Media Literacy Resource Guide

In today’s digital world, it is important for educators and students to look at media with a critical eye to ensure they understand the source, perspective, and bias that impact the stories they read or view. SDCOE has gathered some online resources to support media literacy inside and outside of the classroom.

Media Literacy Basics

What Is Media Literacy?

This four-minute video from Language and Ideas shares what media literacy is, its common misconceptions, and what being media literate requires.

Is What You Believe True?
Use these six questions from Thinking Is Power to find out. Additional resources on this site help you to teach skills, not facts.

News and Media Literacy
This collection of Common Sense's free news and media literacy lessons, videos, and classroom activities will help you get started teaching these important and complex ideas in the classroom.

Educator Resources

California Department of Education
A collection of resources from the California Department of Education, including links to professional learning opportunities, compiled in conjunction with the California School Library Association and KQED.

Checkology
News Literacy Project created engaging, authoritative lessons on subjects like news media bias, misinformation, conspiratorial thinking and more. Learners develop the ability to identify credible information, seek out reliable sources and apply critical thinking skills to separate fact-based content from falsehoods. 

COMPASS
To foster digital literacy and critical thinking skills, all teachers and students have access to educational vetted online resources provided through the California State Library. 
 

FLOATER: A Tool-Kit for Evaluating Claims
This toolkit from Thinking Is Power comes from a science teacher perspective and includes a printable poster with seven rules for evaluating claims.

International Media and Information Literacy
This UNESCO resource connects media and information literacy to emerging issues such as artificial intelligence, education for digital citizenship, education for sustainable development, cultural literacy and the exponential increase in misinformation. With the effective use of this curriculum, everyone can become media and information literate.

Learning for Justice 
From the Southern Poverty Law Center. Critical thinking skills are imperative for resisting harmful disinformation and countering hate and bias. Educators, parents and caregivers should be essential partners in introducing media literacy concepts to children and young people.

Media Literacy Clearinghouse
Over 25,000 media literacy resources.

NewseumED
NewseumED.org offers free resources to cultivate the First Amendment and media literacy skills essential to civic life. Learn how to authenticate, analyze and evaluate information from a variety of sources and put current events in historical context through standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, primary sources, virtual classes and programs.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Resources

AI Literacy Lessons for Grades 6-12 - Common Sense Education  
This collection of quick lessons (20 minutes or less) provide an introduction to AI and help address its social and ethical impacts

National AI Literacy Day
Lesson plans designed to cover essential questions about AI, safety, and ethics for grades K-12. Full-day activities and shorter lessons included. 

Additional Resources

News and Media Literacy for All Webinar Series

Join SDCOE for a six-part webinar series centered on news and media literacy skills through April 2026. The series is brought to you by the California Department of Education, Santa Clara County Office of Education, Fresno County Office of Education, San Diego County Office of Education, Glenn County Office of Education, California School Library Association and the News Literacy Project. It is geared to grade 5-12 educators.

Each webinar is 45 minutes long and will include relevant NLP resources and highlighted content standards, guidance and frameworks from the California Department of Education. Topics include misinformation awareness, the elections, AI, and more.