News Literacy Project offers resources, programs for educators

The News Literacy Project is an education nonprofit organization that partners with educators to teach young people how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. NLP is currently offering in-school programming in three cities and a variety of open-access resources for educators across the country and around the world on its website.

The central open-access resource NLP provides is its Learn Channel, a collection of timely and compelling digital lessons that cover a variety of news literacy concepts and skills. The most popular lesson on NLP’s Learn Channel to date is A Consumer’s Guide to Sourcing in News Reports with Paul Saltzman, assistant managing editor for projects at the Chicago Sun-Times. The lesson teaches students to look for the eponymous “Saltzman Seven” when evaluating the sourcing in a piece of information: the number, transparency, authority, variety and motives of the sources, as well as the use of documentation and anonymous sources. The lesson also includes an educator’s view for convenient and engaging adaptation in the classroom.

NLP also is offering online professional development sessions for teachers, including a session about the connections between news literacy and civic engagement on Jan. 14 and a session exploring 21st-century information trends and tools on Feb. 18. Learn more or register for these online workshops here.