Engaging with the news is essential because it keeps us informed about what’s happening in the world and influences the choices we make every day. News literacy, a crucial part of media literacy, helps people understand how news is created, how to consume it thoughtfully, and the role it plays in society. The NewsArcade tool offers players a look into the journalistic decision-making process, which can improve transparency and strengthen news literacy. Ultimately, being news literate helps people make well-informed decisions in their daily lives.
The NewsArcade team, along with a panel of media literacy experts, explored how to best use our tool in education to enhance news literacy. This effort resulted in a draft lesson plan called NewsArcade in the Classroom, designed for secondary and higher education. The idea is to bring journalists directly into the classroom, giving students the chance to interact with them and gain a deeper understanding of how news is made. The NewsArcade tool functions as a conversation starter.
This lesson plan has been created to highlight what adjustments are needed to make the tool even more effective for teaching. It also helps us explore the best ways to integrate the tool into educational settings.
Please note that the NewsArcade in the Classroom lesson format is currently in a draft stage and is not yet fully functional for implementation. While the format serves as an inspiration and outlines the potential of the tool, certain features and functionalities are under development. We advise educators to use this draft as an inspirational guide rather than for immediate classroom use.
The lesson format entails:
An introduction to NewsArcade in the classroom: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nrp1EzhYo6_qXibRdEjqadynA5ujVdTo/view?usp=sharing
A slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CWxzLjKk9KSVYYFaH_ywONdaiVUnqcFH/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102201237118131254700&rtpof=true&sd=true
A manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tuHOmYHCSWv0RKwbmPsP0gahJ_P98UQO/view?usp=sharing