What is the default course?
The News Literacy Project has curated a collection of assignments for both middle school and high school students. When you create a new class and select its grade level, you will be served the default "Checkology 101" course for your students’ grade level.
After you have created a class, click "+ Assign course" to be taken to the course management area where you will see the default course. Click the "Assign to class" button to serve this course to students.
Previewing the default course
Open the boxes below to view course details:
Course description:
In this course, students will complete eight lessons and seven supplementary activities covering the core concepts and skills of news literacy. The course includes:
Lessons
- InfoZones
- What is News?
- Be the Editor
- Practicing Quality Journalism
- The First Amendment
- Misinformation
- Introduction to Algorithms
- Branded Content
Exercises and Challenges
- InfoZones: School Lunch
- NewsJudge: National News
- Know Your Rights: What Freedoms Does the First Amendment Protect?
- Is it legit?
- Ad or Not: Level 1
Check Center Missions
- Evaluating sources online
- Evaluating evidence online
Course highlights and learning objectives:
In this course, students:
- Categorize information into six InfoZones.
- Determine newsworthiness and make editorial decisions.
- Recognize the standards of quality journalism in practice.
- Determine the credibility of sources.
- Learn about the five freedoms protected by The First Amendment and how the Supreme Court has ruled in six cases.
- Identify five types of misinformation and describe the consequences of sharing it.
- Identify logical fallacies in an argument.
- Determine whether social media posts contain evidence for their claims.
- Identify traditional and non-traditional advertisements.
Course sequence:
Course description:
In this course, students will complete eight lessons and eight supplementary activities covering the core concepts and skills of news literacy. The course includes:
Lessons
- InfoZones
- The First Amendment
- Democracy’s Watchdog
- Practicing Quality Journalism
- Misinformation
- Introduction to Algorithms
- Understanding Bias
- Conspiratorial Thinking
Exercises and Challenges
- InfoZones: School Lunch
- Know Your Rights: What Freedoms Does the First Amendment Protect?
- Is it legit?
- Bias Types and Forms: Level 1
Check Center Missions
- Evaluating sources online
- Evaluating evidence online
- Verifying social media content
- Can you search like a pro?
Course highlights and learning objectives:
In this course, students:
- Categorize information into six InfoZones.
- Learn about the five freedoms protected by The First Amendment and how the Supreme Court has ruled in six cases.
- Learn about the importance of the press's watchdog role via five landmark investigative reports and series.
- Recognize the standards of quality journalism in practice.
- Determine the credibility of a source.
- Identify five types of misinformation and describe the consequences of sharing it.
- Determine whether social media posts contain evidence for their claims.
- Evaluate hypothetical scenarios for the presence of news media bias.
- Discover why people are drawn to conspiracy theories and how our cognitive biases can trick us into believing they’re real.
- Explore the three pillars of digital verification: source, date and location.
Course sequence:
OR preview the default course in the course management area by clicking "Preview course."
Assigning the default course
Follow these 2 steps to assign the default Checkology course to a newly created class.
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Click the "+ Assign course" button.
You can find the "+ Assign course" button in two places:
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Click the "Assign to class" button.
You are automatically served a Checkology default course (Checkology 101) in the course management area. Depending on your grade level selection, you are either served the middle school or high school version. To assign the default course, just click the "Assign to class" button. Once clicked, the button will become purple and say "Assigned" to confirm that the course has been successfully served to the students in your class.
Customizing the default course
After assigning the default course, you can customize it anytime. The "Editing a course" article goes over course customization options in detail: