News Literacy: The Littlest Detectives

What can elementary students do?

• At any age, the most important skill is critical thinking​

• Fact versus opinion/news versus commentary​

• Understanding data visuals such as graphs, charts, and maps​

• Reliability (consider the source: sourcing) and credibility (the story itself: contextualizing)​

• Lateral reading: What can you know without even reading the article?​

• Practice skills on printed news first for fewer distractions and use screenshots to practice navigating digital sources together

Adapted from Jennfer LaGarde's Developing Digital Detectives:

• Connecting information to emotions: How does this make me feel?​

  • Allow time for kids to pause, make connections, and reflect on their ideas​

  • Use Likert Scales to identify emotions and their intensity​

​

• Encouraging curiosity: Inquiry and investigation​

  • Build comfort with ambiguity and uncertainty, weighing evidence​

​

• Cultivating empathy: Build the habit of noticing​

  • Noticing not only our own feelings about information, but how it affects others; acting in ways that demonstrate compassion