News Deconstruction Models from our Teacher Partners!

April 17, 2014

One of the most important parts of the News Literacy movement are the passionate, dedicated educators who carry out the work of sharing our concepts with our students. In many cases, teachers will introduce News Literacy in innovative interdisciplinary models that integrate our concepts into other subject areas. Here, we offer two resources created by two of our teacher partners.

Robert DiRe - Manhasset High School, North Hempstead, New York
Social Studies

Robert DiRe, a Social Studies Teacher from Manhasset High School here on Long Island shares with us a news article deconstruction template. He told us that he uses this template with his criminal law course. The entire class usually deconstructs the same articles at the start of the semester so that  all students on the same page in breaking down each source.  Most importantly, Mr. DiRe explains to the students that the Authoritative, Verified, and Independent column analysis exist on a spectrum and that the students should consider the degree to which each source matches these criteria and explain their rationale.

Download the Deconstruction Models here:
News Article Deconstruction Template
News Deconstruction Formatting and Description

Ray Fanning - University of Montana, Missolua, Montana
Journalism

Ray Fanning, an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana shows us another template for using IMVAIN. This handout for students reinforces IMVA/IN and how you use it to evaluate sources. The process of going through IMVA/IN for a source leads you to a decision on reliability, along with deciding whether you would give what that sources says little weight, some weight or a good deal of weight.

Download the handout here: Evaluating Sources Handout