Guide students to identify and describe techniques used in constructing media messages.

Use this lesson to help students evaluate online sources. Explore credibility, bias, and reliability of sources.

Help students define bias and discover how point of view affect the way we understand news and information.

Read summaries of the majority ruling in landmark Supreme Court cases that have had an impact on our rights as citizens.

Engage in civil discourse on a “low-stakes” topic.

The United States Supreme Court in Island Trees School District v. Pico in 1982 held that libraries are places for “voluntary inquiry” and concluded that the school board’s “absolute discretion” over the classroom did not extend to the library for that reason. Recently, students in Duluth, Minnesota found out that classic books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird were being pulled from the shelves. Michael Cary, director of curriculum and instruction of the Duluth Public Schools District, stated that this was done because, “The feedback that we’ve received is that it makes many students feel uncomfortable.”

At the beginning of the school year, it is important to set the tone for the classroom culture for the year: one that is free from hate, trusting, and tolerant. In social studies, in particular, the foundations of civil discourse are necessary structures and expectations to teach students in the first few days of school.

Use this lesson to teach classroom citizenship.