Description
Teachers often want to bring current affairs and news into the classroom… but how are they supposed to do that if we are constantly surrounded by fake news, misinformation, and biases?
This course will show how to navigate the news with a critical thinking approach, select your sources, and recognize your biases and those of the journalist. Become confident and competent in reading news and understanding the mechanisms behind journalism and bring this knowledge to the class!
During this course, participants will learn what to look out for when scrolling through their news feed or the newspaper. They will discuss how to scan long texts, how to compare different sources on the same news, and how to critically assess their reliability.
These activities will give them plenty of ideas to replicate the same experience in their classroom to engage their students in current topics and develop their critical thinking skills.
At the end of the course, participants will be able to plan, execute and evaluate classroom activities that focus on the news, today’s relevant topics, and the information business.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Navigate and analyze the news stream we are bombarded with every day;
- Critically identify the choices that have been made in publishing news in a certain way;
- Identify teachable elements across the news;
- Create lesson plans that focus on current affairs and news delivered;
- Evaluate the development of critical thinking in their students.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Course introduction
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools.
News from the world
- What is news? Who decides what event is worth becoming news?
- Your information diet.
Day 2 – Processing the news: a critical approach
- How have the internet and social media changed our information system?
- Cognitive biases;
- The new era of clickbait.
Day 3 – Communicating through words and images
- How to navigate the news from unfamiliar worlds;
- Language: the words we use to give news;
- Communication: The pictures we use to give news.
Day 4 – Discussing critical issues
- Bring the news to your classroom;
- Controversial topics: how and when to bring them into class;
- Create activities to foster exchange and conversations.
Day 5 – News in the classroom: lesson planning
- How to run, debrief and evaluate the activities you want to bring to your classroom;
- Group work.
Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.