Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2022 starts October 24 and ends October 31! The United States celebrates from October 24 to October 28. According to Media Literacy Now, Media Literacy is the ability to:
- Decode media messages (including the systems in which they exist).
- Assess the influence of those messages on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
- Create media thoughtfully and conscientiously.
These are skills we should teach to all students, and Media Literacy Week is a great time to get started in your classes!
There are many ways to participate in Media Literacy Week. One way is to join the fourth Global Media and Information Literacy Youth Hackathon, where students work in teams to design innovative solutions to a defined set of social media and information literacy challenges. If you’re not ready to go global yet, The Media Literacy Week site has many lesson plans and resources available to help you get started. Try collaborating with your school librarian—your in-house media literacy expert! No time for an entire lesson? Assign an article like this one from Teen Vogue for students to read, or have students play a game like Newsfeed Defenders from iCivics. You can also join the News Literacy Project’s NewsLit Nation, check out the Media Literacy Week Teachers’ Hub, or browse MediaLit Moments for quick ideas.
Media literacy can be integrated into classrooms beginning in elementary school and continuing through college. If you’re ready to dive in and begin incorporating media literacy as a regular feature in your classroom, there are many resources available, including a variety of lesson plans for students of all ages! PBS offers a news and media literacy collection with lessons for grades 6–12. Read Write Think’s media literacy collection contains lesson plans, calendar activities, strategy guides, and professional resources for grades 3–12, while Newseum provides lesson plans for all ages. No matter what subject you teach, there are resources available for you.
TeachersFirst should always be your first stop when looking for resources! Check out our curated media literacy resources, then read our previous blog posts about media literacy to Join us in celebrating media literacy during Global Media and Information Literacy Week and throughout the year!