Celebrating 95 Years of The Great Gatsby: Why We’ve Added the Full Text of Gatsby to Bloom’s Literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is not only one of the greatest of all American novels but also far and away the most popular in high school literature classes. Over the past few years, users of the Bloom’s Literature database have searched for The Great Gatsby almost three times as often as they’ve searched […]
Supreme Court Term Limits: A Featured Controversy from Issues & Controversies
Featured in Issues & Controversies: Supreme Court Term Limits: Should U.S. Supreme Court Justices Have Term Limits? SUPPORTERS ARGUE U.S. Supreme Court justices have become too powerful and too divorced from the will of the American people. Term limits would depoliticize the confirmation process, ensure a diversity of viewpoints among justices, and make the Court […]
How to Incorporate News Literacy into Any Curriculum and Be Confident in Evaluating News Content from Any Source
Though media and information literacy have been taught in various pedagogical settings in the past, the task had mostly fallen to those whose training was directly related to it, such as librarians and professors of media literacy or mass communications. However, today, the proliferation of misinformation has forced educators in totally different fields to address […]
Teaching About Conspiracy Theories and Memes: The Internet’s Most Outlandish and Compelling Content
In this blog series, I have referred several times to the concept of “modern challenges” to teaching news literacy, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, I will refer again to this blog’s topic as a “modern challenge.” There are many modern challenges because so many aspects of our information environment are new. Two particular […]
Facing Polarization Head-On: Strategies for Discussing Difficult Political Topics When Teaching News Literacy
There are a number of challenges to teaching news literacy today, not least of which is that news literacy inherently involves reading, well, the news. As we all know, our current news environment is highly polarizing, which is one of the very reasons it is important to teach news literacy. Consequently, teaching about bias and […]
How to Evaluate Any News Content for Reliability and Bias
The modern information landscape is flooded with thousands of news and “news-like” sources. The sheer volume of these sources presents a unique challenge to each one of us being news literate ourselves. A common complaint these days from individual news consumers (including educators) is “I don’t know what to trust anymore.” However, none of us (especially […]
2020 Presidential Race: A Featured Controversy from Issues & Controversies
Featured in Issues & Controversies: 2020 PRESIDENTIAL RACE: Should Voters Reelect President Donald Trump (R)? SUPPORTERS ARGUE Donald Trump has successfully bolstered the U.S. economy, fought for American workers through trade deals, projected strength on the international stage, protected the nation’s borders, and safeguarded religious freedom. Attacks against his character and capabilities have been hysterical […]
Mandatory Vaccinations: A Featured Controversy from Issues & Controversies
Featured in Issues & Controversies: Mandatory Vacations: Should Vaccination Be Mandatory? SUPPORTERS ARGUE Vaccines save lives. Herd immunity is essential to safeguarding public health and protecting people with immune system disorders. Scientists have thoroughly debunked claims that vaccines are harmful, and states should not concede to a fringe and dangerous anti-vax movement by allowing selfish […]
Why It Is Challenging to Teach News Literacy in Today’s World, and How to Do So Effectively Anyway
There are many “unprecedented” things about the world today, and teaching news literacy in our current information environment is certainly one of them. Never before have there been so many news and “news-like” sources from which to receive information. As a result, news consumers of all ages express frustration, confusion, and resignation over which ones […]
Police Brutality and Reform: A Featured Controversy from Issues & Controversies
Featured in Issues & Controversies: Police Brutality and Reform: Does Policing in the United States Need to Fundamentally Change? Does policing in the United States need to fundamentally change? Be sure to check out Issues & Controversies’ complete and unbiased coverage of this divisive issue. Here is a sample of the pro/con arguments on both […]
Social Media and Free Speech: A Featured Controversy from Issues & Controversies
Featured in Issues & Controversies: Social Media and Free Speech: Should Social Media Companies Do More to Combat Disinformation and Extremism on Their Platforms? Should social media companies do more to combat disinformation and extremism on their platforms? Be sure to check out Issues & Controversies’ complete and unbiased coverage of this divisive issue. Here […]
