This series has been highlighting how content teachers and others in the world of education have been approaching the world of 2025.

Today’s post is about a topic relevant to all content areas: media literacy.

‘How Do We Meet This Moment?’

Mary Beth Hertz has taught young people in Philadelphia since 2003 and has been at the forefront of educational technology. She is the author of Digital and Media Literacy in the Classroom: Practice Classroom Applications and the executive director of Walkabout Education, an organization dedicated to building experiential learning schools.

When we are bombarded with too much information at one time, we often say it is like “drinking from a fire hose.” I would describe this current moment of information onslaught as more like standing in the valley when a dam breaks open. So, how do we, as educators, meet this moment with our students and help them navigate and control these waters?

Before we can even think about how to engage students in this moment and the daily flow of information, we need to make sense of it ourselves. Once we start taking those steps, we will have the ability to model that work with our students.

The first thing to understand is that we can’t keep up with everything. There is an intentional overwhelming of all channels that makes it hard for us to focus. Start by picking one or two things that you feel are the most important to follow. Maybe it’s updates that are directly related to the work that you do with your students or maybe it’s information that directly impacts you and your family.

When you may not be sure about the information you are getting or reading, it is important to read “laterally.” Open a new tab, do a quick search of an idea, event, or person. Click on links in the article to see where they take you and where the author is sourcing their information. Research the news organization, author, and/or journalist to find out more about them.

Once you have had a chance to engage in your own exploration of understanding, here are some ways to engage your students in the same kind of process.

First, ask your students if they are following or keeping up with current events. They may not be aware of the current events or may not be interested in following them. Ask them what’s new in their social media feeds—what’s trending. For those who are following the news and current events, ask them what they are seeing. Follow up with some examples of current events through dialogue or even images or screenshots.

Next, ask them how they make sense of what they are seeing. What strategies do they employ when they see things that shock them or make them angry or curious? They have useful strategies; they just didn’t know that they are actual strategies.

Ask students who they follow and why. Discuss fact vs. opinion and journalism vs. commentary. For example, did the sports announcer recount the game play, or did they riff on the fairness of the referees?

Students can hone their strategies through analyzing specific posts. Since social media is blocked on our school network, I often resort to screenshots. Students can’t actually look up the account on the school network, so a few might search on their phones to see what they find out about the account sharing the information. I might also include a variety of screenshots showing them my own research. Discuss why this matters. (The conversation about phone bans in schools can wait until another day.)

The source-analysis framework I use with students is based on Howard Reinghold’s Crap Detection, a 1969 speech by Neil Postman to NCTE, and the work of Molly Beestram. Her CRAP Test is an easy way to guide students through the work of evaluating what they see. Two of my favorite questions to start with when we look at social media posts or headlines are, “What do you notice?” and “What do you wonder?” These spark conversation in a safe way that avoids the need to be right or wrong and values students’ perspectives. I learn a lot about how different student interpretations are from my own through these conversations, and it can guide us through each area of the framework.

An example I recently used in class is this screenshot of a post on X. It includes “community notes,” which is both X and Meta’s method of fact-checking since both companies stopped employing human fact-checkers.

(link to image) Screenshot taken 2/6/25 by Mary Beth Hertz on X

I also follow the journalist and professor Jeff Jarvis, who often picks apart word choices in headlines and articles. He has an obvious lean to the left, but his analysis has helped me be a more critical reader of headlines, chyrons, and other spaces.

It’s not necessary to do a full lesson on media literacy to meet this moment. Throw up a screenshot on the board and pick it apart. Discuss a headline or give students a challenge to see if they can prove if something is true or false. Keep students curious and critical about what they find online. These simple exercises can give our students the waterbending skills they need to make sense of their digital feeds.

Thanks to Mary Beth for sharing her experiences and advice.

I wrote the first, second and third posts in this series.

Morgan Polikoff wrote about education research and researchers.

Christie Nold and Sarah Cooper shared advice on social studies.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

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