Free Resources for Teachers: Project Look Sharp

Yesterday I went to a workshop at Erie 1 BOCES in West Seneca New York. I was really looking for resources on how to get my father-in-law to not just watch Fox News for his news of the world. But I got a lot of great resources and a reminder that we should be asking kids about the sources they're using. Project look sharp is associated with Ithaca College in Ithaca New York.

I think it's important to teach students to get different perspectives about an issue on multiple types of media.

I basically blame the insurrection of January 6th largely on the education system. I am struck by how difficult it is now-a-days to discern different sources of information and whether things are true or false. With the advent of social media there has been a shift in how people get their information. Social media companies, in the past, have done little to prevent the spread of misinformation. 

Heck. I am guilty of this too. In the last 12 years I have been a dog owner and have become an animal person. Some people would argue, “how can you be an animal person and still hunt?” That is a debate for another blog post. On Facebook, when someone’s dog gets loose or runs away from its owner, I would often, without looking, re-post the information about the dog. I spread a lie.

Fact check: Identical injured dog posts are a viral scam

Now, I just don’t repost as much stuff as I used to. A few bad apples have ruined it for the rest of us. 

Project Look Sharp is a free resource for everyone. One of the lessons I liked, since I was a past High School Social Studies Teacher, was the ending of the war in Afghanistan. The lesson looks at different newspapers from all over the world (written in English) and the students compare the source and the headlines that were written. This lesson teaches students to inquire about the source of the newspaper and the newspaper’s perspective. 

All of these lessons are based in the inquiry method of teaching, where the students discover, on their own, the answers. Teachers ask questions to get students to “go along the right path” to discovery. 

Below is a youtube video that displays a High School Inquiry around different media sources

I feel like if we as educators can do a better job of teaching students to be discerning adult customers of news, we can avoid future “January 6th” moments.