The Educating for American Democracy Roadmap (EAD Roadmap) is a national advisory framework that guides K–12 history and civics education in the United States. One of the overarching questions within the theme “Contemporary Debates and Possibilities” asks: “How can we ensure our sources of information about these questions are accurate and fair? What effects can misinformation have on contemporary debates?”

Media literacy is a core value of the Illinois Democracy School (IDS) framework, which elevates inquiry as the primary mode of learning. Jennifer Burdette, a middle and high school teacher at Spoon River Valley Jr./Sr. High School, partnered with her colleague Julia McConkey, a 5th-grade teacher at Spoon River Valley Elementary School, to explore how media literacy instruction could be vertically aligned across K–12 grade levels.

We asked Jennifer and Julia to reflect on their collaborative media literacy project in order to inform and inspire other Illinois Democracy Schools. Below are their responses.

What problem or student need led you to partner across grade levels for this inquiry project?

The question of how to connect media literacy across the district and what would it look like to teach media literacy in the elementary versus teaching it to the high school.

How did you design one inquiry approach that worked for both 5th grade and high school learners?

We both knew we wanted to make it interactive and engaging with mirroring the same skills across different grade levels. Building on the IDS model we focused on inquiry and media literacy as our key focus and then thought about how we could make these ideas approachable for the grade level we taught. We looked at the idea of student digital footprints and how what they share can impact the larger community with the elementary focusing on the impact on the school community and the seniors looking at a more national approach to community.

What is one concrete way you modeled being a “wise consumer or producer of information” for students during this project?

Students participated in a situation where they were exposed to misinformation and evaluated the consequences of the sharing of this misinformation. From that experience, students were asked to design an action plan to educate others in their school about why being a wise consumer of information is important and how they can evaluate the information they consume. The 5th grade students collaborated with the second grade to teach these concepts and the seniors created an information campaign that was shared with students in common spaces around the school.

What is one routine, strategy, or tool you used to weave media literacy into daily instruction?

Julia (5th grade):

The 5th grade students listen to KidNuz everyday and from there we often look up news stories or have additional conversations about the topics in the news. The students are taught to ask questions about the information they are consuming and are encouraged to engage regularly with news media.

Jen (7–12):

Students are regularly asked to evaluate sources looking for intent and bias in the writing. Students are encouraged to bring the news they see into the classroom and discuss what they hear is going on. A lot of this discussion starts with the phrase “I saw on TikTok” and from there can lead to meaningful conversation about whether the information they consumed is accurate or misleading.

What kinds of questions did students start asking as they investigated content and sources?

5th grade:

The fifth grade were excited by the misinformation experience trying to understand who might be behind the information, was it real, how did it get in the room? Students wanted to know when they would know if it was real and were sent out into the school to investigate their answers.

12th grade:

The students watched a faked video that they had to evaluate if it was real or not? They questioned what was happening in the video, who was behind it? As they read articles, they started to understand more about the situation and their questions evolved as more information was exposed. Some students questioned if it was AI related or why someone would want to fake a video of a robot being run over by a Tesla. 

What is one moment that showed students thinking critically about information rather than just accepting it?

The students’ questions reflected that from the start they were questioning the accuracy of the information and who might be behind the information. This was true for both age levels, and through the investigative process they were able to determine more about the reliability of the information.

In the 5th grade the students brainstormed in small groups and then in a large group setting of who might be behind the information and what questions they were going to ask in the questioning process.

The seniors were exposed to a portion of the information and asked to question what information they were exposed to and how their thinking evolved with each new round of information.

What was the biggest difference in how 5th graders and high school students engaged with inquiry or sources?

The biggest difference in approach was that the 5th grade conducted a media literacy lesson without having to use technology to discuss the importance of media literacy. By making the lesson relevant to their school community they were able to reflect on how sharing any form of misinformation (digital or verbal) can have a negative impact on their community.

Although students didn’t use technology for their lesson, they were able to make connections to how this applies to their digital footprint and actions they may take online.

In contrast the senior lesson was focused on analyzing content they may engage with in a digital space and students were asked to reflect on whether sharing that information would have a negative impact on their community. Throughout the process student thinking evolved from thinking sharing a video that seemed somewhat insignificant wouldn’t be a big deal to share online to understanding that sharing misinformation can have a larger impact going as far as to impact company stocks.

 How did working together across grade levels strengthen this project for both teachers and students?

This lesson would not have happened without the grant opportunity and collaboration between grade levels. It helped us better understand the challenges we face at different grade levels and further promoted collaboration with other teachers and grade levels in the school.

This was an eye opening opportunity that brought us into a teaching space that we don’t normally see and started district wide communication about how to better approach topics like media literacy and inquiry based learning in our district.

What advice would you give another school trying to use inquiry and media literacy as the core of learning?

Julia:

Don’t be afraid and jump right in. You can never get to the end if you don’t start and sometimes the journey is more important than the finish line.

Jen:

Open doors and embrace the unknown. I wish I would have spent time in our elementary school sooner to better understand how social studies is taught in our district and what background my students have before getting to high school. Although we may see our students as not having a lot in common, there are ways to bridge the divide and work collaboratively.

This project was developed with support from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement(CIRCLE) at the Jonathan M. Tisch College for Civic Life at Tufts University, with funding from the Bezos Family Foundation, to facilitate teacher leadership in implementing the EAD Roadmap.

For ideas on how to weave media literacy into your classroom, visit the Illinois Civics Hub Media Literacy Toolkit for practical tools that help students become wise consumers and producers of information.