Following a Story Over Time -- The Trayvon Martin Shooting

CNL News Lesson

Lesson Outline

July, 2012
A News Literacy summer institute lesson plan

Written By:
Donna Walker – Freelance Journalist – Columbia, MD
Christina Wolf – Herricks High School – Long Beach, NY

Click here to download the full lesson plan PDF

 

In this lesson, students will apply critical thinking skills through the evaluation of news reports, after being equipped with evaluation tools. They can apply this to other news stories and information in the future. It will also reinforce the importance of not trusting the first/single source read to give the full story.

Students will also be able to identify the type of report presented, judge its reliability based on news deconstruction and understand the importance of following a news story over time.

News Literacy Concepts

      • News Literacy Lesson 8: Truth and Verification - Truth is provisional--and may change based on evidence presented at the time of the report.
      • News Literacy Lesson 7: Balance, Fairness, and Bias - Use the V.I.A. acronym to discriminate between a fair and balanced report from one which may be biased.