News literacy helps children tell fact from fiction

PROJECT

NewsWise

PURPOSE

To empower children to navigate the news

FUNDING

Funded for two years by Google as part of a $10m - more than £8m - grant to news literacy initiatives worldwide

BACKGROUND

NewsWise was launched in April 2018 by The Guardian Foundation, National Literacy Trust and the PSHE (Personal, Health, Social and Economic education) Association on the back of concerns that children and young people were struggling to engage with and interpret the news.

The Guardian Foundation had been running free workshops on news literacy for nine- to 18-year-olds at the offices of The Guardian newspaper for 18 years. Recognising that the workshops were easier to access for schools in London and the South East, the organisation wanted to widen its reach. Meanwhile, a 2017 National Literacy Trust survey found half of children said they lacked confidence in their ability to identify fake news and only two per cent were able to identify fake and real news stories correctly when they were presented as part of a quiz. Teachers told the trust they recognised the growing need for news literacy, but did not have the time or the knowledge to develop learning resources. "It's also about wellbeing," says Angie Pitt, director of NewsWise. "Young people are worried about fake news and disinformation, and they are also worried about what they hear on broadcast news, such as the Manchester Arena bombings, but they don't have a safe space to ask questions."

In its first year NewsWise reached 2,476 pupils and 540 teachers in 42 primary schools. The programme received more than 500 expressions of interest from primary schools across the UK.

ACTION

NewsWise was initially targeted at nine- to 11-year-olds, particularly those in "hard-to-reach" primary schools, located in remote or disadvantaged areas. However, organisers are looking to expand its reach to younger children aged seven and up. "We feel that what we are doing has not been done with this age group. That is the age when they are about to get their first phones or tablets," says Pitt. "A third of that age group already have a social media presence. Traditional media studies starts at 14 or 15 but we felt children should be engaged earlier on."

Schools register their interest through the NewsWise website. To take part in a workshop and teacher training on site, they must have a high percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals, pupils who are typically under-represented in the mainstream media and be located in an area of "high literacy vulnerability" as identified by the National Literacy Trust. NewsWise staff visit the school and deliver a morning and afternoon workshop to two different classes. A workshop creates a "newsroom" experience in schools, with pupils taking on journalist roles, identifying trustworthy stories and creating news reports in real time. This is followed by an hour of teacher training focusing on how to deliver 16 curriculum-based lesson plans that come with accompanying resources online. "Some schools have told us they have never had a visitor from London before," says Pitt. "In the first year, three of us covered 10,000 miles getting around these communities."

Aside from the sheer logistics, technology has been a challenge. "Schools that are in challenging circumstances often don't have a lot of technology available," says Pitt. "Our evaluation surveys are online and so is some of the workshop content such as voting and quizzes, but we would turn up and there might be just one iPad to a class." To address this, the team invested in a number of iPads which they take to each school. "It makes the children excited to see a bunch of iPads, but on the downside we have to carry them," jokes Pitt.

While access to workshops is limited to schools that meet the criteria, anyone can download the lesson plans and resources. NewsWise also offers free full-day teacher training sessions on critical literacy and news at set locations, which are open to all teachers, and runs a programme sending journalists to speak in schools about their experiences.

OUTCOME

A National Literacy Trust evaluation of NewsWise suggests the scheme is helping children navigate the news. The percentage of pupils who said it was difficult to tell whether a news story is trustworthy fell from 40 per cent before the NewsWise workshop to 33 per cent afterwards. Meanwhile, the percentage of pupils who knew fact-checking was an essential element of creating news increased from 52 per cent to 70 per cent. Before the workshop less than half - 48 per cent - of pupils would check whether the news they were reading came from an organisation they trusted, but that increased to 70 per cent afterwards.

The percentage of those interested in the news grew from 58 per cent to 66 per cent, while the percentage disengaged with news decreased from one third to a quarter. A survey of teachers found 24 of 25 felt more confident discussing news literacy with pupils.

Pupils were asked to look at five news articles and judge whether these were real or fake, both before and after the workshop. Before taking part in NewsWise, 14.5 per cent of pupils weren't able to identify any of the news stories correctly. This went down to 9.2 per cent after they had taken part. The percentage of pupils able to identify the majority of stories - four out of five - correctly increased slightly, from 8.8 per cent to 9.2 per cent.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The project aims to reach 150 primary schools in target communities in 2019/20. The organisation also plans to offer family workshops, allowing parents and children to work together. Last month it launched a revamped suite of lesson resources.

EXPERIENCE
JOURNALISM WORKSHOPS INSPIRE NEXT GENERATION OF REPORTERS

At Great Malvern Primary School in Worcestershire 41 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the national average of 24 per cent. There is also a higher than average percentage of pupils needing special educational needs support.

Last year, 42 children at the school took part in a day of NewsWise workshops, followed by a three- or four-week programme of study combining English, topic work and PSHE lessons. "The children were immersed in a ‘journalism training school' environment where classrooms were transformed into newsrooms and they were presented with press passes to wear every day to access the newsroom," says Cathy Spence, year 6 teacher and English lead at the school. "The teachers took on the role of chief editor and the children quickly fell into the trainee journalist role. We involved parents in the programme by asking pupils to interview them for news reports and invited them to a graduation ceremony with a red carpet donated by a local shop."

The school invited a BBC newsreader into school to present the children with their certificates, which was a highlight for them, says Spence. "Teaching lessons on the Windrush scandal and seeing the impact of the programme on the children was a real highlight for me," she says. "Our school has relatively high levels of children with particular needs but through careful planning, group work and a positive attitude from all, the children took part fully and it has equipped them with the skills and knowledge to navigate today's media."

Spence was particularly impressed by the resources on offer. "Everything is provided for you, the only challenge is working out how to fit it all in," she says. "I have no doubt it changed the way the children were able to navigate the news and think critically about what they are seeing and reading. Parents were more involved in children's learning during this time and referred back to it as a massive positive at the end of the year. I also had children declaring that they were aiming to be journalists when they were older - a job they knew nothing about before NewsWise."

• If you think your project is worthy of inclusion, email supporting data to derren.hayes@markallengroup.com