What preset courses are available for summer school?
There are two summer school preset courses available on Checkology — "Middle school summer course" and "High school summer course." Both courses focus on teaching students how to responsibly and confidently consume, share and act on the information they encounter. During this course, students learn to:
- Differentiate between news and advertisements.
- Understand how algorithms personalize information.
- Categorize types of information by their purpose, and more.
Please note: Checkology's summer maintenance period is from July 1 - 31, 2022.
During this time, we make updates to improve Checkology and we delete all student accounts from the platform in accordance with our privacy policy. Checkology will not be accessible to educators or students during this window. Please be sure to plan your summer school experience with Checkology so that it does not overlap with the maintenance period dates. Please also keep in mind that any students returning to Checkology after the summer maintenance period ending on July 31 will need to create a new student account.
(Watch the video or read the article below to learn how to assign and edit this course.)
What's in the middle school summer course?
This preset course focuses on strengthening students' ability to differentiate between news and advertisements and to understand what an algorithm is and how algorithms affect online experiences. With an emphasis on Check Center Missions, students will have plenty of opportunities to practice research and fact-checking skills to build up their news literacy toolbox. When using this preset course, we highly recommend that your students become familiar with the Check Center tips and tutorials first. Learn more about the Check Center here.
Lessons
- InfoZones
- What is News
- Branded Content
- Introduction to Algorithms
Supplemental activities
- InfoZones: School lunch
- NewsJudge: National News
- Ad or Not? Level 1
- Ad or Not? Level 2
Check Center missions
- Evaluating sources online
- Evaluating evidence online
- Verifying social media content
Course highlights and learning objectives
Learning objectives for each of the three lessons in this learning experience include:
- InfoZones: Categorize information into one of six “zones”: news, opinion, entertainment, advertising, propaganda or raw information.
- What is News?: Explore how journalists “filter” information, or determine which events and issues to cover in a given news cycle, by using key criteria.
- Branded Content: Learn about the relationship among advertisers, the news media and the public to understand the rise of branded content and to debate the ethical implications of new forms of marketing.
- Introduction to Algorithms: Interact with a mock social media site and search engine to understand the information that algorithms gather about you to personalize what you see online.
What's in the high school summer course?
This course focuses on strengthening students' ability to differentiate between news and advertisements and identify misinformation when navigating online spaces. With an emphasis on Check Center Missions, students will have plenty of opportunities to practice research and fact-checking skills to build up their news literacy toolbox. When using this preset course, we highly recommend that your students become familiar with the Check Center tips and tutorials first. Learn more about the Check Center here.
Lessons
- InfoZones
- Branded Content
- Introduction to Algorithms
- Misinformation
Supplemental activities
- InfoZones: Student edition!
- Ad or Not? Level 2
- News or Ad: Technology
- Ad or Not? Level 3
- MisinfoQuest: Weather
-
MisinfoChallenge: Fact-checking 101
Check Center missions
- Evaluating sources online
- Evaluating evidence online
- Verifying social media content
Course highlights and learning objectives
Learning objectives for each of the three lessons in this learning experience include:
- InfoZones: Categorize information into one of six “zones”: news, opinion, entertainment, advertising, propaganda or raw information.
- Branded Content: Learn about the relationship among advertisers, the news media and the public to understand the rise of branded content and to debate the ethical implications of new forms of marketing.
- Introduction to Algorithms: Interact with a mock social media site and search engine to understand the information that algorithms gather about you to personalize what you see online.
- Misinformation: Learn to understand different types of misinformation and the ways that misinformation can damage democracy.
Assigning a summer school course
Instructions for how to assign a preset course differ slightly depending on if you are assigning it to a brand-new class or whether you are assigning it to an existing class on your Checkology account.
Don't have a Checkology educator account yet? Just visit checkology.org to register for a free educator account and use our getting started guide to help you create your first class and add students.
Follow these three steps to assign a summer school preset to a new Checkology class.
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Click the "+ Assign course" button.
You can find the "+ Assign course" button in two places:
- Under the student registration prompt
- On your Dashboard class tile
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Select "Change course" and scroll to "Presets by grade level" section.
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Click "Assign" next to a summer school course.
Follow these three steps to switch out an existing course for a summer school preset.
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Click the "View/Edit course" button.
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Select "Change course" and scroll to "Presets by grade level" section.
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Click "Assign" next to a summer school course.
Editing a summer school preset course
Once you've assigned a summer school preset course to your class, you can return to the course management area anytime to edit it. Just click on "View/edit course" to enter the course management area. For detailed instructions on how to edit a course, please visit our "Editing a course" article:
Related article: Editing a course
Transferring students into a summer school class
If you have student accounts linked to another Checkology class and would like to transfer them into your summer school class, you can do so by visiting the "Manage Students" option on the class tile(s) with the student account(s). For detailed instructions on how to transfer student accounts, please visit our "Transferring students" article:
Related article: Transferring students
Teacher tip:
Looking for more news literacy resources? Join NewsLit Nation, NLP's News Literacy Educator Network. Here, you can gain a sense of belonging, exchange best practices with colleagues in the field and enjoy perks and incentives to support you in your classrooms.