. Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, there’s something here to help students ask thoughtful questions about what they see, read, hear—and create.
Where do digital literacy and media literacy intersect?
Knowing how to use a device is one piece of digital literacy. Students also need practice finding reliable information, evaluating online content, and using digital tools thoughtfully. Media literacy builds on those skills by asking: Who created this message? What is its purpose? How might it influence what we think, feel, or do?
These connected skills help students investigate a science claim, question an AI-generated answer, interpret an advertisement, or create their own media responsibly. They belong across subjects—and the resources below offer practical places to start.
1. Common Sense Education
For: Elementary, middle, and high school
Common Sense offers grade-specific lessons that help students question sources, recognize manipulated media, and examine how media influence their thinking. Its ready-to-use resources provide an approachable way to bring these conversations into the classroom.
Elementary and Middle School: Information & Media Literacy
2. News Literacy Project
For: Grades 3–12
Looking for a quick activity or a deeper lesson? The News Literacy Project offers resources to help students evaluate evidence, investigate sources, and make informed decisions about online information. Use these grade-filtered collections to find a starting point for your students.
3. Digital Inquiry Group: Civic Online Reasoning
Suggested starting point: High school
How do we know who is behind online information? Civic Online Reasoning helps students investigate sources, evaluate evidence, and check what other sources say. A key strategy is lateral reading: leaving an unfamiliar website to investigate its credibility elsewhere.
Explore Civic Online Reasoning
4. Media Literacy Now: Resource Library
For: Educators exploring instructional materials
Want to explore beyond these starting points? Media Literacy Now’s resource library offers another place to look for instructional materials that fit your students and teaching goals.
Browse Instructional Materials
5. Thinking Critically: Media Literacy and YOU
For: K–12 educators | Developed in Oregon
Created by Multnomah ESD educators Brad Parker, Katy Tibbs, and Maria Scanelli, this newly updated toolkit connects media literacy with digital habits, source credibility, AI, and classroom learning across subjects.
Start with the “Choose Your Path” guide on page 4, or jump straight to something for your classroom: K–5 resources on page 31, evaluating credibility on pages 15–19, or deepfakes and AI on pages 29–30. Looking for activities without devices? Check out the unplugged ideas on page 33!
Thinking Critically: Media Literacy and You v3
⭐Try one thing!
You don’t need a full unit to participate. Choose one lesson, explore one claim, or model how you check a source. These small opportunities help students build habits they can use well beyond Media Literacy Week.
👻 Get ready for Media Literacy Week and Halloween with this spooooooky classroom poster from the NLP! 🦇